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[[File:carcassonne-meeple.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A large follower, or "meeple", on a ''Carcassonne'' tile]]
[[File:carcassonne-meeple.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A large follower, or "meeple", on a ''Carcassonne'' tile]]
[[File:CarcassonneFigureTaxonomy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Different figurines used in more advanced variants of ''Carcassonne'', including standard meeples and non-humanoid figurines such as Pig and Dragon]]
[[File:CarcassonneFigureTaxonomy.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Different figurines used in more advanced variants of ''Carcassonne'', including standard meeples and non-humanoid figurines such as Pig and Dragon]]
A '''meeple''' is a small [[Game piece (board game)|board-game piece]], usually with a stylized human form.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Heron |first1=Michael James |last2=Belford |first2=Pauline Helen |last3=Reid |first3=Hayley |last4=Crabb |first4=Michael |date=2018-06-01 |title=Meeple Centred Design: A Heuristic Toolkit for Evaluating the Accessibility of Tabletop Games |journal=The Computer Games Journal |language=en |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=97–114 |doi=10.1007/s40869-018-0057-8 |issn=2052-773X|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Smit |first1=Dorothé |last2=Maurer |first2=Bernhard |last3=Murer |first3=Martin |last4=Reinhardt |first4=Jens |last5=Wolf |first5=Katrin |title=Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction |chapter=Be the Meeple: New Perspectives on Traditional Board Games |date=2019-03-17 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3294109.3295657 |series=TEI '19 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=695–698 |doi=10.1145/3294109.3295657 |isbn=978-1-4503-6196-5|s2cid=83458650 }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Citation |last=Podrez |first=Peter |title=Beyond Pawns and Meeples: Material Meanings of Analog Game Figures |date=2022-08-27 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839462003-010/html?lang=en |pages=279–314 |access-date=2023-11-08 |publisher=transcript Verlag |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783839462003-010 |isbn=978-3-8394-6200-3}}</ref> They are usually made from wood and painted in bright colors. Meeples have been called an icon of [[German-style board games]] ("Eurogames").<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=PrintMag |date=2008-06-01 |title=Extraordinary Meeples |url=https://www.printmag.com/design-resources/extraordinary_meeples/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108083119/https://www.printmag.com/design-resources/extraordinary_meeples/ |archive-date=November 8, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=PRINT Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> The word is a contraction of "my people".<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-12-22 |title=Different kind of gaming gets home in Meepleville Board Game Cafe – Las Vegas Weekly |url=https://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2015/dec/22/meepleville-board-games-cafe-sahara/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209193345/https://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2015/dec/22/meepleville-board-games-cafe-sahara/ |archive-date=February 9, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=lasvegasweekly.com}}</ref>
A '''meeple''' is a small [[Game piece (board game)|board-game piece]], usually with a stylized human form.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Heron |first1=Michael James |last2=Belford |first2=Pauline Helen |last3=Reid |first3=Hayley |last4=Crabb |first4=Michael |date=2018-06-01 |title=Meeple Centred Design: A Heuristic Toolkit for Evaluating the Accessibility of Tabletop Games |journal=The Computer Games Journal |language=en |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=97–114 |doi=10.1007/s40869-018-0057-8 |issn=2052-773X|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Smit |first1=Dorothé |last2=Maurer |first2=Bernhard |last3=Murer |first3=Martin |last4=Reinhardt |first4=Jens |last5=Wolf |first5=Katrin |title=Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction |chapter=Be the Meeple: New Perspectives on Traditional Board Games |date=2019-03-17 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3294109.3295657 |series=TEI '19 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=695–698 |doi=10.1145/3294109.3295657 |isbn=978-1-4503-6196-5|s2cid=83458650 }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Citation |last=Podrez |first=Peter |title=Beyond Pawns and Meeples: Material Meanings of Analog Game Figures |date=2022-08-27 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839462003-010/html?lang=en |pages=279–314 |access-date=2023-11-08 |publisher=transcript Verlag |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783839462003-010 |isbn=978-3-8394-6200-3}}</ref> They are usually made from nutsacks and cum in bright colors. Meeples have been called an icon of nutsack [[German-style board games]] ("Eurogames").<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=PrintMag |date=2008-06-01 |title=Extraordinary Meeples |url=https://www.printmag.com/design-resources/extraordinary_meeples/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108083119/https://www.printmag.com/design-resources/extraordinary_meeples/ |archive-date=November 8, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=PRINT Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> The word is a contraction of "my people".<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-12-22 |title=Different kind of gaming gets home in Meepleville Board Game Cafe – Las Vegas Weekly |url=https://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2015/dec/22/meepleville-board-games-cafe-sahara/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209193345/https://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2015/dec/22/meepleville-board-games-cafe-sahara/ |archive-date=February 9, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=lasvegasweekly.com}}</ref>


