Enjoy escaping the Maelstrom and prove your mastery of media!
An entertaining and educational board game that stimulates players’ cooperative, innovative, and creative thinking skills.
Educational and hilarious for the novice and expert alike, The Medium is fast-paced, engaging and brainy fun that will have young and old laughing... as they learn out loud.
Troubleshooting
A thought-provoking experience that encourages us to become aware of the media environment by recognizing its unintended and invisible functions and/or implications.
Playable in teams or as individuals
Ages: 14+, Playing Time: 30+ min.
By playing in partners, The Medium stimulates a player’s cooperative, innovative, strategic and creative thinking skills,
Fully Documented
Booklet, online tips, and expansions.
The game can be used to analyze any medium, technology, innovation or human artifact, from the past or present.
Enjoy escaping the media maelstrom and prove your mastery of media!
Inspired by legendary Canadian philosopher and innovative media thinker Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), The MediuM is a gaming experience of Laws of Media. The New Science (1988), developed by Marshall McLuhan and his son Eric McLuhan (1942-2018). Also known as “McLuhans’ Tetrad”, the Laws of Media reveal the four constant rules that govern all human innovations, four questions that can be asked in order to understand the implications that will inevitably result from any medium.
Roll the die, take a card, and play!
The Medium is played in teams of two or more players. With each round, one player, the Messenger, takes a card from the pile and tries to get teammates to guess what medium is on the card by giving them cues based on the Mcluhans’ Laws of Media. Teams move along the board when a medium is guessed correctly, pulling themselves out of the Maelstrom.
A Marshall McLuhan Board Game
An entertaining and educational board game that stimulates players’ cooperative, innovative, and creative thinking skills.
The MediuM: a Marshall McLuhan Board Game
The original game includes a 18-inch game board representing the media maelstrom, 72 cards, 4 game pawns, 1 six-sided die, 1-minute sand timer, and an 8-page rulebook including info on the Laws of Media.
Shipping worldwide!
Expansion
$12.99/USD*
New cards
- This expansion pack contains 48 NEW cards (including wild cards) not found in the original game.
- * Shipping NOT included.
The MediuM
$64.99/USD*
TheMediuM
- The one and only Marshall McLuhan board game. Enjoy escaping the Maelstrom and prove your mastery of media!
- * Shipping NOT included.
Tetrapad
$10.99/USD*
Tetrapad
- A 60 pages notepad to practice the McLuhans' Laws of Media and prove your mastery of The MediuM!
- * Shipping NOT included.
*Shipping wordlwide via the United States Postal Service (USPS) and United Parcel Service (UPS).
All your shipments are insured against damage, loss, or defects.
Interested in buying multiple copies? We can offer a bulk discount! Contact us!
Understanding the Laws of Media, McLuhans' Tetrad
The Medium gamifies The Laws of Media (1988), also known as McLuhans' Tetrad, developed by Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) and his son Eric McLuhan (1942-2018), four questions that can be asked in order to understand the implications that will inevitably result from any medium.
What does the medium replace or make obsolete?
What does the medium retrieve or bring back from the past?
What does the medium enhance or improve?
What does the medium reverse or flip into?
What are its unintended implications?
Team
This game was designed by Prof. Paolo Granata and his students in Book and Media Studies Program at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto, in collaboration with the Centre for Arts, Design & Information Technology at George Brown College, along with a group of designers, scholars, and media experts.
Concept
Mubashir Baweja, Melanie Cohen, Hiba Dahir, Leticia Gaba, Paolo Granata.
Game development
Andrey Miroshnichenko, Tanya Pobuda, Brian Taylor, Paolo Granata.
Special Thanks to:
Chris Aylott, Randy Boyagoda, Simon Digby, Luigi Ferrara, Gordon Gow, Michael McLuhan, David Nostbakken.
Consultants
Corey Anton, Hans Bathija, Varvara Chumakova, Diane Erlich, Alex Kuskis, Elena Lamberti, Paul Levinson, Andrew McLuhan, Junichi Miyazawa, Valerie Peterson, Lance Strate.
Extras and Game Components
The media Maelstrom game board, 4 game pawns, 72 Medium Cards (including 6 Wild Cards), 1 six-sided die, 1-minute sand timer, instructions booklet. Online tips, add-on, and expansions available.
The Media Maelstrom
Edgar Allan Poe's short story A Descent into the Maelstrom (1841) provided Marshall McLuhan with an important metaphor for describing contemporary media environment.
The sailor in Poe’s story got sucked into the Maelstrom, but he noticed that some debris floated up in the vortex. He abandoned ship and held on to a barrel that snatched him away. Thus, the sailor managed to escape the Maelstrom by understanding and using the vortex’s patterns.
Wild Cards
Some Wildcards bring your team good fortune but some are bad luck. If a team draws a Wild Card, the effects described on the card must be carried out immediately!
The Wirpool Space
Land on a whirlpool space and the pawn must be moved immediately to the space designated by the grey arrows on the Maelstrom game board.
The Tetradic Space
The four Laws of Media exist simultaneously. Therefore, if a pawn stops on at the tetradic space, a team gets lucky chance to use all four Laws at once!
Merchandising
Only for The MediuM lovers!
