Berrymandering

The Battle for North Carolina
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 03, 2020 at 03:39:27 PM

We have 7 days and $1000 to go before we reach our funding goal. We're at $3000 dollars though, so it's time for a new state map. 

Today we're visiting North Carolina, one of the most hotly contested redistricting battles in the country. For those of you who haven't followed it, here is a rundown of whats happened so far: 

• One party developed a hopelessly gerrymandered district map that gave themselves a massive 10 to 3 advantage, and then didn't even have the common curtesy to lie about it. They publicly admitted that their motivation was purely to ensure their own power. 
• There was a series of escalating court battles which resulted in this terribly unfair and unconstitutional map being tossed out, and the state legislature was ordered to draw new ones. 
• The state legislature made new maps that were less ridiculous ... but only tiny bit. There was now just an 8-5 advantage. 

Thats how nasty gerrymandering can be. Depending on how you cut up the population, you can make massive swings in who gets elected. Thats how you can go from a 10-3 to 8-5 with the same exact population. 

The new maps drawn by the legislature are still not done right, but there isn't time to re-do them, so the courts have ordered that they can stand for the 2020 elections. Thats really unfortunate. 

Even though we can't change the real maps, we can all feel better by playing a few rounds of North Carolina Berrymandering. 

Happy New Year!
almost 5 years ago – Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 12:05:52 PM

Happy new year everyone! We've reached $2500 dollars, so here is the next state map: Nebraska. This map is extremely inaccurate because in real life they grow corn in Nebraska, not blueberries or strawberries. 

This state map is dedicated to one of our very first play-testers: John Jasa. John calls Nebraska "home", and he also helps supply the internet with cat pictures and videos. 

We're still $1500 away from our goal, so tell your friends about the kickstarter! Eliot and I are really looking forward to starting 2020 by getting this game produced and into your hands. Thanks for all your support.  

We're in the news!
almost 5 years ago – Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 05:43:56 AM

Eliot's first board game, Obelisk, was just featured in an article on Cleveland.com. They also mentioned Berrymandering. We've been doing a lot of local play-testing recently, and some of it must have gotten their attention. 

Halfway there! Hello Washington
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 05:30:39 AM

We've crossed the $2000 mark, so its time for another state map. Here is the mostly inaccurate Berrymanding map for Washington map. Each state map always has the same number of blueberry and strawberry cards on it (That's part of the reason why they are inaccurate). Elliot distributes the cards as close as he can to the actual (as of 2015) voting patterns in the state. 

When using state maps I think the game takes on a bit more real life meaning, especially when you play with the solo rules. The 2-player rules (based on (i cut/you choose) are specifically designed to make it difficult for one person or the other to gain a large advantage, but thats not the way voting districts are actually drawn in many states.  Often things progress more like the solo rules, where one person gets to make all the cuts and do all the choosing. In 2-player games, winning by 2 points is a pretty big win. In solo rules, you can easily win by 4 or more points though. 

When you consider the difference in points, even though there are always the same blueberries and strawberries on the map, the evils of gerrymandering really become a lot more obvious. With the solo rules it's almost too easy to give a massive advantage for one team or the other. For me, that really hits home when Im playing a map that is shaped like an actual state. 

Hello Utah!
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 11:08:37 AM

Here is the mostly inaccurate Utah Berrymandering map.

You might be wondering how we classify these maps. We have three levels (in order of increasing wrongness): generally inaccurate, mostly inaccurate, extremely inaccurate. 

That's right! All of these state maps are wrong to one degree or another because: 

• Berrymandering boards have an even number of blueberries and strawberries, with the exact same distribution of 4, 3, 2, and 1 berry tiles. So no matter how you lay it out, you're stuck with a 50/50 split. In reality some states eat more strawberries and others more blueberries, so our state maps will be inaccurate in direct proportion to the difference in overall berry preference in a state. 
• Each map has exactly 36 tiles in it. Some states, like Utah, have pretty linear edges and are easy to represent with just 36 tiles. Others, like West Virginia, are going to be much less realistically matched. 

So Eliot (lead Berrymandering map maker) does his best with every state, then at the end he very carefully considers how wrong he got it and labels the map accordingly. Accurate or not, it definitely adds a layer of interest to the game when you start to see how the shape of the map impacts your strategy to win.