We first learned about The Gentlemen of the South Sandwiche Islands from Henry Jenkins, who teaches at USC and was previously head of the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. We’re big fans of Jenkins — his Convergence Culture book is very astute, and he thinks a lot about fandom and the relationships between creator and consumer. We certainly hoped he would be a Kickstarter fan.

Last week Jenkins posted on his blog a long piece on a student of his named James Taylor (not that one) who had showed him an intricate board game that he had created. The game was just as much art as it was game. Here’s how Taylor describes it:

“The Gentlemen of the South Sandwiche Islands is an absurd game of logic. In this old courtship, Jules and Hodge are competing for the attentions of the Lady Ashley. Each wants to speak with her alone. They must do this by crossing bridges to leave the others behind. “

We were more than intrigued by the concept and the project itself, which has raised more then $3,000 in its first week. We decided to ask James some questions about his creation, and the false histories he is creating around it.

Very interesting concept behind this game. Can you tell us a bit of the history behind it?

Right. Good question. The game by itself is a strong product, the photoshopping was just a bit of humor. Within the story materials the game was discovered in 1821 and passed through the hands of multiple publishers. All of the publishers leave notes and make small tweaks to the game, making the original circumstances that the game was based on more and more difficult to determine. I talk more about the fictional history in the accompanying article at the Henry Jenkins site (the link is at the top of my kickstarter page).

Part of the fun of the project (aside from working very hard on the game itself) was photoshopping it into history. I thought the pictures would be goofy enough that it would be hard to take them seriously. In the article, in a section called, Going Transmedia, I talk about the creating a history for the game with the help of a documentary.

Are you a game player? Got a favorite? Yes — I play a lot of board games.

Mostly I like thinking of about the rule sets and what they say about the world.

Working on a game and studying interactive media has given me a new appreciation for games ……the available choices at a given moment…the feel of the pieces…how the art and the story match the play…etc. After working on a game, I just feel like I’m much more sensitive to the details.

I’d say my favorite game is probably Clue. It’s a great game (esentially a deductive reasoning) puzzle, but it’s actually quite unusual. There are deep-thinking puzzle/strategy/logic games - like chess and Go - which are normally played on an abstract space without much art or story materials. Then there are other games that are “lighter,” but have some cool story worlds to explore - like Candyland. Clue is a nice bridge between these two types of games. It’s a thinking game with wonderful characters and art. (…Brian Tinsman talks about this division between abstract games and story games more in The Game Inventors Handbook.)

Overall, I just like the way board games are “consumed” more than I like the way that videogames are consumed. When you’re playing a board game you’re facing people. You’re sitting around a table.

You talk about the importance of board games as being a method for creative inquiry — it’s an unusual but very intriguing point. Talk to me about this!Board games are pretty wonderful because they not only have art and story to them, but they also have a rule set. We know that art and story can be discussed critically (just look at hs and college classes), but few people consider how designing a rule-set can be a profound and philosophical activity. When you design a rule set, you are making a statement about the way the world works - or at least about the way a system works. If you can start spotting and recognizing systems, then you’ll probably begin to realize that 1.) there are all types of systems around us (big and small) and 2.) that there is plenty of room out there for profound, interesting, artistic rule sets that say something new and different about the way the world works. Take the game of Life for example. Someone else besides the creator, Reuben Klamer, might have  created a different game with different rules, and used different milestones along the way, like broken bones or sexual partners or good ideas.

Not only are board games a nice, light way to consider elements of story, art, and the rules of a system, but games are also a tremendous opportunity for education. In a game you have agency. You are making decisions. With those decisions you are making mistakes and you start to learn pretty quickly from those mistakes. You figure out how the system works. I recently went to a lecture at IndieCade held by Henry Jenkins and Eric Zimmerman. They both think about media, toys and games in critical ways, and they spent a small part of this informal panel talking about how our school systems don’t offer kids a “systemic education.” This really blew me away. There could be games that teach so much more about how getting into college works. Or how the film world in Los Angeles works. Or how the court systems work. …And these types of games could give kids a *feel* for real systems — the give and take.

How are people responding to your use of Kickstarter so far?

I’d say people are responding well. One very nice person wrote a new song for my video and sent it to me…For nothing. Just because he wanted to do it. I thought that was just incredible and it gave me a new understanding of what’s meant by the kickstarter community.

This is esentially fundraising, which, in most circumstances comes off as needy and belittling, but when I spread the kcikstarter link, I don’t feel like that. Even if the people I’m sending it to aren’t interested in my project, they’re usually interested and curious about kickstarter. I feel like I’m opening their minds to a valuable new resource they might use down the line. Closing thoughts?This article about the game is pretty thorough. Also, checkout my updates. I send updates about the stories about the ridiculous risks one takes in starting up a very small business.