Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million

I gave CAH (and expansion packs) as stocking stuffers for xmas and they were extremely well received.<p>What they say on the tin is true -- you <i>feel</i> like a horrible person when you play the game, which is extremely cathartic.<p>Hell, they even did a pay what you want for a small package of Christmas themed cards and pretty sure they pulled a 70k profit from that maneuver, despite ~25% percent paying $0.<p>Their average credit card fee was $0.43 per transaction. Ouch!<p><a href="http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/holidaystats/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/holidaystats/</a>

One of the founders says the article's financial speculation is "wildly incorrect"<p><a href="https://twitter.com/MaxTemkin/status/335124440469876737" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/MaxTemkin/status/335124440469876737</a>

If you manage to get a copy of Apples to Apples, Disney Edition (not sure if that's the real title) then you can play the mashup I was exposed to several weeks ago: Cards Against Disney. Everyone has a hand with cards from both games; a prompt is drawn from one game and answered with cards from the other game, alternating each turn. Much silliness ensues.

I was first introduced to this as Thousand White Cards Against Humanity, wherein instead of drawing from the deck or playing a card, you could take a blank and write in a new card. Compared to that, the boxed version just seems crass and unimaginative.<p>On the other hand, I'm normally the one to introduce groups to Apples To Apples. Those who claim this more tame version of the concept isn't fun are missing the real joy - how a limited set of choices forces surreality, playing for the person, and twisted readings of the cards.<p>Of course, if you're playing any of these as straight-up "this one wins", you are missing the incredible joy of "hamburgers smell, but only the bad ones are fragrant. Hilter probably was fragrant, but I doubt anyone lived to tell the tale. My birthday, however, boy was that fragrant...". The verdict slow-descriptive-reveal as the judge is the real art, and where you learn the most about people

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&#38;D style games with little plastic figurines clean up with multiple games clearing $2MM or more.<p><a href="http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2013/05/15415-ranked-31-million-dollar-kickstarter-campaigns/" rel="nofollow">http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2013/05/15415-ranked-31-mill...</a>

The success of Cards Against Humanity is evidence of massive demand, and yet all they have protecting them is their brand—unlike, say, craigslist, whose unwillingness to innovate is legendary but whose business benefits from massive network effects. As a result, the (apparent) apathy of the Cards Against Humanity founders offers an opportunity: copy their basic idea, for which they have no protection, and structure your new venture as a real business with full-time efforts devoted to growing sales. You could even one-up them by dropping the non-commercial clause in the Creative Commons license, allowing potential partners to profit and thereby grow your brand further.<p>The Cards Against Humanity guys are leaving money on the table. Who's going to pick it up?

We're doing the same thing. Our team is located in NYC, London, and Aurora, IL.<p>We launched our little meta-board gaming company at <a href="http://susd.pretend-money.com" rel="nofollow">http://susd.pretend-money.com</a> a little over 1.5 months ago. And we're already profitable!<p>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 wanted to fund us.) Our plan is to grow slowly, keep up the quality, and use the money that we're making from the show/blog/podcast to fund even more ambitious community/tech projects.<p>AND!<p>Board Games are Big Business!<p>Board/card/traditional gaming (whatever you want to call it) has been exploding in America over the last 10 years or so. It taps into that primal need for people to sit around together and ACTUALLY interact with each other.<p>We're in a bit of a "Golden Age of Board Gaming". Quinns gave a hilarious talk on the subject: <a href="http://susd.pretend-money.com/videos/v/board-game-golden-age-talk/" rel="nofollow">http://susd.pretend-money.com/videos/v/board-game-golden-age...</a>

This is awesome, but not creating a corporate structure at all and just letting who does and gets what go organically is a really bad idea. It's nice that it's worked for them so far, but if they continue to succeed -- and I hope they do, I love what they've done -- they're very likely to find out that money <i>does</i> matter and <i>does</i> change things.

Is this just Apples to Apples except all the cards are Family Guy jokes?

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.<p>It's a real shame too. It will go out of style in a year or two and, gasp, maybe these people will have to get real jobs or start a real company! Assholes.

The less travelled path - figuring out how to do it with fewer people so you can stay in control. Kudos to them for thinking for themselves.<p>Quote: 'And it’s dawning on them that they’re doing something impressive. “We’re doing a lot of stuff that no one has done before,” Hantoot reflects. “I do think we’re sort of proof that if you streamlined your business enough, you could do a big thing with a few people.”'

Says wikipedia: The Onion AV Club interview calls the game "a sort of Apples To Apples for the crass and jaded."<p>i.e. perfect for parents =)

Perhaps this is the perfect time to shamelessly self-promote a side project: <a href="https://deckepic.com" rel="nofollow">https://deckepic.com</a> is a Facebook-driven dynamic CAH card generator.

It's interesting that they blank out the MICR routing number at the bottom or the check but leave enough information elsewhere in the check to trivially figure it out.

The $12 million figure isn't confirmed. Just the author speculating based on reported sales figures and "made" doesn't account for the cost of producing the game.

I don't understand what's so good about this game. What am I missing? I don't find the example cards funny at all.

I've given away 10-12 complete CAH sets to friends. Not a single person has said "oh that game is boring", and more than one of them has come back later and told me it was their favorite birthday/Christmas present, etc.<p>It's also a great way to judge if you'll get along with someone.

This is super janky (sorry if anyone here made it), but there's an online version here -- <a href="http://pyz.socialgamer.net/game.jsp" rel="nofollow">http://pyz.socialgamer.net/game.jsp</a>

ever talked with open-mic stand-ups about why some jokes are funny?<p>love it when a business professor analyzes why something like this game is so successful

Online Cards Against Humanity quote generator: <a href="http://scriptagainsthumanity.appspot.com/" rel="nofollow">http://scriptagainsthumanity.appspot.com/</a>

Whatever replaces VC-istan and generates the next wave of great businesses is going to be built by guys like this.<p>Also, it'll probably happen in the Midwest. Chicago, Austin, Madison, and Minneapolis are among the cities to watch.

How does that compare to the amount of money Minecraft has made?