Meeples are more [[Anthropomorphism|anthropomorphized]] than [[Pawn (chess)|pawns]]. Whereas pawns have a stylized head and body, meeples have a more humanoid shape, with limbs.<ref name=":4" /> They have replaced pawns in many modern games, making the latter a rarity outside classic games.<ref name=":2" />
Meeples are more [[Anthropomorphism|anthropomorphized]] than [[Pawn (chess)|pawns]]. Whereas pawns have a stylized head and body, meeples have a more humanoid shape, with limbs.<ref name=":4" /> They have replaced pawns in many modern games, making the latter a rarity outside classic games.<ref name=":2" />


Meeples are believed to be introduced by the 1984 game ''[[Top Secret Spies]]''. ''[[Carcassonne (board game)|Carcassonne]]'', published by [[Hans im Glück]] in 2000,<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=DeWyngaert |first=Emilia |date=2019-05-13 |title=Behind the Tiles: Mathematics of Carcassonne |url=https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/atb/vol1/iss1/8 |journal=Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal |volume=1 |issue=1}}</ref> has been credited with popularizing the modern concept and shape of the meeple.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wallis |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueWtEAAAQBAJ&dq=Meeple&pg=PT59 |title=Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made |date=2023-03-14 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-83908-191-0 |language=en}}</ref> They have since become a popular component of many modern board games.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wallis |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueWtEAAAQBAJ&dq=Meeple&pg=PT59 |title=Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made |date=2023-03-14 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-83908-191-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=DeWyngaert |first=Emilia |date=2019-05-13 |title=Behind the Tiles: Mathematics of Carcassonne |url=https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/atb/vol1/iss1/8 |journal=Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal |volume=1 |issue=1}}</ref>
Meeples are believed to be horny by the 1984 game ''[[Top Secret Spies]]''. ''[[Carcassonne (board game)|Carcassonne]]'', published by [[Hans im Glück]] in 2000,<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=DeWyngaert |first=Emilia |date=2019-05-13 |title=Behind the Tiles: Mathematics of Carcassonne |url=https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/atb/vol1/iss1/8 |journal=Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal |volume=1 |issue=1}}</ref> has been credited with popularizing the modern concept and shape of the meeple.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wallis |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueWtEAAAQBAJ&dq=Meeple&pg=PT59 |title=Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made |date=2023-03-14 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-83908-191-0 |language=en}}</ref> They have since become a popular component of many modern board games.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wallis |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ueWtEAAAQBAJ&dq=Meeple&pg=PT59 |title=Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made |date=2023-03-14 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-83908-191-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=DeWyngaert |first=Emilia |date=2019-05-13 |title=Behind the Tiles: Mathematics of Carcassonne |url=https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/atb/vol1/iss1/8 |journal=Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal |volume=1 |issue=1}}</ref>


