In March of 2017: @CMONGames launched Rising Sun – an gorgeous area control game designed by @eric_lang. It was a smash success.
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How did a random man from New Zealand end up as a #boardgame character in @CMONGames Rising Sun? A thread:pic.twitter.com/SmGmRijN78
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Rising Sun features monsters from Japanese mythology you can recruit to join your clan – like these epic Onipic.twitter.com/J3hNR5CFlK
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As the project grew more successful, they unlocked bonus stretch goals to add new monsters – including one for the Kōtahipic.twitter.com/0DwQP4grhY
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But the Kōtahi isn't a real Japanese Monster! There's ZERO literature or historical references on it. It's actually a Maori word!
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Apparently, the designers of Rising Sun must have been doing their primary research on Wikipedia without checking other sources. Here's the wiki entry for Kotahi on the "Legendary Japanese Monsters" wiki list:pic.twitter.com/hiDinFI1hP
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but this was actually only added to Wikipedia in September of 2016pic.twitter.com/mQgtLx1vVA
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likely by an actual man from Dannevirke, NZ named Kōtahi-Manawa Bradford, or one of his friends.pic.twitter.com/RFpTiuNiFk
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and the IP used to make that edit also edited the Dannevirke wiki page, supporting that theory.pic.twitter.com/1Po0HXivS9
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In short: consult people from the cultures you are basing your
#boardgame in, or even better, bring them in as co-designers, developers, or artists. Cultural appropriation aside, it'll prevent you from including fake Wikipedia entries as characters in your game!Show this thread -
Credit to Casey Smith (SwissQueso on BGG) for being the first to point this outhttps://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1924167/what-ktahi …
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Update: I have confirmed this is correct after talking to Kōtahi myself.
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I'd also like to tag into this thread
@logicwolf – the Japanese BGG user who first asked the question on#boardgamegeek "What is "Kōtahi"?" and led us all down this wonderful internet rabbit hole.pic.twitter.com/dt39Bjai7G
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If you'd like to share this story with non-twitter people, I've also compiled these tweets into a blog post over at:http://johnbrieger.com/blog/?p=321
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CMON marketing reached out and said: "We have been in contact with Kotahi, and him and his friend will be receiving copies of the game, including the Kickstarter extras to ensure they get the Kotahi miniature."
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They also posted a video of his appearance on
@TheProject_NZ to their page – so they clearly have a sense of humor about the incident https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcoolminiornot%2Fvideos%2F10155362918567877%2F&show_text=0&width=560 …Show this thread
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