![]() ![]() GD: What board games do you enjoy, before creating Loaded Questions, for instance?ĮP: Aside from test playing my own games to death, my wife and will definitely play the occasional Scrabble. Except for the New Yorker game-I didn’t draw all the cartoons! But the content for my other games, yeah, that’s the real fun part I have with my business. And I do write the content for all my games. The new black edition has more than 1300 questions and I’m probably responsible for 1200 of them. GD: Now did you write all of the questions for the first edition, and the new edition?ĮP: Pretty much. But, no, I’ve had several duds, several that have done well, and then the Loaded Questions games have been my most popular games. You’re trying to get your chicken, which is your game piece, across the road. Whoever writes down the funniest original one gets to advance. If you know the punch line you advance on the board and if you don’t you’re trying to come up with the funniest one. I did a game called The Joke Game where, if you don’t know the punch line, you make one up. A few years ago, I partnered with the New Yorker magazine and did a game based on their weekly caption contest that runs in the back of the magazine, where you see a cartoon and come up with your own caption. GD: Have you published any other board games?ĮP: I’ve done twelve games, five of which are Loaded Questions games. So that’s the start of my board games–it started with the one idea. Today the game has sold a million copies and it’s at Target, Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble, Borders, all the websites and such. ![]() The following year they brought it into all stores, and that’s kind of the early success of Loaded Questions. That year, 1997, Toys R Us decided to test it in about a hundred stores and it tested very well. I sold about 1,000 games, I got a lot of good media coverage. During the trip the game was pretty successful. You know, I’d splurge on a Motel 6 if I needed to. Very few responsibilities, so I was able to camp out and sleep cheaply. I was just out of college, I wasn’t married, no kids, like I am now. Shortly after that, I started driving around the country for 16 weeks selling the game out of the trunk of my car to mom and pop stores. Not too many weeks or months afterward I produced 5,000 copies of my first game, Loaded Questions. I thought the idea was great, I quit my job, invited friends over for pizza and beer. At the age of 23 I had an idea for a board game while I was working as a copywriter at an ad agency in Miami. 13 – Topics include the state of game criticism/reviews, player choice in “mechanics-driven” games, discoveries in games, e-sports, cultural barriers, the value of genre labels, public opinion of Final Fantasy X-2, and the failure of horror games.Eric Poses: I’m 35, I live in Miami, and I’ve been in the world of board games for 13 years now. 12 – Topics include romance and romantic comedy in games, how games should explain their mechanics, and what “Game Bias” is referring to. 11 – Topics include epic RPGs, whether Republican or Democratic presidents inspire better art, the relevance of shooters, and the best arcade cabinet. 10 – Topics include tank controls, replayability, and what qualifies as art. 9 – Topics include downloadable content (DLC) in free-to-play games, ludonarrative dissonance, and depictions of Hell. 8 – Topics include whether people should use Steam, the $60 price tag for big-budget games, and the process of creating a top 100 games list. 7 – Topics include whether Zelda is an RPG, the worst and best penalties in video games, and the best canines in gaming. 6 – Topics include good art by bad people, exploring game history, and gaming YouTube channels. Western influence in games, the best boss of all time, and the notion of “true gameplay.” 4 – Topics include the literary potential of games, the most important factor in writing reviews, and morality systems. 3 – Topics include the worst game of all time, games as expressions and contrivances, and the potential of the graphic adventure. 2 – Topics include religion/spirituality in games, changing opinions on games, and how patches might affect reviews. 1 – Topics include Bennett Foddy, Toby Fox (Undertale), David O’Reilly, Splasher, and top 10/20 lists. A big thanks in advance to everyone who participates! If you have a question to submit, please email it to or tweet it to Questions can involve anything closely or tangentially related to games or art, including but not limited to criticism, culture, and politics. I see these questions as great opportunities to expand my critical thoughts and theories. Loaded Questions features questions from Game Bias readers every week (or as often as enough questions come in). ![]()
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