Live data from Hacker News

Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

chicagogrid.com

61–70 of 173 posts

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#61

It's not often discussed, but 20% of Kickstarter's top 20 projects are board games. The Pebble and Ouya skew the average, but D&D style games with little plastic figurines clean up with multiple games clearing $2MM or more. http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2013/05/15415-ranked-31-mill...

Kickstarter is a huge topic on BoardgameGeek.com. It's everywhere, and tends to dominate the discussions of new titles. It's all over the site, but the concentrated discussion is here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/forum/915012/kickstarter/genera...

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#62
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Essentially yes. The game is massively unplayable for a lot of different kinds of people due to the really triggering nature of the card content (rape jokes, pedophilia, racism, sexism, etc.). A lot of people find that content to be one of its virtues, but I've generally found that only certain kinds of people really enjoy CAH (read: white men).

I've played with white women (and one Hispanic woman) who also enjoyed it. I've never seen anyone not enjoy the game. Most of the people I've played with are Jews, and the presence of cards like "Auschwitz" and "Nazis" isn't a problem. The game is only really unplayable for people who take themselves too seriously.

Ditto. Even if it was just mostly a jab at the stereotypical 'American white male' stereotype, I'm really not fond of people depicting 'minorities' like me (and women) like poor overly sensitive PC types. If anything, it's probably less likely to offend minorities, cause a lot of other countries really aren't so paranoid about being PC like the US is. I mean, there is a fine line between dark humor and offensiveness, but we'll let you know when you cross it; please don't speak for everyone.

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#63
post #55

I love CaH but I do have to say that the founders are full of themselves. I and several other friends/entrepreneurs have reached out to them regarding ideas to build associated products that would help build their brand. Even companion apps and such since their content is under Creative Commons. Every single one of us was sent back extremely rude and vile replies. This article just reeks of more narcissism. It's a re…

I'm shocked--shocked!--that the guys behind Cards Against Humanity responded rudely to your attempt to piggyback off their idea.

Here's an idea: go build your own brand!

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#64
post #55

I love CaH but I do have to say that the founders are full of themselves. I and several other friends/entrepreneurs have reached out to them regarding ideas to build associated products that would help build their brand. Even companion apps and such since their content is under Creative Commons. Every single one of us was sent back extremely rude and vile replies. This article just reeks of more narcissism. It's a re…

As this is a rather one-sided story, I'm inclined to disagree based on my experience with them.

Me and a buddy of mine are really big CAH fans, and we had been playing on a set of cards that he printed and cut at that point. We had also been meaning to start a project together, so to test the waters, we started working on a digital version of CAH that would be open sourced and could be freely enjoyed by everyone.

I made the wise decision to reach out and get their blessing before we really began working on it, and one of the founders replied in short order, essentially telling us that we couldn't go ahead with our project because they wanted to control what was released. It's been a while since the correspondence happened, so please excuse my memory, but it was something to that effect.

However, they were very courteous and concise the entire time, and were not even close to being rude. So I find your account a bit hard to believe.

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#65
post #55

I love CaH but I do have to say that the founders are full of themselves. I and several other friends/entrepreneurs have reached out to them regarding ideas to build associated products that would help build their brand. Even companion apps and such since their content is under Creative Commons. Every single one of us was sent back extremely rude and vile replies. This article just reeks of more narcissism. It's a re…

As far as I know, the guys don't have a top-down structure, so they're unable to make calls like that individually - and besides, they're hustlers. They made CaH in-house, bootstrapped, and entirely by-hand. It's not narcissistic to want to do things yourself, but it is possible to erroneously think that "anyone can do it". I've sensed a bit of that from the founders, but honestly - it's motivational for me to hear that, and while I would hope not to be dismissive or inflated if I had similar success, I also certainly think we need more people saying, "Why the hell not just do it yourself? Why raise money? Build it tomorrow!"

Also, you were expecting something other than vulgarity from the founders of a game like that? They have a brand to uphold, after all. I don't think it's necessary to be rude, but that's precisely in line with their entire "brand voice".

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From someone not from the US; so why do you have an American Express card?

They charge more in fees, and also pass on more as cashback/bonuses/prizes to customers. For example, a visa/mastercard might be able to kick back 1~2% for cashback. American Express might be able to go 2~3%. This is also why a lot of places don't accept Amex, the fees are higher and from the vendor's perspective they offer nothing in return. PS - The whole credit card system is too expensive, and inefficient, but th…

AmEx also offers a lot of other benefits for the consumer like lengthier chargeback periods and free extended warranties. They'll provide warranty coverage for a year past the manufacturer's warranty on items purchased with the card for no cost; it's the reason I put all my big ticket electronics purchases on my AmEx.

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#68

We're doing the same thing. Our team is located in NYC, London, and Aurora, IL. We launched our little meta-board gaming company at http://susd.pretend-money.com a little over 1.5 months ago. And we're already profitable! We made a conscious decision to forego taking money from advertisers/investors, and even dodged a pre-launch acquihire offer, in an attempt to create something that's 100% our vision (unless YC want…

I absolutely love Shut Up and Sit Down, I followed Quinns over from Rock Paper Shotgun and have enjoyed the videos very much since. I'm very happy to hear you're profitable already.

I would love to see what the Quinns and Paul think of Machine Of Death, a similarly mega-funded card game Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1234131468/machine-of-de...) when it arrives.

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#69

We're doing the same thing. Our team is located in NYC, London, and Aurora, IL. We launched our little meta-board gaming company at http://susd.pretend-money.com a little over 1.5 months ago. And we're already profitable! We made a conscious decision to forego taking money from advertisers/investors, and even dodged a pre-launch acquihire offer, in an attempt to create something that's 100% our vision (unless YC want…

A bit confused, but curious: you guys are essentially curating board games to promote and sell, am I right?

I'm just trying to figure out if you guys make them or just talk about them. :) Either way, a lot of great content on there.

Re: Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

#70
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's Apples to Apples except fun.

yeah, it's a pretty hilarious game. Especially when combined with copious amounts of beer and the right kind of friends. I think this actually shows that there may be a big market for non-politically correct games and "stuff" that big burdened corporations won't touch, but the market would be more than willing to gobble up.

>Especially when combined with copious amounts of beer and the right kind of friends.

There's a brewpub local to me that has CAH nights.

Post reply on HN