Board games like Monopoly, Clue and The Game of Life are iconic in many Americans’ lives and in pop culture. Now some designers are exploring a wider range of topics, including how to use games to spark discussion about bigger issues. …

“But what we discovered is actually that game makers and game designers have just been fascinated by environmental issues and have made a lot of games about environmental issues over the last 50 years,” Sheu said.

She said some of those games, like Litterbug a children’s game that teaches about the consequences of littering or Clean Water, a game created after the passage of the Clean Water Act, came at a time in the 1970s when people were becoming a lot more politically engaged and aware of environmental issues.

[And … does anyone still play Litterbug or Clean Water? Does anyone even *remember* playing them? Neither of them are available on Amazon (I checked), although a newer and different game called “Litter Bugs” is available … from China. People play board games for fun, not for engagement with the didactic of the day. It’s fine to try new things, but in this case, it isn’t new at all. Board game makers have already attempted social-lecture board games, and they end up as cultural oddities. For a reason. — Ed]