In this critical play, I’ll be exploring Quiplash, a joke judging game produced by jackbox games for a wide variety of platforms like PlayStation, Switch, and more. The quippy nature of the game’s narrator and the goofy prompts show that the target audience is likely Gen Z and millennials.
What Makes Up Quiplash?
Quiplash is unique in that it can be adapted to involve up to 10,000 people. Since it’s a judging game, the number of creators is 3 – 8 but the number of voters can be up to 10,000, allowing for streamed audiences to be involved in the gameplay. Members of the audience simply wait for the creators to answer their questions and vote on which one they prefer (usually which is funnier or more clever). Creators are paired up and provided prompts to respond to which they and the audience then vote on. There are three rounds, with the point values being increased respectively to the round number (ie round one – x1 multiplier, round two – 2x, round three – 3x). Additionally, in the last round everyone gets the same prompt. There is also a timer to prevent excessive waits for everyone to answer.
What’s Fun About Quiplash?
Quiplash promises expression and fellowship as players get to create their answers and enjoy each other’s response. The way to win the game is by earning points and points are earned from people voting for your answer so the win condition guides the creators to make responses that others would vote for.
This game works since the win condition feeds into both types of fun: expression and fellowship. This is because you have to consider the audience and other creators while making your quip to earn votes but you’re ultimately expressing something yourself. After playing several rounds, the jokes tend to get stale. From personal experience, everybody usually creates an inside joke and then repeats it until it’s not funny anymore and everyone abandons the game. Having different themings for the prompts could help spice up the game and differentiate different game sessions.
What Sets Apart Quiplash?
Unlike other games in the genre, Quiplash has a strict prompt, loose response format which gives it flexibility in how mature or childish the game can feel based on the participants. This is unlike Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity, which are both strict prompt, strict response formats, and similar to skribbl.io which is also strict prompt, loose response but uses pictures instead of words. I think the more open format of Quiplash allows it to feel fresh depending on who you play it with since the response to a prompt can be so varied as well as the kind of humor the audience will have.
How Vulnerable Is Quiplash?
The level of vulnerability is relatively low as the prompts are rarely related to the writer themselves. However, attempting humor is a vulnerable position as you’re putting your joke out there to be judged against another one in hopes of being more popular. This vulnerability can make some people uncomfortable if their answers are routinely unpopular but that risk is what motivates players to stretch their creativity.
