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Cards Against Humanity has made more than $12 million
- not_that_noob 13y agoThe 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. 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.”'
- fsckin 13y agoI gave CAH (and expansion packs) as stocking stuffers for xmas and they were extremely well received. What they say on the tin is true -- you feel like a horrible person when you play the game, which is extremely cathartic. 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. Their average credit card fee was $0.43 per transaction. Ouch! http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/holidaystats/ http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/holidaystats/
- coherentpony 13y agoYeah, processing credit cards is an absolute pain for vendors. American Express are probably the worst for vendors.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoI'm an American Express cardholder and spend several hundred thousand dollars a year. If you're a small business, startup, someone I like, whatever, I go out of my way to pay you money with Dwolla or a debit card because of the fees. I'll even overnight a check if its a significant amount and I trust you.
- stickydink 13y agoFrom someone not from the US; so why do you have an American Express card?
- binarysolo 13y agoThey offer best perks, rewards, and customer protection (at the cost of the merchant who accepts them).
- nomolurcin 13y agoThere are some really great rewards for using it, moreso than other cards.
- UnoriginalGuy 13y agoThey 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 that's what happens when three or four companies run the whole game.
- commandar 13y agoAmEx 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.
- greghinch 13y agoA lot of Visa/Mastercards also offer warranty coverage for at least a year. Not sure why they don't promote this better, but if you look in that little packet of fine print materials they give you, it's usually in there.
- nhangen 13y agoBut great for customers. I use my Amex on everything, and often won't shop where I know it won't be accepted. I just love the company.
- MattRogish 13y agoAbsolutely. Would love to read a case study how they did that. 99% of my purchases are on AMEX.
- gcb0 13y agoOut of the us visa used to win that title. Not sure now. This also makes me wonder what kind of deal Costco have... Since i doubt they bend to those things easily.
- takeda64 13y agoAmEx has special Costco card, which you can only use with valid Costco membership (it automatically renews it per year) and the cashback you are receiving will be in a form of coupon given yearly which you can only spend back at Costco.
- taftster 13y agoYou can cash the check at the customer service desk. But yes, you can only redeem the cash-back coupon at Costco.
- sfall 13y agocostco probably gets discounted processing rates for being the exclusive cc vendor
- tommi 13y agoWhat caught my eye there was that they donated the $70,000 to Wikimedia foundation. I checked their financial report (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/6/68/Jul-Dec%2712_Mid-year_financials2.pdf https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/6/68/Jul-D...) and the top five costs are: Salaries and Wages 7,468,743 Outside Contract Services 1,791,275 Internet Hosting 1,309,591 Other Operating Expenses 1,010,273 Bank Fees 945,190 That is not the cost structure I expected. I thought the balance would be more on Internet Hosting. What are those ~10 million of salaries, contracts and other operating expenses? Besides, their expenses were 15 million and income 30 million, do they need more money?
- z-factor 13y agoWikimedia employs a lot of people, I personally do not donate because I believe they employ way too many. Also pretty much all costs are already covered by corporate sponsors like Google.
- sukuriant 13y ago50 employees is too many? (140k per person) 100 employees is too many? (70k per person) * that 140k and 70k include things like healthcare and benefits too, I bet.
- z-factor 13y agoI remember reading though a page where they listed their employees and I remember it was 100+, I wanted to include the link in my comment, buy couldn't find it this time.
- sukuriant 13y agoSo they're getting paid less than the going rate, at least the software engineers are. Interesting. Have you considered many of them that are on the payroll might have other jobs and so the volume is to make up for the fact that they're not all 40+ hours full time? I think this is much more complicated than we could first expect
- benatkin 13y agoHow does that compare to the amount of money Minecraft has made?
- eli 13y agoMinecraft has surely made much more. But I don't see the connection.
- adamnemecek 13y agoHow does the amount of money Minecraft has made compare with the amount of money Google has made?
- recursive 13y agoIt's less. But surely you knew that.
- polymatter 13y agocompared to how much work was put into it you mean. none of them work fulltime on this.
- evan_ 13y agoIs this just Apples to Apples except all the cards are Family Guy jokes?
- azylman 13y agoNo, it's Apples to Apples except fun.
- ImprovedSilence 13y agoyeah, 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.
