Cards Against Humanity
| Cards Against Humanity | |
|---|---|
 logo |
|
| Game data | |
| author |
Josh Dillon Daniel Dranove Eli Halpern Ben Hantoot David Munk David Pinsof Max Temkin Eliot Weinstein |
| publishing company | Cards Against Humanity LLC |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 4 - 20+ |
| Duration | 30 - 90 minutes |
| Age | 17+ |
Cards Against Humanity ( English for cards against humanity, based on crimes against humanity ) is a parlor game that was published in 2011 as part of a kick starter campaign by Cards Against Humanity LLC. The game stands out due to the excessive use of black humor and other politically incorrect content. The aim of the game is to fill gaps in statements (or to answer questions) with answers that are as humorous as possible.
history
The idea for Cards Against Humanity was developed in 2008 by eight students from Highland Park High School. A previous version of the game was created in 2008 as a leisure project under the name "Cardenfreude" and was made available by the creators as a printable version for free download. One of the developers, Max Temkin, had been involved in a crowdfunding campaign for a book about Barack Obama's 2009 election campaign and convinced his friends of this funding method. The game was developed and renamed "Cards Against Humanity" is an allusion to the notion of crimes against humanity (English: crimes against humanity ), a criminal offense in international criminal law . On their website, the developers offered the game materials in PDF format for free download under a Creative Commons license.
A Kickstarter campaign was launched on December 1, 2010 with the aim of raising $ 4,000 to print business card sized playing cards. When the campaign ended, a total of $ 15,570 was raised. This made it possible to print on higher quality playing cards .
In 2011, the developers founded Cards Against Humanity LLC to produce and market the game. All eight developers are equal partners in the company. While the game is sold as a physical version through brick-and-mortar retailers and online retailers, the game materials are still available on the company's website free of charge and in several translations for self-printing.
The manufacturer has developed several expansion packages for Cards Against Humanity . These consist of additional cards, often assigned to a specific theme, which are sold as a separate package and can be used according to the same rules and together with the main game. The first of these expansion packs appeared in November 2011 and was sold out after three days. In contrast to the main game, the expansions are not available for download but must be purchased.
It is common for many players to create cards themselves, which often adds inside jokes to the game .
In 2017, the developers signed a contract with the second largest retail chain in the United States, Target , in whose stores the game has been sold ever since. In the same year, there was a scandal when in public and in the media the expansion pack "Chosen People Pack" (German: Chosen-People's package ) has been criticized, the texts from the field of Judaism contained and serious, according to the critics Inappropriately fooling about topics like the Holocaust .
Developer Max Temkin is co-developer of the board game Secret Hitler .
Black Friday promotions
The creators of Cards Against Humanity have launched various satirical promotions to help sell the game.
On the occasion of Black Friday 2013, the retail price of the game was increased by $ 5. The "anti-sale" attracted attention and temporarily increased the game's sales. In the following years, similar campaigns were launched on Black Friday: in 2014, the game with the droppings of a cow was replaced, of which 30,000 units were sold. In 2015 they were given the option to pay $ 5 and receive nothing in return, raising over $ 30,000. In 2016, donated money was used to dig a hole. In 2017, American supermarkets sold potato chips for several weeks, which mocked President Donald Trump.
Furnishing
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The packaging for the basic game consists of a box measuring 19 × 10 × 7 centimeters. It contains 80 black and 420 white cards as well as the instructions. All cards have a format of 5.08 × 8.89 centimeters. The black cards contain fill-in-the-blank with one or two gaps. The white cards contain words or phrases.
Extensions and special editions
Country-specific special editions are available for the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. For these, parts of the playing cards were rewritten in order to adapt them to country-specific linguistic features and cultural peculiarities. For the UK edition, for example, 15% of the maps were modified according to the manufacturer. Language versions created by fans and edited by Cards Against Humanity are available for self-printing on the company website. As of May 2018, playing cards existed for 21 languages, including Argentine Spanish, Estonian and Hebrew.
For the retail chain Target, the developers designed an additional card set that was only sold there and that was marketed with the announcement of an "immediate discount" of one US dollar. The discount consisted of a one-dollar note pinned to the inner box wall. The expansion package for Christmas 2012 was sold according to the “ Pay what you want ” principle ; the package generated sales of $ 70,000.
| year | extension | cards | annotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 2012 Holiday Pack | 30th | Theme: Christmas |
| 2013 | 2013 Holiday Pack | 30th | Theme: Christmas |
| 2014 | 2014 Holiday Pack | 30th | Theme: Christmas |
| 2016 | Red box | 300 | Compilation of the first, second and third expansion |
| 2016 | Blue box | 300 | Compilation of the fourth, fifth and sixth expansions |
| 2016 | Green box | 300 | |
| 2017 | Chosen People Pack | 30th | Author: Judaism |
| 90s Nostalgia Pack | 30th | Subject: 1990s | |
| College pack | 30th | Subject: College | |
| Design pack | 30th | Cards designed by famous graphic designers | |
| Fantasy pack | 30th | Theme: Fantasy | |
| Geek pack | 30th | Subject: Geek culture | |
| Fifth expansion | 100 | ||
| First expansion | 100 | ||
| Food pack | 30th | Theme: food and groceries | |
| Fourth expansion | 100 | ||
| Period pack | 30th | Subject: menstruation | |
| Sci-Fi Pack | 30th | Theme: science fiction | |
| Science pack | 30th | Subject: science | |
| Second expansion | 100 | ||
| Sixth expansion | 100 | ||
| Third expansion | 100 | ||
| Weed pack | 30th | Subject: cannabis | |
| World Wide Web Pack | 30th | Subject: Internet | |
Several smaller expansions were released to the Cards Against Humanity booth at Penny Arcade Expo in 2013 and 2014.