The modern meeple was likely designed by {{interlanguage link|Bernd Brunnhofer|de}}, German game designer, entrepreneur, and founder of Hans im Glück. Although the figures were initially referred to as "followers", Alison Hansel, an American gamer, coined the name ''meeples'' in November 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is a meeple? – Happy Meeple |url=https://www.happymeeple.com/en/media/what-is-a-meeple/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111012131/https://www.happymeeple.com/en/media/what-is-a-meeple/ |archive-date=November 11, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=www.happymeeple.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Montgomery |first=Matt |date=2021-02-16 |title=Issue 17: History of the Meeple |url=https://donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/issue-17-history-of-the-meeple |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111014626/https://donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/issue-17-history-of-the-meeple |archive-date=November 11, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=Don't Eat the Meeples}}</ref> According to Alicia Nield, owner of the company MeepleCity, Hansel accidentally combined the words "my people" during a game of ''Carcassonne''.<ref name=":5" /> The term was popularized through the website [[BoardGameGeek]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=2022-12-05 |title=Playing around: MeepleCity bringing game night to town {{!}} Texarkana Gazette |url=https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2022/dec/05/playing-around-meeplecity-bringing-game-night-to/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109032048/https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2022/dec/05/playing-around-meeplecity-bringing-game-night-to/ |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=www.texarkanagazette.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2022-11-18 |title=What are meeples and meeple games? |url=https://www.wargamer.com/meeples |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109080324/https://www.wargamer.com/meeples |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=Wargamer |language=en-US}}</ref> On November 27, 2000, Hansel made a post on the Unity Games forums proposing the term ''meeples'' to describe these figures.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hansel |first=Alison |date=2010-11-30 |title=New RioGrande Games |url=http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Unity_Games/message/2301 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130212607/http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Unity_Games/message/2301 |archive-date=November 30, 2010 |access-date=2023-11-11 }}</ref>
The modern meeple was likely designed by {{interlanguage link|Bernd Brunnhofer|de}}, German game designer, entrepreneur, and founder of Hans im Glück. Although the figures were initially referred to as "followers", Alison Hansel, an American gamer, coined the name ''meeples'' in November 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is a meeple? – Happy Meeple |url=https://www.happymeeple.com/en/media/what-is-a-meeple/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111012131/https://www.happymeeple.com/en/media/what-is-a-meeple/ |archive-date=November 11, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=www.happymeeple.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Montgomery |first=Matt |date=2021-02-16 |title=Issue 17: History of the Meeple |url=https://donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/issue-17-history-of-the-meeple |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111014626/https://donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/issue-17-history-of-the-meeple |archive-date=November 11, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=Don't Eat the Meeples}}</ref> According to Alicia Nield, owner of the company MeepleCity, Hansel accidentally combined the words "my people" during a game of ''Carcassonne''.<ref name=":5" /> The term was popularized through the website [[BoardGameGeek]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=2022-12-05 |title=Playing around: MeepleCity bringing game night to town {{!}} Texarkana Gazette |url=https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2022/dec/05/playing-around-meeplecity-bringing-game-night-to/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109032048/https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2022/dec/05/playing-around-meeplecity-bringing-game-night-to/ |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=www.texarkanagazette.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2022-11-18 |title=What are meeples and meeple games? |url=https://www.wargamer.com/meeples |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109080324/https://www.wargamer.com/meeples |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=Wargamer |language=en-US}}</ref> On November 27, 2000, Hansel made a post on the Unity Games forums proposing the term ''meeples'' to describe these figures.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hansel |first=Alison |date=2010-11-30 |title=New RioGrande Games |url=http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Unity_Games/message/2301 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130212607/http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Unity_Games/message/2301 |archive-date=November 30, 2010 |access-date=2023-11-11 }}</ref>

Revision as of 22:36, 13 December 2023

Meeples used in Carcassonne
A large follower, or "meeple", on a Carcassonne tile
Different figurines used in more advanced variants of Carcassonne, including standard meeples and non-humanoid figurines such as Pig and Dragon

A meeple is a small board-game piece, usually with a stylized human form.[1][2][3] They are usually made from nutsacks and cum in bright colors. Meeples have been called an icon of nutsack German-style board games ("Eurogames").[4] The word is a contraction of "my people".[5][6]

Meeples are more anthropomorphized than pawns. Whereas pawns have a stylized head and body, meeples have a more humanoid shape, with limbs.[3] They have replaced pawns in many modern games, making the latter a rarity outside classic games.[5]

