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NOBODY IS WATCHING THIS BOOTH

ECCC 2017

For Emerald City Comic Con, Cards Against Humanity ran a simple experiment: set up a booth full of games, ask attendees to pay what they want, and write about how much money we made or lost.

We ran out of games within hours on the first day of the con, and had to work quickly to create new experiences for attendees to enjoy in the booth.

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Booth design was minimalistic. Four large piles of games, a clear box for payment, and instructional signage so folks knew what was happening.

We went into this event knowing we wouldn't make as much money as if we had simply sold games. When the convention floor opened, we were shocked at how many people lined up to put money in the box after taking a game.

Unfortunately, fans were not the only ones who took advantage of the deal. Within an hour, games retailers at the show sent their staff over with dollies to take as many games as they could carry, without paying. We asked them to leave the booth to the fans, but there were so many staffers from one retailer that we could only watch as they carried games away.

We had an empty booth at the end of day one, and had to think of new plans quickly.

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That night, The team extended an invitation to exhibit at our booth to indie creators who were not able to get an ECCC booth. We created a set of ground rules, but let them run their own table at our booth on Saturday.

 

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Our guest exhibitors included Chris Rowlands' The Last Garden, Studiojfish, Paper Butterfly Forge, and a woman who made custom cosplay horns.

For the final day of the convention, we created a space to teach attendees how to write to their representatives. I wrote a short guide and compiled a list of the mailing address of every representative in Washington State, and every senator in the US. We printed copies of these materials and distributed them at our booth on Sunday with envelopes which we collected and later mailed for all attendees.

Cards Against Humanity has always been a politically active company, and our team saw this as a way to show that contacting your government is an easy and painless process. We did not encourage anyone to write any specific representative for any specific reason. 


 

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If you're interested in reading more about this booth,

check out the viral blog post my team and I wrote about it.

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