“Not Available In Stores!”, or
Instructional Board Games For the Classroom or the Corporation
by Tony Nardo
The information below is written in text so that it is “searchable” from outside this article. Click on the link (in red) in order to see the PDF version with photographs. The PDF will open as a separate page.
Instructional Board Games, by Tony Nardo
For most people, the typical way to acquire a new board game is via a shop that stocks toys and/or games. Even with the advent of online shopping and eBay, the premise remains the same: buyers go to a place that typically offers games for sale, look over the wares, and choose whether or not to purchase any of the available titles. The focus on marketing for games of this type is the sale of the game itself.
In a similar vein, a moderately common means by which a game can enter circulation is as a promotional item that supports another product, such as Charlie McCarthy’s Radio Party envelope game (Standard Brands, 1938) or the KLM Cargo Game (KLM Cargo, 1985).
However, one means by which a board game can enter circulation is via the educational circuit: instructional either in the traditional sense of a classroom, or in the less traditional sense of corporate education. Most of these games do not enjoy the notoriety of their more traditional counterparts. Yet some of these titles can end up being prized in their own right outside their traditional setting, either due to the cross-collectible nature of their box art or the theme of the game itself.
This article examines some of the game titles that have been used for instructional purposes, whether in the traditional classroom, the corporate classroom, or the sales arena.
For sheer magnitude of materials, one of the most imposing classroom games has to be Dangerous Parallel (Scott, Foresman, and Company, Glenview IL, and the Foreign Policy Association, 1969), a moderated game for six factions that closely mirrors the Korean situation of the 1950s. Each faction has their own box of materials showing their resources and objectives in the scenario. A “Control” box of materials is provided for the game’s moderator. Each player is charged with advancing their own nation’s objectives while maintaining world peace. The game remains relevant as an instructional tool today, and is still being used at various educational levels. More details on this particular game, including a very informative Power Point presentation, may be found on the WWW via a Goggle search for “Dangerous Parallel” and some of the fictional nations within the game (e.g., “Outland” and “New Zenith”).
Another game made for the classroom is Bullets and Ballots (Roosevelt Center, 1987), an informational game dealing with the move to democracy in several Central American countries.
On the lighter side, Scholastic opted to use the popularity of Star Wars as a vehicle to promote reading skills. Star Wars Missions (Scholastic, 1997) has cross-collectible appeal to fans of the movie series from which it is derived. It features a black plastic box with a raised image of Darth Vader’s helmet, a mission booklet and other mission materials, and a few cards in the game offering pictures from the original Star Wars movie.
Moving from the schoolhouse classroom to the corporate environment, we find Westinghouse producing a title through its Learning Center division called Productivity Management (Westinghouse, 1974). The game is massive and heavy, as is the game itself (the timely and efficient completion of several projects), but the graphics are somewhat appealing.
A more recent set of cross collectible works comes from the Working Values Group, formerly Cohen/Gebler Associates. In 1996, Cohen/Gebler supplied its first Dilbert-based game, The Ethics Challenge, to a limited set of corporate purchasers. The most familiar edition from this run is the one for Lockheed Martin, the print run for which was estimated by one C/G source as being on the order of 3,000-4,000 copies. Other editions include one adapted for Proctor & Gamble (copy count unavailable), Rockwell Collins (about 200 hundred copies), Raytheon (25 copies), and Harley-Davidson (10 copies) – thus making the Harley-Davidson variant a rather rare cross-collectible in itself. Ethics Challenge uses various scenarios to focus discussion on right vs. wrong ethical behavior.
C/G followed up their first efforts with another Dilbert oriented game — Ethics Challenge: Trust Building (1999). In this variant, players had to choose which of 12 “building blocks of trust” would aid them the most in a particular ethical situation.
Somewhat further afield is Volunteer Management, a 1990 creation made for AARP. This game is intended for use as a training tool for the professional development of retired persons as volunteer leaders in the workforce.
No all educational material produced by or for companies was targeted at the individual worker. In 1978, Westinghouse’s Business System Group in Hunt Valley, Maryland, produced Logistics Command. The game itself bears the influence of another Maryland game company, Avalon Hill, both in its style of packaging and in its use of mounted game boards and cardboard counters in a wargame-type setting. The objective of the game was to show the value of maintaining proper support transport, spare parts, and other material not usually treated as wargame subject matter. At the time this game was published, Westinghouse was best noted in the Maryland area for its defense work. U.S. sales abroad of new military hardware (produced from older weapons systems designs by a number of defense contractors, including Westinghouse) was a regular news staple during that period. This game has jokingly been referred to as Westinghouse’s sales pitch to persuade Third World dictators that they should buy more spare parts along with their newly purchased weapons systems. It has been viewed more seriously in recent years, and is now somewhat prized by wargames collectors for its role in treating the issue of logistical support.
Another game produced for instructional purposes was Strike! (Kamber Group, undated). The Kamber Group, noted for its lobbying and marketing efforts in the DC area, bills this title as “The Labor Relations Game”, and the rules note that the game is designed to teach people how to organize a union. Curiously, the game is labeled for ages 12 to adult, though it is unlikely that the game was marketed in stores. It is unclear at present whether the age range was given as a standard matter of course, or if Strike! was intended for a classroom setting.
To summarize, there are a variety of board game titles that were developed as educational tools. These have taken a more circuitous route into the realm of the game collector. They offer satisfaction for those who collect based on themes, game style, and/or crossover appeal with their use of licensed characters.
