Designers: Wade Berger, Rasmus Helsted, Ashley Hinck, Elisabeth Miller
Bascom Hill Defense draws upon and subverts the genre of tower defense games wherein players strategically utilize towers against oncoming enemies. These games almost immediately parallel the removal of Native Americans from their lands. Native Americans have lived in the Madison, Wisconsin area for more than 12,000 years. Through the 1848 Morrill Act, the Ho-Chunk nation ceded 10 million acres for the construction of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, destroying fourteen effigy mounds.
Juxtaposing tower defense games and the displacement of Native Americans, we challenge players to take on the role of a Native American faced with the prospect of colonization. Players employ traditional tower defense strategies, using soldiers, protesters, and negotiators to stop shovels, settlers, soldiers, bulldozers, professors, and peace-pipes. Our game’s rules disadvantage the player, a situation that has continuously occurred for Native Americans. This game’s rules, like those of universities, job searches, and economic development, give whites unearned privilege. As Brenda Allen explains, “privilege refers to advantaged status based upon social identity” (See Allen's Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity, Waveland Press 2004). While traditional tower defense games give the player a fair fight, our game does not. Players experience the frustration of lacking privilege in a system that claims to be an even playing field.
Our game does not attempt to communicate historical and cultural specificities, complexities, and nuances. We recognize that no game can exactly simulate individuals’ experiences with different intersectional identities and histories. However, we hope that the game communicates the frustration experienced when the rules of a system award privilege and disadvantage according to race.
