People across the world are familiar with the popular prompt-and-answer game Cards Against Humanity, which was launched in 2011, but now there is a version of this game that is uniquely tailored to Penn students.
Squirrels Without Morality is a meme-based card game created to help students relieve stress by making fun of the nuances of Penn culture. The deck contains a range of prompts and answers from “aggressive flyering on Locust” to “What really made you ‘Thrive at Penn'?”
The game is a Penn-themed version of the popular card games Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity. Players match memes about Penn’s culture to prompt cards to form funny pairs. The satirical game, which has around 200 cards, was sold for $15 dollars per packet during a pre-order round that ended on Nov. 19.
The game is meant to be "a light-hearted medium for students to laugh at the absurdity of Penn's culture," according to the game's website.
“We’re hoping it can start sparking conversations for people to have about the different things we are mocking through the card game,” said Wharton senior Laura Gao, one of the creators of the game.
Along with Gao, the team behind the game is also led by Wharton sophomore Melinda Hu. Since October, they have worked to send out interest surveys, collect memes from the Official Unofficial Penn Squirrel Catching Club Facebook meme group and Under the Button, make a deal with a manufacturer, and market the game.
Gao said the team was surprised to receive "quite a few" orders from alumni in addition to current students.
“We tried to curate a good mix of cards that were either timeless, such as 'the lunch lady that always calls you baby' … or currently relevant, such as 'six dollar chicken over rice' to appeal to both alumni and current students,” she added.
Both Gao and Hu emphasized that the main purpose of the project is not financial returns. Hu said the game has a small profit margin because it is priced at $15 per game, which is $10 less than the cost of Cards Against Humanity. The team chose this price after an interest survey found it was the amount most students would pay for the game, Hu said.
Profits from the game will go back into projects that benefit Penn, Gao said. The team has already started discussing plans to create a centralized list of clubs and specialized group chats for various courses.
“Both of them will need some resources in the back end in terms of [computer] servers,” Gao said.
The pair noted that they used many skills from their Penn coursework during the project — graphic web design, project management, and price sensitivity were necessary to bring the game together.
College freshman Felix Cui said he could imagine playing the game at a party or small get-together with friends.
“An increased sense of humor around these topics is great to tackle these sensitive issues,” he said.
The game will be available by early to mid-December. If all of the 250 copies the team ordered are sold out, Hu and Gao plan to make more versions for upcoming semesters.
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