A Taiwanese board game that is officially recognized by the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) in Taipei is to be featured at this year’s Taipei International Book Exhibition, with free trials for visitors.
The office said it would organize one trial play per day of “European Union — the Board Game” at the EU Pavilion of the Taipei book fair, which is to take place at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Halls 1 and 3 from tomorrow until Monday next week.
The EU-themed board game, co-designed by the trade office, will also participate in Essen Spiel — Europe’s biggest consumer games fair — to help promote Taiwanese board games in the global community.
“This will be a very fun way to reinvent the European Union for all players of this new game,” EETO Director Frederic Laplanche said.
Laplanche, a former head of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Far East division, said the trade office has begun introducing the board game to Taiwanese schools and received positive feedback from students.
Slime Yang, director of the game’s publisher, Big Fun Idea Co, said his company worked with the EETO for six months to develop the board game.
The trade office provided accurate information on the EU’s current political conditions, the characteristics of its political parties and descriptions of key legislative initiatives, which were then given numerical values by the game’s designers, Yang said.
He described the board game as an educational one that allows players to have fun when negotiating with each other to rack up points.
“European Union — the Board Game” is a game for three to seven players that lasts three rounds. Each player takes the role of a leader of a European party, which has different policy preferences and special abilities.
Players do their best to approve legislative proposals that they prefer and try to maximize the number of “influence points” they gain at the end of each round, as well as the end of the game.
The player with the highest number of influence points at the end of the game wins.
Players can decide how to lobby other players by observing their preferred policies and special abilities.
Alliances can be formed to further the objectives of the players, who may make deals using influence points or verbal commitments at any time during the game.
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