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Taiwanese company Mizo Games has released a new board game that lets players take on roles ranging from military commanders and undercover agents to civilian resistance fighters fighting a fictional Chinese invasion.
The game, called “2045,” will be released in Taiwan this month. It will also be released later in January in English in Europe and the United States.
In August 2024 Mizo Games has launched a crowdfunding campaign, raising more than 4 million New Taiwan Dollars ($121,707 USD) within two and a half months.
In an interview with Reuters in December, Chang Shao Lian, founder of Mizo Games, said: “I want players to feel that they want to win and think about what they will do to win.”
The game is released amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan, with China increasing its military activities near the island and increasing efforts by civil defense groups to prepare for any potential invasion.
So how does the game work and can it be used to prepare for war?
What is 2045?
The board game simulates a Chinese invasion of Taiwan 20 years in the future, and players role-play characters in the 10 days leading up to the attack.
Instead of focusing solely on defending Taiwan, players are judged on how effectively they accomplish their character's specific goals.
“There are two types of victories, individual victory and Taiwan victory. The two outcomes create a huge conflict of values for the players. I don't want players to play the game only with the mindset of learning, but I want them to play the game with the desire to participate and win this war at the table,” Shao Lian told Reuters.
Players in 2045 can engage in various aspects of modern warfare, including cyber warfare, economic collapse, and civil upheaval.
The making of “2045” faced several challenges, particularly concerns about censorship and production restrictions.
The game's controversial subject matter hindered its production in China, a departure from the usual production practices of Taiwanese board game companies.
Has Mizo Games produced any other war themed board games?
Yes, Mizo launched its first war-themed game, Raid on Taihoku, in 2017. Set in Taiwan during World War II, players must survive the bombing of their city. The game is based on the American air raid on Kaohsiung (then known as Takao) in November 1944.
What is the reason for the popularity of war games?
Games with social and political themes are nothing new, according to Paul Booth, a professor of media and pop culture in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago and author of Board Games as Media, who spoke to Al Jazeera.
“A game like 2045 is important because it allows us to imagine and play with the possibilities of what could happen. In a way that, like a TV show or a movie, we can watch it, we can feel invested. We can feel engaged.
“The power of a game like this is to allow players to feel connected, as participants, connected to this alternate history.”
2045 is part of a long-standing enthusiasm for “gamifying” important social issues, Booth said.
Board games that incorporate social commentary date back more than a century. “The Landlord's Game” created in 1902. by Elizabeth Magee, was created to teach players the negative effects of land consolidation under private monopolistic control and land grabbing.
In 1935 the game was adapted and commercialized by Charles Darrow and Parker Brothers, who changed its rules and themes to emphasize competition and wealth accumulation, and became known as Monopoly.
War is another such issue that has prompted the production of games both for military preparation for conflict and among civilians.
“War is a significant subject dating back centuries. War games where generals would lay out troops on a giant table and plan military action. It's a very common kind of precursor board game,” Booth explained.
“Wargaming culture is actually still very strong and we see it in things like Warhammer (which came out in 1983) or miniature board games.”
It's not just board games that have captured the imagination of Taiwanese media companies when it comes to the idea of a Chinese invasion.
Day Zero is a 10-episode fictional television drama series that chronicles a potential Chinese invasion. The show depicts a scenario in which the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military force of the People's Republic of China, attacks the island, a possibility that has cast a shadow over Taiwan for generations.
The show is scheduled to be released this year in Taiwan.
Why are tensions rising between Taiwan and China?
The roots of the Sino-Taiwanese conflict can be traced back to the Chinese Civil War that raged from 1945 to 1949. This conflict ended with the victory of Mao Zedong's Communist Party over Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT).
After the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek moved the government of the Republic of China (ROC) to Taiwan, while Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. Each regime asserted its power as the sole legitimate government of the entire Chinese nation, leading to decades of political tension and competing claims to Chinese sovereignty.
China continues to view Taiwan as part of its own territory.
In his New Year's address for 2025 on China's state television channel CCTV on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said: “The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can break our family ties and no one can stop the historical trend of national unification.
However, Taiwan opposes any kind of “unification” and considers China's increasingly frequent military exercises in the Taiwan Strait “provocative.”
What military exercises has China conducted near Taiwan?
In August 2022 China fired missiles over Taiwan in response to then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. He described it as a “military exercise”.
According to its “one China policy”, the US does not officially recognize Taiwan's independence from China. However, it supports its membership in international organizations such as the World Trade Organization. In addition, under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979, the US is committed to supplying Taiwan with essential military equipment and support services to ensure that the island maintains an adequate self-defense capability.
During Pelosi's visit to the island, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) condemned China's military exercise, calling it a serious threat to national security and a dangerous escalation of regional tensions.
In May 2024 China held large-scale military exercises codenamed “Joint Sword-2024” during Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te's first week in office. The military exercises around Taiwan involved 111 aircraft, 46 naval vessels and operations including naval assaults, ground strikes, air defense exercises and anti-submarine activities.
In October 2024 China said the PLA's Eastern Theater Command had launched new military exercises off the coast of Taiwan as “punishment” for a speech delivered by Taiwan President Lai in which he pledged to “oppose annexation” or “encroachment on our sovereignty “. Taiwan said it detected 34 naval vessels and 125 aircraft around the island.
Most recently – on December 9 – Taiwan placed its military on “high degree of readiness“, launching combat readiness drills and an emergency center “reporting enemy threats” after the sighting of nearly 90 Chinese navy and coast guard ships in waters near Taiwan, the southern Japanese islands and the East and South China Seas.
Two days later, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said it had tracked 53 military aircraft, 11 naval vessels and eight civilian vessels near the island in the previous 24 hours.
Is Taiwan's military using games to prepare for war?
In December, Taiwan's presidential office held its first-ever “tabletop” military exercises for military and government officials simulating a military escalation with China to test the government's response readiness and assess the effectiveness of various government agencies in maintaining public stability and continuity in times of crisis.
According to a statement from Taiwanese government officials, the war game simulation was held within the presidential office in Taipei, with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim and National Security Council Secretary General Joseph Wu at the helm.
Several government agencies, both central and local, along with various civil defense organizations participated in the three-hour exercise, according to sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the event.
