Mia, Ronan, and I played Crossing the Bridge by Francisco Ortega. The premise of this game was that you were trying to smuggle food, drugs, and people into the US, while bringing household items (and occasionally guns) back into Mexico while avoiding Customs. This is obviously supposed to be a serious game that shines light on immigrations issues. However, I found myself having fun and focusing more on the mechanics/winning than the message.
We as the smugglers were just trying to better our lives in Mexico. We did this by smuggling people/drugs/food into the US, collecting money, and using that money to pay for things like furniture and a dishwasher. This is a very real scenario that many people find themselves actually in. Some are trying to raise enough money to send their kids to school, but pretty much all people who smuggle things across the US-Mexico border are trying to make their lives better.
I felt this game trivialized those struggles. I got caught at Customs on one of the rounds with drugs, so I lost my passport. But I was able to buy another one at the mall almost immediately after for just $100. In real life, you have to spend the money to fill out the paperwork and then wait, sometimes up to six weeks, before your passport comes in. If I lost a car piece, I could just buy it back. Maybe if we started the game with less money overall, it would have felt like more of a struggle.
From a mechanics standpoint, the game was actually pretty fun. I enjoyed the ‘risk’ at Customs and seeing what I could get away with. Real people do not get the luxury of enjoying playing chicken with US Customs. It is a very real situation with very real consequences. While this game shone a light on immigration issues, I felt that overall, it lost its seriousness and therefore the punch/impact Ortega might have been going for.