With the boardgame publisher Subverti

Language is power. It’s an arena of combat in which the past, present, and future play out. Words—precious tools in service to our thoughts—can reveal themselves to be true weapons of influence and manipulation.

To impoverish a language is an excellent means to prevent any criticism of the system. Seventy years ago, in his novel 1984, George Orwell popularized this idea, calling it Newspeak. Today, we see its echo in the absurd views of many of our leaders.

Dictopia offers to immerse you in an Orwellian universe, a dystopia where letters themselves are subject to control. In this totalitarian world, freedom of expression is but a chimera. Your words are being monitored. Informants are everywhere.

The sole glimmer of hope rests with a secret organization that calls itself the Resistance. Its messages, punched into the typewriter, are hidden, sealed in aging envelopes that are stamped with the famous Guy Fawkes mask.

Dictopia is more than just a game: it reflects on the power of words. Have fun as you tear down the sacrosanct bastion of prescriptivism and debate the meanings of words to better appropriate them. In order to build a new world, we need a language (r)evolution!