Yesterday I posted my latest video - 11 Red Flags When Buying Board Games. After posting it I got some feedback that the final red flag section came across poorly. Realising that I’d failed in my intent with the section, I deleted it from the video. I’m sorry to anyone I offended, clearly I misjudged it.
To explain the situation - the final section was meant to be tongue in cheek, suggesting it’s a red flag if the game doesn’t have an American or German designer, because I’d found that 60% of the BGG Top 100 is designed by those two nationalities, and I made a joke about them both being good at hot dogs too. I then went on to explain that they have big conventions and strong design communities. Then I used the topic as an opportunity to have a cheeky dig at the UK board game scene being not so good, making silly jokes about English names. Then I went on to say that “Of course there are talented designers all around the world, and really strong scenes in France, Japan, Poland, Italy, Czechia to name a few.” I then say that you can find trends you can follow - Spain are making popular heavy games right now, and I really like French designs for lighter, family weight games.
Later in the night, I saw that someone had made a post on r/boardgames subreddit about the video, saying I had used the phrase “lesser people” which is completely untrue. They called me xenophobic and a bigot, and claimed I was trying to cover it up by deleting it. I left a comment apologising for the section, similar to this post, and I refuted the inaccuracies. The Reddit post was later deleted.
I abhor xenophobia, racism or bigotry of any kind - and I’m sad that anyone would think that of me as a result of the video.
I’ve now decided to take the whole video down because on reflection of the feedback on the whole video, the red flag angle is too divisive. I didn’t intend for them to be taken as absolutes, but I think we all have a different definition of what a red flag is.
The video is currently unlisted here: https://youtu.be/E5A939qcKLE?si=aVREWIsrz3vm3QUr (with the last section removed). I will give patrons 2 days to watch it before I take it down completely.
I will cover the gap on the channel with my next video - the first of my Top 100, as soon as possible.
Actually yours,
Jon