- SippinLean 13y ago"Pixelated bukkake?!? Sooooooooo random XD"
- qu4z-2 13y agoSorry, what?
- lenkendall 13y agoComparing this game to Apples to Apples isn't really fair because the genius isn't in the formula (which is really basic) but in the content.
- jamieb 13y agoSays wikipedia: The Onion AV Club interview calls the game "a sort of Apples To Apples for the crass and jaded." i.e. perfect for parents =)
- obviouslygreen 13y agoThis 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 does matter and does change things.
- wittyphrasehere 13y agoMaybe they'll turn it into a worker-owned coop and all participate equally in the governing, and ownership, of the company. http://electricembers.coop/pubs/TechCoopHOWTO.pdf http://electricembers.coop/pubs/TechCoopHOWTO.pdf
- michaelochurch 13y agoWhatever replaces VC-istan and generates the next wave of great businesses is going to be built by guys like this. Also, it'll probably happen in the Midwest. Chicago, Austin, Madison, and Minneapolis are among the cities to watch.
- scott_karana 13y agoWhy won't it happen everywhere? At least from what I've seen, it's more of a decentralization than a migration from SV. No sense pre-emptively pigeonholing!
- michaelochurch 13y agoYou're right. I think the Midwest has a few advantages, which are (a) excellent universities and (b) low costs of living.
- ImprovedSilence 13y agoYa know, I can't explain it, but I've been getting some good vibes from the Midwest lately. (me being a North easterner) Plus the people are pretty awesome. I'd keep Minneapolis on that list too.
- dos1 13y ago+1 for Minneapolis. I pay pretty close attention to the start up scene here and things are starting to move. The Minne* Organization (http://minnestar.org/ http://minnestar.org/) does some nice events.
- egads 13y agoThanks for this link. I've been looking for groups in the TC area to get involved with.
- enjo 13y agoDon't forget about Denver! Lots of interesting stuff going on here. Between Tech Stars and Galvanize, things are really amazing around here.
- goloxc 13y agoever talked with open-mic stand-ups about why some jokes are funny? love it when a business professor analyzes why something like this game is so successful
- tedchs 13y agoOnline Cards Against Humanity quote generator: http://scriptagainsthumanity.appspot.com/ http://scriptagainsthumanity.appspot.com/
- Chico75 13y agoWhy do it needs to be logged in with Google to try it?
- michaelhoffman 13y agoIt'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.
- mikeurbanski 13y agoWe'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 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 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. AND! Board Games are Big Business! 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. We're in a bit of a "Golden Age of Board Gaming". Quinns gave a hilarious talk on the subject: http://susd.pretend-money.com/videos/v/board-game-golden-age-talk/ http://susd.pretend-money.com/videos/v/board-game-golden-age...
- DizzyDoo 13y agoI 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-death-the-game-of-creative-assassinatio http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1234131468/machine-of-de...) when it arrives.
- mikeurbanski 13y agoThanks! We're "profitable". We're really happy with how the new site turned out. Having enough to keep the lights on an pay some friends to help out with the writing after only a month is a huge accomplishment. I'm pretty curious about MoD too! We'll see what happens.
- JonLim 13y agoA 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.
- replicatorblog 13y agoIt'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-million-dollar-kickstarter-campaigns/ http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2013/05/15415-ranked-31-mill...
- jdludlow 13y agoKickstarter 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/general http://www.boardgamegeek.com/forum/915012/kickstarter/genera...
- gsibble 13y agoI 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 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.
- fossuser 13y agoI'm curious what they said to you or how they were rude.
- gsibble 13y agoOur proposal was to replicate the CaH experience online without any commercial nature (no ads, fully free and open sourced) with the possibility of making it commercial at a later date together. Their response basically dismissed us out of hand and included warnings regarding violating their copyright or using their name. I've never received such a reply to a very friendly partnership proposal.
- mrbill 13y agoMost likely they have zero interest in any kind of "partnership", and you're far from the first one to ask. Think of how many similar requests they've had to field..
