Here’s a quiz. What do the following games have in common?
– Eat Poop You Cat
– Don’t Step In It
– Poop: The Game
– Too Many Poops
– Doggie Doo
– Poo Poo Pets
– Flushin’ Frenzy
– Shoot the Poop
– Dino Dump
– Poopyhead
– Who Shit in My Cat?
– Stinky Safari
– Poo: The Card Game (and it’s sequel Space Poo: The Card Game)
– Poop the Potato
– Pass the Poop
– Toilet Trouble
– No Shit, Sherlock
– Pigeon Poop
– Don’t Poop on My Lawn
– The Pooper Heroes Game
– Ninja Pooper: On the Beach
– Poop Tracks
– Poop Poop
– Animals Poop Race
I’m sure there are more, but you get the idea.
Now the second (and third and fourth and…) questions:
Why?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
I’m not a prude. I can play an uncouth game with the best of them but why this subject? In 60 years we’ve gone from TV networks where people couldn’t sleep in the same bed, mention the word pregnancy or show a bathroom with a toilet to a whole section in Target with games about feces.
This whole thought process started a couple of weeks ago when Karen and I were in the FLGS. She picked up a small box game and said “This looks cute”. It did have cartoon animals on the cover but, then, I noticed the name. Poo Poo Pets.
My immediate comment was “This game could be the second coming of Gloomhaven and I would still refuse to give the designer one cent for naming it that way.”
A few days later, I was at Target and overshot the strategy games section, getting into the kid’s area. There I saw three or four games all on the same subject.
Wouldn’t you like to have your game group over and play a game where this can be the result?
I’ve had a dog. This has happened to me. It was neither fun nor a challenge.
For those who may want some variety, they also have Don’t Step in It: Unicorn Edition, in case you would find rainbow colored more palatable.
I know we all complain about the number of trading in the Mediterranean, Zombie and Cthulu games but, really, wouldn’t you take a dozen more in each category over even one new crappy game on the shelves?
Or, maybe, we’ll get games like “Mediterranean Cleanup: The Raw Sewage Game”, “Zombies Don’t Poop” and “Cthulu Poo”.
Please, designers, enough.