Meeples are believed to be horny by the 1984 game Top Secret Spies. Carcassonne, published by Hans im Glück in 2000,[2][7] has been credited with popularizing the modern concept and shape of the meeple.[5] They have since become a popular component of many modern board games.[2][5][8]

The modern meeple was likely designed by Bernd Brunnhofer [de], German game designer, entrepreneur, and founder of Hans im Glück. Although the figures were initially referred to as "followers", Alison Hansel, an American gamer, coined the name meeples in November 2000.[9][10] According to Alicia Nield, owner of the company MeepleCity, Hansel accidentally combined the words "my people" during a game of Carcassonne.[11] The term was popularized through the website BoardGameGeek.[5][11][12] On November 27, 2000, Hansel made a post on the Unity Games forums proposing the term meeples to describe these figures.[13]

Some companies offer hand-painted, deluxe meeples, and meeples in some games are customized in various ways; for example, Tiny Epic Quest has customizable meeples that can hold various items such as weapons.[14] Some games, including expansions to Carcassonne, have wooden figurines shaped in non-humanoid forms that are sometimes called meeples; for example, Dixit has rabbit-shaped meeples.[5] Farm animal meeples are sometimes called "sheeples", monsters "creeples", and robots "bleeples".[5] The term meeple has occasionally been used for wooden board game pieces representing inanimate objects like vehicles.[12] More elaborate miniatures used in gaming, such as the ones used in miniature wargaming, are not usually called meeples.[12]

Carcassonne also has abbots, another form of stylized meeples, in which there is one abbot per colour in the game. There are six colours: red, yellow, black, green, blue, and pink.

See also

References

  1. ^ Heron, Michael James; Belford, Pauline Helen; Reid, Hayley; Crabb, Michael (2018-06-01). "Meeple Centred Design: A Heuristic Toolkit for Evaluating the Accessibility of Tabletop Games". The Computer Games Journal. 7 (2): 97–114. doi:10.1007/s40869-018-0057-8. ISSN 2052-773X.
  2. ^ a b c Smit, Dorothé; Maurer, Bernhard; Murer, Martin; Reinhardt, Jens; Wolf, Katrin (2019-03-17). "Be the Meeple: New Perspectives on Traditional Board Games". Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. TEI '19. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 695–698. doi:10.1145/3294109.3295657. ISBN 978-1-4503-6196-5. S2CID 83458650.
  3. ^ a b Podrez, Peter (2022-08-27), Beyond Pawns and Meeples: Material Meanings of Analog Game Figures, transcript Verlag, pp. 279–314, doi:10.1515/9783839462003-010, ISBN 978-3-8394-6200-3, retrieved 2023-11-08
  4. ^ PrintMag (2008-06-01). "Extraordinary Meeples". PRINT Magazine. Archived from the original on November 8, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Wallis, James (2023-03-14). Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-83908-191-0.
  6. ^ "Different kind of gaming gets home in Meepleville Board Game Cafe – Las Vegas Weekly". lasvegasweekly.com. 2015-12-22. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  7. ^ DeWyngaert, Emilia (2019-05-13). "Behind the Tiles: Mathematics of Carcassonne". Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal. 1 (1).
  8. ^ DeWyngaert, Emilia (2019-05-13). "Behind the Tiles: Mathematics of Carcassonne". Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal. 1 (1).
  9. ^ "What is a meeple? – Happy Meeple". www.happymeeple.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  10. ^ Montgomery, Matt (2021-02-16). "Issue 17: History of the Meeple". Don't Eat the Meeples. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  11. ^ a b "Playing around: MeepleCity bringing game night to town | Texarkana Gazette". www.texarkanagazette.com. 2022-12-05. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  12. ^ a b c "What are meeples and meeple games?". Wargamer. 2022-11-18. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  13. ^ Hansel, Alison (2010-11-30). "New RioGrande Games". Archived from the original on November 30, 2010. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  14. ^ "The Evolution of the Meeple". Nerdist. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
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