- gsibble 13y agoFWIW, this is from their FAQ on their website, showing a little of their respect for anyone who wants to partner with them: Do I have your permission to make some crappy Cards Against Humanity thing like an app? Cards Against Humanity is available under a BY-NC-SA 2.0 Creative Commons license. That means you can use our content to make whatever, but you have to give us credit, you can’t profit from the use of our content (this means ad revenue is not allowed), and you have to share whatever you make in the same way we share it (this means you can’t submit our content to any app store). We own the name “Cards Against Humanity,” so you have to call your crappy thing something else.
- smmnyc 13y agoThe $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.
- mnicole 13y agoThis is super janky (sorry if anyone here made it), but there's an online version here -- http://pyz.socialgamer.net/game.jsp http://pyz.socialgamer.net/game.jsp
- nbashaw 13y agoOne of the founders says the article's financial speculation is "wildly incorrect" https://twitter.com/MaxTemkin/status/335124440469876737 https://twitter.com/MaxTemkin/status/335124440469876737
- morpheusart 13y agoSo, is the true amount more or less?
- mdisraeli 13y agoI 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. 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. 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
- cavilling_elite 13y agoPlease explain the second way to play! I am completely missing this! Is it in the ruleset?
- mdisraeli 13y agoThe thousand blank white cards version is pretty obvious from my description, although I should add that you can do this for question cards, and you can specify that players have to play more than one card. As for the advanced judging concept, it is exactly the same as the original, right up until the judge makes a decision: 1. Judge plays the question card. They can do this however they like 2. players pick and play a card in secret from their hand, placing it face-down 3. Judge shuffles the pile a little, to make sure they don't know who played what 4. Judge views the cards Original Apples to apples rules strict reading: 5. Judge reveals all the cards played 6. Judge announces that one is the winner 7. player who played it gets the question card as a point Theatrical version: The judge, in any order they like, describes why some cards are discarded, and others stay in the running: A: ' "My first car" and "football" are weak compared to "cheese" and "the French revolution" ' B: 'I hated "My First car", so it's not that one!' C: 'Hah, you canny bastard who played this, I can never resist "cheese" ' [1] C: ' ewwwwww, not that kind of "cheese" pulls disgusted face ' other players laugh. One groans. Another doesn't get it The game is about words, descriptions, and events. To just say the word on the card seems... so out of character? (Plus, the original box art featured a greek/roman character, so pretend you're a philosopher if you like, or a mad emperor :P) [1] The actual classic amongst my friends is any that are physics related, due to being post-grads
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mhartl 13y agoThe 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. The Cards Against Humanity guys are leaving money on the table. Who's going to pick it up?
- mikecane 13y agoI wonder, would this get rejected at the iOS App Store on grounds of taste or something? (That's aside from the fact it'd probably be DMCAed away if someone did it.)
- UnoriginalGuy 13y agoI would imagine Apple would take it down quite quickly given how they shy away from even the most subtle of controversies. Not to mention it is illegal or near illegal in a lot of locations (e.g. UK).
- dataxpress 13y agoThere are some pretty raunchy apps on the app store - did you see I'd Cap That last summer? The whole app just takes your image and adds some heavily-innuendo-laden text on top. Lots of apps have similar or worse content.
- UnoriginalGuy 13y agoThis isn't in the same universe as that. Unless it is an app making light of the holocaust then you aren't really comparing like with like.
- Cyranix 13y agoIf 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.
- cpeterso 13y agoWhen I was young, I liked to mix the questions and answers from different Trivial Pursuit cards. A kind of surreal "Trivial Pursuit: Exquisite Corpse Edition." :)
- egypturnash 13y agoThis is the best idea ever and I think I need to try it. I'd suggest calling it "Disney against Humanity" - but then again I used to work in animation, maybe I'm bitter.
- mmirate 13y agoDisney's copyright lobbying suggests that your bitterness is completely appropriate. Ever wonder why the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 was nicknamed the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act"?
- egypturnash 13y ago"And now we will hear some remarks from Sonny Bono (Disney, R)…"
- ghempton 13y agoPerhaps this is the perfect time to shamelessly self-promote a side project: https://deckepic.com https://deckepic.com is a Facebook-driven dynamic CAH card generator.
- mrbill 13y agoI'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. It's also a great way to judge if you'll get along with someone.
- Kiro 13y agoI don't understand what's so good about this game. What am I missing? I don't find the example cards funny at all.