Cardboard Ghosts: Using Physical Games to Model and Critique Systems

This book explores both the capabilities and limitations of overtly political board games to model systems and make arguments. Holland draws connections to computer games, literature, theatre, television, music, film, and her own life, framing board games as an achingly human art form, albeit one still growing into its full potential.

Amabel Holland is a board game designer, developer, and publisher, and in those capacities is responsible for over a hundred board games. Much of her work is experimental, concerned either with the potential of games as political art, or with the nature of games as cultural artifacts. According to the New Yorker, she is ＂widely considered one of today’s most innovative game designers.＂ She’s not so sure about that, but she’ll take it. A lifelong resident of the Detroit area, in her free time she creates video essays about games and their potential.