The Eurogame as Heterotopia

In this essay I will argue that German-style boardgames (or “eurogames”) offer heterotopias similar to the mirror Foucault uses as an example in his 1967 lecture: “In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface…”

These games are sites of constituting ourselves by way of what we see (or do not see) in their virtual spaces. In so doing, I will present cases of enthusiasts seeing and not seeing thematic content in eurogames, scholars seeing and not seeing this, as well as my own way of seeing the game The Castles of Burgundy through an animal rights lens.