Game flow
The minimum number of players recommended by the manufacturer is four. Technically, the game can also be played by three people. At the start the black and white cards are shuffled separately and each player is dealt ten white cards.
The game is divided into rounds. At the beginning of each round, a round leader is appointed, for example through a fixed rotation. The round leader himself does not take part in the current game round. He draws a black card and reads out the text in the blank. The fill-in-the-blank can also be in the form of a question to which the answer must be completed. Each player except the round leader chooses a white card from his supply, the content of which in his opinion best fits the text or the question, and places it face down in the middle. After all players have placed a card in the middle, the round leader picks up all the cards and reads out the terms or phrases printed on them. He then chooses the card that, in his opinion, best fits the fill-in-the-blank or question that he originally read. The person who discarded this card receives one point. Then the used cards are pushed under the respective pile of cards, each player including the round leader draws a predetermined number of new white cards, a new round leader is determined, and the next round begins.
The game objective is not specified by the manufacturer, only suggestions are made. A common goal of the game is to achieve the highest number of points at the end of the game. It is also common to define the winner, depending on the drawing rule, who is the last to have cards or the first to have no cards.
reception
In 2013, Cards Against Humanity had sold half a million base games; the basic game as well as at least one expansion package temporarily reached number 1 on the Amazon sales charts in the “Toys & Games” segment.
The online game database BoardGameGeek aggregates a good 3000 user ratings (as of May 2018) with an average value of 6.1 out of 10. In an editorial review, BoardGameGeek found that Cards Against Humanity encourages players to address every conceivable sensitive or taboo topic fooling around, including race, religion, gender, poverty, drugs, sex, abortion and child abuse. The commercial weblog ChicagoNow , a spin-off of the Chicago Tribune editorial team, described the game as "simple but well made" and drew comparisons to the popular US party game Apples to Apples by Mattel , although Cards Against Humanity was "slippery and fun". be. The New York Times criticized that the entire architecture of the game was based on breaking social norms, which fits well with a culture that has made breaking norms the norm. The American online job portal The Muse sees qualities that are required when playing the game as helpful for job interviews. The portal evaluates that the game is aimed at people with "coarse, outrageous, socially unacceptable humor". The US business magazine Inc. describes Cards Agains Humanity as an "extremely addicting" game, which is an adult version of Apples to Apples and which enjoys cult status among its large following.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arthur Chu: The Case Against Cards Against Humanity: Is Max Temkin a Horrible Person? In: The Daily Beast . July 29, 2014 ( thedailybeast.com [accessed May 12, 2018]).
- ↑ a b A Brief History of Cards Against Humanity - Best Play . In: Best Play . February 4, 2017 ( bestplay.co [accessed May 12, 2018]).
- ↑ Bestplay.co: A Brief History of Cards Against Humanity. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ^ LinkedIn.com: Cards Against Humanity, LLC. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 20, 2019 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Cards Against Humanity LLC: Message on Facebook. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ^ Cards Against Humanity. Retrieved May 12, 2018 .
- ↑ a b BusinessInsider.de: The creators of 'Cards Against Humanity' explain the secret of staying funny even after the 'punk rock authenticity' is gone. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Fortune.com: Target Pulls Cards Against Humanity Expansion Pack After Controversy. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Look What Happened When This Games Company Offered An Absurd '$ 5 More' Black Friday Deal . In: Business Insider . ( businessinsider.com [accessed May 12, 2018]).
- ^ Joel Landau, Cards Against Humanity sells 30,000 boxes of actual bull poop on Black Friday - NY Daily News . In: nydailynews.com . ( nydailynews.com [accessed May 12, 2018]).
- ↑ Cards Against Humanity Has Made Over $ 54K Selling Nothing On Black Friday - TechCrunch. Retrieved May 12, 2018 (American English).
- ^ Cards Against Humanity is making thousands of dollars digging a 'Holiday Hole' in the ground (update) . In: polygon . ( polygon.com [accessed May 12, 2018]).
- ^ Cards Against Humanity Sold Trump-Hating Potato Chips at Target for Black Friday . ( adweek.com [accessed May 12, 2018]).
- ↑ Instructions for the UK Edition, p. 3
- ↑ a b c Inc.com: The Humans Behind Cards Against Humanity. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ^ FrustratedNerd.com: Cards Against Humanity Database. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ^ A b BoardGameGeek.com: Cards Against Humanity. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ↑ ChicagoNow.com: Cards Against Humanity ( February 25, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive )
- ^ NYTimes.com: Letter of Complaint: Cards Against Humanity. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
- ↑ TheMuse.com: Whaaa? Playing Cards Against Humanity Can Help You Get a Job. Retrieved May 13, 2018 .
