Accountability
Putting Words
Into Action
Last Updated: 6/13/2023
In late May, 2020, Chip Theory Games announced its support of and solidarity with the peaceful protests and protesters who have been and continue to fight racism and police brutality in our communities and throughout the country. Since that time, we have been working on ways in which we as a company, can more substantially and meaningfully foster equity within our physical community as well as the larger community of board games. As such, after careful consideration and conversations within the company, we have created a list of actionable steps that we are taking to do just that. We will continue to update this list publicly, not to celebrate our efforts but rather as a way of holding ourselves accountable to our community by putting our words into action.
Read The Statement+
Inside CTG
New Policy
Completed - June 15th, 2020
We are altering our PTO policy and setting aside an additional 4 hours in paid time off for employees to engage in peaceful protest and other forms of social justice advocacy and volunteering.
Employment
We will be intentional in seeking out opportunities and avenues to add BIMPOC employees as CTG grows, recognizing that the traditional job advertisement process may not be enough.
In the latter half of 2020, we updated our hiring processes, including a diversity statement, an offer to accommodate people who may face challenges working within the traditional application process, and a wider and more publicized call for applications. We hired multiple employees since then and received several diverse applicants.
*While we want to remain as transparent as possible in our efforts, we also will not be singling out individual employees’ backgrounds both for confidentiality reasons and out of respect for their privacy and the contributions they make to Chip Theory regardless of their background. If you would like to know more about the specific ways we are working to improve equality in our employment efforts, please contact achesney@chiptheorygames.com.
Website
Completed - End of June, 2020
We feel specifics are important, as they communicate sincerity and invite accountability. We will create a space on our website that will provide an updated account of our progress on the action points above. This page will also include a place where anyone can submit further suggestions for how we can do better.
Our Games
Playtesting
Ongoing
We will work to expand our playtesting and game feedback community to include a greater number of BIMPOC. This is a less exact commitment, as we do not request personal information from our playtesters. However, there are still ways we can improve this process, including notifying our gaming communities that we are looking for a diverse range of playtesters and specifically putting out the call for BIMPOC to apply.
Game Design
Hired for our Statement of Accountability - 6-12-2020
Since our games and the worlds in which they are set may intentionally or unintentionally intersect with important cultural topics, we will seek out and pay for sensitivity readers on future projects to help us make sure our games are inclusive and enjoyable for everyone.
Sensitivity reader has consulted on elements of burncycle, Hoplomachus, and Too Many Bones: Unbreakable.
Ongoing:
Sensitivity reader has consulted on elements of burncycle, Hoplomachus, and Too Many Bones: Unbreakable.
We will work to make sure the worlds and the art of our games reflect the diverse nature of our community and world, featuring characters that people from all backgrounds recognize and identify with.
Hoplomachus and burncycle, our two current franchises with human characters, have significant racial and gender diversity both in playable characters and NPCs.
Ongoing
Hoplomachus and burncycle, our two current franchises with human characters, have significant racial and gender diversity both in playable characters and NPCs.
Marketing
Reviewers & Content Creators
During each of our product launches and Kickstarters, we will work to ensure that at least 20% of new CTG products provided for overview or review (paid and unpaid) are sent to BIMPOC content creators. Overall, at least 50% of our review or overview products will go to content creators belonging to minority or marginalized groups.
During our burncycle campaign, more than 40% of the content creators we worked directly with for content were BIMPOC. In the beginning of 2021, at least 50% of our review copies went to marginalized creators, a pattern we plan to continue. We have not heavily utilized review copies throughout 2021, but we are continuing to seek out new BIMPOC and other marginalized content creators to build working relationships with and expect to engage in those partnerships in 2022, when a variety of new product is released.
During The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era campaign in Spring 2023, 50% of the game's exclusive early previews were given to content creators from BIMPOC or marginalized groups.
Outside CTG
Industry Support
Ongoing
We will do our part to support excellent BIMPOC content creators, contributing at least $2,000 per year to BIMPOC and other minority and marginalized groups on Patreon or other creator support systems.
We will continue to work to share our games and the board gaming hobby with BIMPOC communities in our state who may not otherwise have access to the hobby, through both donations of product and events organized for this purpose.
Organized an event that shared our games with BIMPOC children - Nov 9th, 2019
$10,000 donation to Horizons Fellowship Program, a grant program assisting marginalized creators and retailers in the board gaming industry.
Established the CTG Industry Champion Award, an annual $10,000 grant program assisting marginalized creators and retailers in the board gaming industry. - 2023 recipient: Seppy Yoon
Community Aid
We will invest a percentage of all crowdfunding earnings every year into local community organizations focused on fighting inequality, aiding those affected, and promoting equal rights and opportunity for minority and marginalized groups. We will also be seeking out additional ways to aid our community at large.
2020:
- $10,616 spent in May on 5000 KN95 masks to be donated to those serving on the front lines of this pandemic. We are still in the process of distributing these masks to hospitals requesting them, aid workers, emergency units, nursing homes, as well as minority businesses and organizations. If you know of a need, please feel free to submit it below.
- 300 masks (assortment of kinds) donated to the Awaken The Suburbs protest - June 11, 2020. These masks were sent to us by our manufacturing partners in China on their dime (we've received a total of 800 masks from our Chinese partners over the last 3 months).
- $2500 donation made in June, to rebuild youth center destroyed during riots - MIGIZI Communications, 3017 27th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 (Non-profit - TaxID: 41-1379114) - CTG Donor ID: 35120732
- $2500 donation made in September, to Headwaters Foundation for Justice charitable organization (Non-profit - TaxID: 36-3359386).
2021:
- $10,000 in in-kind donations to black-owned salon business in Twin Cities.
- $10,000 donation to Horizons Fellowship Program, a grant program assisting marginalized creators and retailers in the board gaming industry.
- $2000 in gaming materials donated in Novemeber to Twin Cities area schools and libraries, with a focus on reaching disadvantaged children.
- $2,000 used to sponsor a school group to attend PAX Unplugged.
- $15,000 donated to the 3,000 Acts of Kindness initiative (through Coatedinlove.org) in the Twin Cities, which assists unhoused Twin Cities residents on Dec. 13.
- In an ongoing effort to support the Horizon's Fellowship mentees we are helping with the purchase of booth furniture and graphics for the upcoming GAMA Expo (2022).
Will update by end of year each effort and amount donated.