Cards Against Humanity calls itself "a free party game for horrible people." Photo by Danny Howard on Flickr.
Cards Against Humanity has been pushing the boundaries since the beginning. A slightly demented party game that forces you to free-associate, Mad Libs style, things like "Virginia Tech" and "boogers," the game has been widely celebrated by self-proclaimed "horrible people" everywhere.
As of this writing, it's entirely sold out — possibly a surprising development, since Cards Against Humanity is Creative Commons licensed, and the creators will help you download and print your own cards for free.
How profitable has this model been? Evidently, profitable enough that the game's creators could afford to run a little holiday experiment. CAH released a limited edition of pay-what-you-want holiday expansion packs. With most people shelling out $5, CAH turned a profit of over $70,000. Then they donated the entire amount to the Wikimedia Foundation.
As this infographic explains, $70,000 could buy a small island — or 341 partridges in pear trees, or 1,000 liters of fresh boar sperm. "Wikipedia is very important to us because without it we would not have known the exact volume of a dose of boar sperm or graduated college," the infographic says.
With a new generation of graduates supplanting its education with resources like Wikipedia, can we expect increased financial support for free and collaborative resources? If Cards Against Humanity is any indication, the millennial generation is about to pay in to the sharing economy, big time.
So how much did everybody pay for those expansion packs? Not so surprisingly, almost 20% paid $0. 75% paid $3 or more. The most generous state — Wyoming — shelled out $4.79 on average. The thriftiest — Alabama — paid $3.31. With a production cost of about $3 per pack, CAH was bound to turn a profit no matter what. Read the infographic for more fun stats.
Here's a video of Cards Against Humanity co-creator Eli Halpern dropping a $70,066.27 check in the mailbox. His final word on the subject: “We've made a huge mistake.”
A donation to Wikimedia from Max Temkin on Vimeo.
CORRECTION: The original article mistakenly identified Eli Halpern as Max Temkin! So uncool, sorry Eli. We also said you can't buy the game through Amazon. You can purchase the game through the site, but the order is filled by CAH.
Comments
Neal Gorenflo wrote on 12.22.12, 8:10pm:
Thanks Roger for the feedback. We'll check it out.
-Neal Gorenflo
Publisher, Shareable
Jessica Reeder wrote on 01.02.13, 11:25am:
Hey Roger, sorry for the slow response. Obviously you know a bit about the topic, appreciate the input.
- Thanks for the correction on Eli vs. Max. The video doesn't specify who it is, and I spent some time trying to determine the answer -- found another source who cited it as Max. Apparently that source was also mistaken. Fixing.
- A friend pointed out the same detail about Amazon. I took my information from the CAH website, but will add that caveat.
- This game is open source and can be modified with permission from the creators! I think the photo is therefore a highly accurate representation.
jessicareeder.com
Lazy reblogging. Here are corrections to several factual errors in your article:
1. The video does not show Max Temkin, but CAH co-creator Eli Halpern.
2. The photo accompanying the article has the words "labor unions" pasted onto it, which has nothing to do wit the game or any of the actual cards.
3. The game is frequently sold out. While buying it through the manufacturer's site guarantees authentic product at original prices, it is actually sold and delivered through amazon.com. (Many re-sellers also offer the game at hugely jacked-up prices though Amazon as well.)