I find it interesting to see how board games change to coinside with the times. Some examples below. Please excuse anything I may have wrong as this is solely from memory and I can follow sources if you feel I recalled something wrong. I’m also not a good writer so I apologize for any poor wording regarding a particular topic, and will delete this topic if needed.
I come across many demos and copies of various editions so I have a habit of looking at all the little things.
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Puerto Rico’s latest edition had prototype images of purple colonists instead of brown at one point. The latest edition also changes the concept of colonists arriving on a ship to a work office where they get a paying job to work.
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Sid Meier’s Civilization 2009 Edition by Fantasy Flight Games had an odd one: at some point Mao Zedong was replaced with Wu Zetain. No gameplay changes, just an image swap, which I rarely see in a board game as it seems costly to make such a small change and go through all the processes to get it proofed then resume production. A user on the BGG.com page for this game said it was related to overseas manufacturing having an issue depicting Mao in a situation where he could lose. (Can link the BGG page if interested). That is the only source I could find, and I doubt it would be easy to track down an old FFG employee to get better info.
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Great Western Trail 2nd Edition replaced TeePees with Outlaws and diversifies the workers.
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MicroMacro’s first printing in the US had Ages 8+ on it. The second printing changed it to 10+ and added a symbol on the cases to signify how family friendly it was, but everything else is exactly the same Not sure if other languages made this change.
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the game Scout supposedly delayed a printing at the height of it’s Spiel Des Jahres hype in the US in order to make more readable (colorblind friendly?) Cards.
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Splendor added gem symbols next to the numbers in the cards to be monochrome friendly, which seems to be a trend with Asmodee as they have their own logo for colorblind friendly games. And might just be me but the chips feel slightly lighter, can’t confirm
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Among all the other changes in Cash N Guns edition, the rule of shouting Banzai in the rulebook during the hold up is gone. At first I just thought it shortens the rulebook, but I also recall FFG ending the Banzai shouting at L5R events, but I haven’t been to a regional event myself so I might have read it all wrong from memory.
Some other things of note:
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Deception Murder in Hong Kong has a “newspaper” card. My friend saw it, laughed, and said it translated to the headline for Tiannamen Square. This makes me wonder if it’s still in the lastest 2023 printing of it’s still manufactured in China
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Battle Cry by Avalon Hill/Hasbro seemed to disappear without a trace and no comments at all about it. The Gettysburg games by Academy games are STILL on preorder with ACD for the past 4-5 years I think. Battle Cry had a lot of Union and Confederate flag stickers you put on the flag poles.
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The board game Endeavor back in the late 00’s mentioned in the rulebook I read about the use of slavery tokens in the game and how it related to the times.
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Carnegie mentions in the rules intro how it stresses how the game only focuses on the positive aspects of Carnegie.
What are some little changes you have noticed in printings of games that most die hard board games might miss?
That’s an impressive list !
Personally, I haven’t noticed much because most of my “famous” games are secondhand, old prints. Like my Puerto Rico has brown workers. But, it’s great that they are changing bit by bit. Hobestly, I stopped playing Puerto Rico for it’s colonialist roots.
I’d be interested to know if Santa Maria had new edits. That game literally uses “Happiness Points” as victory points and sends conquistadors around to new lands. 😅
Or Istanbul. I’m waiting to see if there’ll be women featured in the markets. At the moment, it’s all dudes.