Last Wednesday evening, my friends and I decided to play Cards Against Humanity. By 'decided to,' I mean I forced everyone to play with me. I was amped to play. It took a few days of planning and getting the idea of playing a card game into everyone’s heads, but finally, the long awaited day arrived. We pre-gamed the game (obviously) to get into the mood and gathered around a small table in a small room. The cards were dealt, a judge was selected for the first round, and the game began.
At first, the game went pretty well. It was lighthearted, fun, and there was plenty of laughter. Soon enough the crowd of five turned into eight, then to seven when someone left in frustration, but then back to nine. Nine was the peak of the game, though. Or rather, nine was when the game took a turn for the worse.
If you want to be successful at playing Cards Against Humanity, you have to keep in mind that not everyone has the same sense of humor as you. Now, keeping this in mind, you can’t get mad at the judge for choosing a card that wasn’t yours. You also have to remember that it is a “party” game, and not a “game” game. The key difference here is that party games are for entertainment whereas game games are for competition.
My Cards Against Humanity game ended with everyone in distress because most of the players failed to keep those two quintessential things in mind. The lighthearted and fun game that I had described escalated too quickly into one of jealousy and hatred. Jealousy of other players for winning the round, and hatred towards the judge. Once I felt that bad vibes had replaced the good vibes in the room (I don’t tolerate anything less than “good vibes”) I packed up the game and brought it home. Actually, I forgot the game in my friend’s room and collected it a few days later. But I digress.
What really put me over the edge was how viscous everyone acted towards the judge. I felt extreme pressure when it was my turn to pick the winning card because no matter what, someone would be upset that they didn’t win which, in turn, would make me upset as well. It doesn’t make sense to be mad at the judge for picking what they thought was the funniest card, because that’s the point of Cards Against Humanity. If “Abraham Lincoln’s feet” doesn’t win “Barack Obama’s fetish,” don’t hate the judge, hate the game.