- Name of game, creator, platform
- The name of the game is Cards Against Humanities. The creator of the game is Max Temkin and it was made in 2010. The platform of the game is analog. The player can purchase the cards online, print them out, and at any store.
- Target audience (as best you can discover from research or the game messaging)
- There are a few customer segmentations. Most of them are young adults, maybe late teenagers. The official age range for the game is 17+. But I think people as young as 15 years old might be able to get their hands on the game and play it at a hangout.
- Younger people(15-17)
- Although it is below the recommended age, I have seen younger people possess and play this game at parties. So there is reason to believe that there is a population who get exposed to this game earlier than the recommended age limit. They might play it because it is “cool”.
- Young adults (17-25)
- I think this is the largest group of audience. This group of audience usually is studying in colleges or graduate schools. The theme of the game makes it preferable when people of this age group to gather to hang out for a kickback or small party of a dozen people. They like to play it likely because it can demonstrate a dark sense of humor and ease the awkwardness with a group of people they just met.
- Adults (25+)
- I think this group would also be substantial because although people of this age would typically be out of college/school. Cards Against Humanity would likely be a household card game just in case there are casual hangouts in the apartment/studio.
- Formal elements of the game: how many players? What actions can players take? How do rounds work? Do they do anything interesting with player relationships/objectives/resources?
- Players
- There are be as few as 3 players or as many as 20 players for this game.
- Objective
- The objective of the game is simple, be selected the best answer card to the “prompt.” In each round, one person at the table is selected as the Card Czar to pick a prompt card. Then each player submits a card to supplement that prompt card. The Card Csar judges which answer card submitted is the funniest and gives the prompt card to them(as one point). The objective is to collect as many prompt cards (points) as possible. Sometimes the Card Czar picks a bizarre card depending on their own sense of humor.
- Procedures
- The players choose someone to be the card king first. Then each person draws 6 cards. The card king picks a prompt card and demonstrates it to the table. People take 2 mins to decide which cards they should submit. They submit it. Then the Card Csar reads all the combinations of the cards and picks the funniest combination.
- Rules
- There are many variations of the game. In the version that I played, the player draws 6 cards initially and then each round they redraw 1 or 2 cards so that they always have 6 cards. But if they choose, they also have the chance to discard 2 cards and get 2 new cards. The winner of each round is the new Card Czar. The player who has the most points at the end of a 1-hour game is the winner.
- Resources
- The resources of the game are the physical cards: both the prompt cards and the answer cards. Usually, there are hundreds of them in each pile.
- Conflict
- There are many variations of the rules in this game. In the version that I played. The conflict is that every player has the chance to discard 2 cards to get new ones. In this case, they are taking chances, which means that the new cards that they draw might be “really good” or “really bad”.
- Boundaries
- Since it is “cards against the humanities,” there are no typical boundaries because the game gives people an excuse to be offensive in a way. But I think that usually the group who are playing are aware of the backgrounds of the people who are present and choose to not have something that can be seen as overly aggressive towards someone.
- Outcome
- At the end of the game, the person who has the most points is the winner. At the same time, people might think that some people pick unconventional cards and that they are really funny(despite not winning).
- Players
- What kind of fun? How do the elements of the game lead it to be fun/compelling?
- Expression
- I think the kind of fun that cards against humanity brings is expression. Because the game is about demonstrating the player’s creativity and sense of humor to the crowd. One element that leads players to achieve the fun of expression is definitely the procedures of the game, which requires each player to choose a card that they think matches best with the prompt card and the sense of humor of the person who is reading the card(if they know this person). Sometimes the player can’t just pick a generic card that could be funny. They have to tell which sense of humor the card reader has(either they were friends before and have made a similar joke, or from previous rounds if they don’t know each other well). So winning a point feels good because it is not only a form of expressing your humor, but also the validation of being able to sense the humor that the card reader has and being able to adapt to that.
- Expression
- Why does this game work? How could it be improved?
- This game works because
- Cool aesthetics
- Let’s be real, this game looks so cool. The minimalistic design of the cards and the packaging is on point. The packaging is clean, sleek, and modern.
- The rules are simple
- This game has insanely simple rules, which makes it easy for people to pick up especially when they might be in a new situation(meeting new friends), and being tipsy. I think this contributes a lot to the game’s success
- The premise of the game is supposed to invite creativity and unconventional humor
- The game almost gives people an invitation to come up with unconventional things to say or funny jokes that they don’t usually make or are not as politically correct
- Cool aesthetics
- Things to improve
- More structure of the game
- Although this is a flexible game and it benefits from the absence of rules, I think more suggestions/rules should be given in the package to increase the variations of the rules. (ie. discarding cards for new cards)
- Finding a way to strike a balance between dark humor and offensive jokes
- As mentioned before, this game invites players to have dark jokes, but I think some of the content of the card can be very offensive to other players(of course, depending on whether they take the joke seriously or not)
- This then put on some pressure on the Card Czar to almost be able to filter through the ones that are funny and potentially harmful jokes.
- A way to improve this is to add a rule where if some players think that the Card Czar picked a bad joke, they can initiate a process in which all the other players can veto the joke. So that this puts some pressure on the Card Czar and potentially makes the game more inclusive and does not make as MANY offensive jokes. But I think we should playtest this to make sure that this does not take away the fun of the game
- More structure of the game
- This game works because
- Compare the game you chose to other games in its genre. What differentiates it from the other games? Is it better/worse? How so?
- I do want to mention a game that I just play-tested last class. It is called “I swear!”
- So basically the premise of the game is that each of the players (4+ people in total), writes down 2 things that they have done and puts them down on 2 cards. Then the cards get shuffled. Each round, the player picks a random card from the pile, looks at the story, and gives a “compelling story” for 2 min. The rest of the people have 2 mins to question the player. They then vote on whether the story is real or not. If the player manages to trick the others, they win a point.
- I think “I swear!” definitely provides more creativity and “acting” expression to Cards Against Humanity. It is more inclusive than cards against humanity. But this game might require a quiet setting and people can’t know each other that well.
- I do want to mention a game that I just play-tested last class. It is called “I swear!”
- How vulnerable do you need to get?
- I think people should not put their vulnerable side on when they play this game just because this game could be offensive and people can’t be too serious about the different combinations in this game.
