Of the eight friends who created the wildly successful Cards Against Humanity, none have a story to tell quite like Max Temkin.
The public face of the wickedly offensive card game, Temkin’s work derives from a source of raw pragmatism, an understanding of the world and the people that occupy it, and a desire to change it. So while the cards may be against humanity, Temkin is very much for its advancement.
Max Tempkin grew up in a wealthy Chicago neighbourhood. While most of his peers were naturally intelligent, Temkin worked hard to get top grades. At least, he did outside of school. In class, he tormented the teachers, disrupting their lessons until he was allowed to do his own thing. Usually, that meant reading science fiction under his desk.
That all changed on September 11, 2001. Mere weeks after entering high school, he and his classmates found themselves watching the horrors unfold on CNN. In the aftermath, he swapped fantasy for philosophy, and developed a strong social conscious. When the Iraq War was launched in 2003, an irate Temkin tried to rally fellow students to cry out against needless bloodshed. But they were young, immature, and felt powerless.
So Temkin turned to the internet, and discovered more than he expected.
Not only did he find users who shared his sentiments, but soon became part of the new geek culture. He read blogs, was inspired by new ideas, and built friendships.
Years before he was old enough to vote, Temkin started volunteering to assist in election campaigns. It was during this time that he began to see the bullshit in society for what it was. Scandal, deceit, and abuse were the norm. And those people at the anti-war rallies he was proud to attend? They didn’t care about the issues; they just wanted something to complain about.
“…it seems like the world should behave according to rules. And of course the world doesn’t work like that. It’s so sloppy. It’s so unfair. It’s so messy. It’s so human,” he told Polygon in a 2013 interview.
Instead of making a young, angry kid even angrier, the revelation inspired in Temkin a pragmatic understanding of the world. And rather than accepting it and resigning to a routine life amongst the masses, his desire to make a difference intensified.
In one way, this came about by playing games. While at college, Temkin and friends created Humans Vs Zombies (HVZ), a live-action, week long game of tag that sees the humans having to protect themselves from the walking dead while traversing the campus. HVZ brought the college community together in a new and exciting way. Since then, over 1000 games of HVZ have been publicly recorded worldwide. It’s free-to-play, with the rules available here.
While still in college, Temkin received an internship as part of Obama’s presidential campaign, due to his involvement in the politician’s run for the Senate several years earlier. He suspended his schooling to take it up. Initially starting in data-entry, Temkin eventually offered to produce graphics content, even though he had no experience in doing so. Over the next few months he honed his skills in graphic design, skills that came in handy when defining Cards Against Humanity’s subtle but recognisable style in the years to come.
After the campaign, Temkin turned away from politics, and strived to find a new way to make an impact. Soon after, his former boss, Scott Thomas, turned to Kickstarter in order to fund a book. The platform amazed him; Thomas had the ability work outside of a traditional system, and backers allowed him free reign to make all the decisions on how his book would be produced. He even got to travel to Japan to personally select the book’s binding.
Kickstarter sparked an idea in Temkin. He and his high school friends were habitually reuniting annually on December 31st for what they called ‘misfits’ New Year’s Eve parties, where dozens of people would meet to hang out and play games. The previous year, they had developed their own card game, Cardenfreude, in order to ensure everyone at the party could join in. The friends knew they were onto something with the game, and had released it in PDF form with the hope of finding a way to do something more with it in the future. Now they had a means to achieve their vision.
He first trialled a campaign for Humans Vs Zombies. It made its target, but Temkin would later call it a “bad” project. “We just had no sense that we were over our heads.”
So, after an extensive planning stage, the eight friends launched their Kickstarter campaign for the newly-titled Cards Against Humanity in December 2010. You can read the campaign’s case study here.
It was a huge success. For the last five years, Cards and its expansion packs have topped Amazon’s best sellers list for games and toys – when it hasn’t sold out due to waves of sudden demand. Players purchase the game for $25, or have the ability to download a Creative Commons version of it online for free, or to even play an electronic version of their computers.
Temkin and co. have always stuck true to their values, courting controversy in the process. On Black Friday 2013, they held an anti-sale, raising the cost of the game by $5. In 2014, they stopped sales altogether, instead offering to sell $6 for ‘a box of bullshit’. 30,000 shoppers bought in, only to receive a literal box of sterilised bull shit. Then, in 2015, they asked players to donate $5 for…nothing. “On Black Friday, a lot of companies promise you something fornothing. We’re the only company to offer you nothing for something.”
They made over $71,000, which the founders gave to their employees, who in turn detailed what they spent the money on: everything from Playstation 4s, to cat litter.
Much of it also went to charity organisations, a tradition the company holds. In the last five years, they have donated $4 million to the likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Worldbuilders, and The Wikimedia Foundation.
They also own an island, Hawaii 2 (off the coast of Maine), in order to preserve its natural beauty. The public can visit the island to enjoy the wilderness, but are not allowed to camp, hunt, or damage it in any way.
While not working on Cards Against Humanity, Temkin takes freelance graphic design jobs, and works on other games. He is a consultant for Kickstarter, and a vocal supporter of those who strive to break from routine and make their dreams a reality.
It’s safe to say that he’s made the difference he set out to make, and we’re sure there’s a lot more to come.
Recently, Max Temkin completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for his new game, Secret Hitler. It made almost $1.5 million in pledges. You can see it here.