Ultimately it is popular because it's the easiest game in the world to play. It requires zero imagination to play with anyone off the street. The answers the judge must choose are as verbose and graphic as possible so that no one has to read between the lines to discover your intentions at winning the round. In Apples to Apples it's a lot more vague and requires foresight into why you might have chosen a particular answer. Something similar to this game style comes across in Snake Oil, where you have 30 seconds to pitch your answer of non-sequiters to become the winner for the round. In CAH it's simply: What is funniest? The cards are what are funny, not your choice. You simply get to be funnier than any other card in the round, but it requires no effort on your part generally. Playing one person randomly into the pot has just as much chance of winning as you debating your answers.
The reason CAH uses Amazon is pretty clear. Amazon is a big-box store of the internet. It only cares about what sells and tries to sell everything at rock-bottom prices because its volume makes up for the margins. People voluntarily choose not to shop at Wal-Mart because they don't want to support bad hiring habits or price gouging that ruins local businesses, but because Amazon is online it's easier to just hit the button and forget about your choice. To buy something cheap online requires no imagination or moral commitment, much like CAH.
Ultimately the reason for this blog is discovering less about why CAH is popular and more who chooses to play the game. I can honestly say 95% of the people asking for CAH in store off the street come in specifically looking for it hoping it's here. When I pitch Apples to Apples, Snake Oil or even Cash n Guns they want nothing to do with my knowledge. They don't respect that there might be better games out there: they want the one offensive and easy game they came looking for today. I don't disagree that the customer deserves to get what they're looking for, and that many gamers play CAH as well, but generally speaking the people who play or want CAH are not gamers. They want nothing to do with the gaming community, they simply want to be the cool-kid with the offensive game about cocks to be a laugh riot with their family or friends. Nothing wrong with that.
As a game store with a community though, CAH brings with it a toxic problem that it attracts gamers who are not interested in finding new gamer friends. They aren't seeking to expand into the hobby of gaming at large. They want a game that has all the answers, no hard rules, no real challenge; just cards full of dirty words that are interesting to their group. To support these gamers in their hobby of playing CAH I have to support a big-box store like Amazon to get them the games they seek. 90% of my regulars tell me they'd rather spend a little more to keep me open; that they'd rather me order in CAH and mark it up than they buy it from a place like Amazon. Ultimately I'm still ordering it from Amazon, keeping them in business, and all it's doing for me is making a new distributor that is also basically my biggest competition for pricing on every other game I sell.
Cards Against Humanity is a big-box, bottom of the barrel, option for gaming. There are great entry-level games for all ages out there that are just as accessible that I'd rather a person off the street try honestly. Takenoko does resource management and modular board building really well, just as 7 Wonders introduces people to civilization-style card management in a quick-to-learn setting. Even something like Munchkin does wonders at teaching you how to add gear to a character to screw over your friends with a hand of cards. There are games out there built for new gamers but most CAH buyers want only to play CAH, not to grow the hobby or meet new gamers. They'd have just as much fun with a different game if the willingness to try to use their imagination existed within the world of gaming, but instead it is trapped in a vacuum of offensive jokes that require no effort.
I suppose the point of board gaming is three-fold: 1 To learn how to play a system with your friends, 2. To experience the world and setting a game designer has made, and 3. To enjoy conquering the rules system to win the game for yourself or the group in a competitive environment. If we are to be gamers, yes we can play CAH with a drink and friends, but we can also try new things and game within the world of table-top gaming in all aspects to better understand what it means to be a gamer.
In the spirit of CAH, after criticizing it for several paragraphs, I'd like to note that AQ will be carrying the game more frequently come February, so swing by and grab a copy if you're looking to add it to your collection. While you're in, might I suggest playing a game of Splendor with us and seeing what beautiful game design looks like as well.
Good gaming,
