New year, different bullshit at Cards Against Humanity.
The Chicago-based card-game maker is back with ‘Holiday Bullshit’ this year–a promotion where the company sends out multiple days of mystery gifts at a relatively low cost. Last year, it was the “12 Days of Holiday Bullshit,” and this years installment–the “Ten Days or Whatever of Kwanzaa”–aims to be even more “crazy and ambitious,” according to company co-founder Max Temkin.
“I think we feel some pressure for everything to be bigger and better than last year,” Temkin said Monday.
The promo will send purchasers ten days worth of gifts in the mail. The cost? $15–up from 2013’s $12. Last year, the items included tiny lumps of coal, a card game commissioned by the company and even a personalized “Cards Against Humanity” card.
“We just think about how much fun it is to get somethng in the mail, not just junk mail or a bill or something,” he said.
Much like last year, Temkin said, the items will be a part of a larger puzzle with which he’s hoping to stump the populace. More than 10,000 people banded together on Reddit to solve last year’s edition, with the company giving a $1,000 reward to the user who solved it.
This year, Temkin said the puzzle, which the company designed with renowned designer Mike Selinker of Lone Shark Games in Seattle, will be much more involved. It will involve both electronic sluething and elements requiring solvers to venture out into the real world.
“We’ve made probably the most difficult puzzle we’ve ever seen,” he said. “We’re going to see if we can beat the Internet with our puzzle.”
Though Temkin won’t reveal the benefactor, profits from the promotion will also go to charity this year. In 2012, the company donated $70,000 from a promotion to the Wikimedia Foundation, and last year, it donated more than $100,000 to school projects chosen by users.
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Act fast, Temkin said. While there are a total of 250,000 slots open this year (up from 100,000 last year), they are currently selling at a rate of 200 to 300 per minute.
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