Asymmetric game design often lives and dies on the way players relate to their positions, frequently expressed through factions. In historical simulations, the faction design provides a framework through which players can execute their strategies. When done well the strategic choices presented to them create a decision space which mirrors the history, or at least the history as presented in the game. This is an important distinction, because any historical game is still the biased presentation of that history from the perspective of the designer. So before getting into the ways in which I have positioned players in Cross Bronx Expressway, it’s probably worth noting what my position is as the designer.

I was born in the South, but my family moved to New York, first to Harlem, then to the Bronx where I would stay for almost two decades.  As I came of age there, I took jobs in the public, non-profit and private sectors, with the upward mobility I found in the latter leading me to leave the borough. I had opportunities to work within the community; if I had stuck around I may have been able to build a career in public service. Instead with a wife, a newborn and a job opportunity, I left. You could abstract my story into one of those pink cubes in the Employees space that gets counted for a census, but never comes back on the board. Yet my love for the Bronx will never fade.

I’ve traveled around the world now, and when asked where I am from I always say The Bronx, often to looks of surprise as people process what they know with the person before them. Around the 1970s the people of the Bronx were othered by the news and media, conjuring images, shaping perceptions, and building out narratives that still persist today. The people of the Bronx were othered as a scapegoat to explain the situation. What these media narratives omitted however, were the multitude of external factors that helped create the circumstances the people had to contend with.

While I wouldn’t mind seeing a Kolejka-like game on poverty tactics in the United States that works at the individual level, the players of Cross Bronx Expressway are not designed to represent individuals. During the sixty years covered by the game, individuals changed, both in where their actions aligned and as a function of time. As such the player factions here represent three institutional bodies at the center of municipalities – government that enforces policy (Public), industries that build the economy (Private) and people that serve and are served by both (Community). These abstractions, as the forces at play, give players a wide range of strategic approaches, designed to interact with each other in ways that parallel the history.

Each faction is given four scoring objectives indicative of the broader vision they have for the area. Should one faction achieve all four of their objectives in a single census, they automatically win the game having realized that vision. Otherwise they score points for each objective they achieve at each census. These multi-step objectives, which can directly conflict with the objectives of others, make the choice of what to focus on during any given turn vary. This is where the history comes through the factions, as players will find each decade affords them different opportunities and challenges based on what the other players are doing and what was occurring historically.

During the early game of the 1940s and 50s, the Public faction struggles to keep the population steady against the waves of urban renewal and suburban sprawl by building public housing and welcoming migrant and immigrant populations to the borough. The Community faction works to accommodate the needs of this population by getting them locally active and ensuring there are social safety nets in place. The Private faction hedges their bets on those heading to the suburbs, while offering financial incentives to support Public and Community efforts, and cautiously investing in local projects which have long term economic potential.

In the mid game of the 1960s and 70s, the purse straps tighten. If redlining has come into play the Private faction can no longer offer financial incentives, limiting their reach. If the Public faction has provided the housing and social supports needed to maintain if not grow the population, they likely accrued debt to do so and find themselves with limited resources to meet all of the needs. To keep its head above water the Community may turn to illicit means of raising funds, increasing vulnerabilities throughout the population. Corrections fills and the losses start going up.

The end game of the 1980s and 90s is when the decline slowly starts to plateau, but much of the damage is still on the map. Again the Public wants to grow the population, but they are also trying to do what they can to get, and stay, out of debt. Private is concerned with debt as well, while actively trying to increase profitable investments in the area. The Community is doing the work to care for the vulnerable and prevent disenfranchisement, as public policy begins criminalizing poverty as a means of cleaning up the streets to remain attractive to Private interests.

The Private faction is perhaps the farthest removed from the population. Their objectives are mostly economic, though their financial situation is practically risk free (they can automatically remove all of their debt at the end of each decade, essentially defaulting before returning under the guise of a new corporate entity). The Public on the other hand is accountable, most clearly in the bankruptcy loss condition which triggers if there is too much debt. They have to deal with the situation, but they also have to keep the budget balanced.

The Community faction is the underdog of the history and the game. Their objectives are tied to the impacts the rest of the game is having on the population. Yet, with fewer pieces to work with than the other two factions, they have the least means of providing for those needs. Just to provide the resources needed, the Community may have to risk contributing to the problems first. Yet while their choices are difficult, through them the Community player is able to give the population agency.

Trailer for Decade of Fire, a documentary about the South Bronx in the 1970s:

While asymmetric in their position, all of the factions in Cross Bronx Expressway must be able to work together to navigate the ups and downs of history. As we will discuss in our next article, the event deck drives this by providing the historical context in which the players have to make their choices. History is not played by the players, instead the players must figure out how to play through the history.

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