By Annette Hinkle
Creating and marketing a retro-style board game in this era of digital obsession is a challenging endeavor to say the least — some would say even crazy. But as manufacturers of major board games (even longtime classics) look to reinvent the spinning wheel with gadgets and gimmicks to lure in the fully wired generation, Regina Glocker is going back to the old standby — board, dice, chips and cards of chance.
And she’s betting on her own chances that the game will be a hit, especially in this year of extreme political posturing, Super PACs and ruthless campaign tactics.
Glocker’s game, The Presidential, is a study in strategy in which the winner takes the White House. Played on a map of the U.S. showing the Electoral College votes of each state, the game is also educational (shh, don’t tell the kids). Players face off on one of two teams — Democrats or Republicans — and fight their way to the top as they maneuver for control of delegates and the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to become commander in chief. But watch out! Along the way there are politics cards which can help or hinder your vote getting power on the campaign trail, depending on who blunders due to an insensitive remark or hits a home run in the form of a savvy photo-op.
For Glocker, a head hunter with the executive search firm Exchange Place Partners, the idea for the game was born in response to what was going on in real life at the time.
“I came up with the idea in 2008 when the world was falling apart,” explains Glocker, who notes that Monopoly was invented during the Great Depression. “It occurred to me there's not a commercial board game to do with politics, which is sort of odd given people’s obsession with it.”
So Glocker set out to develop a game focused on winning the presidency. She initially wanted to include third party candidates in the strategy, but never figured out quite how to make that scenario work, and in the end, stuck with the two party system.
“There’s a lot of luck in the rolling of the dice, but there’s also strategy,” she explains. “Ultimately it takes about five to 10 minutes to learn to play, and a while to master the strategy. Every game can be different and you can decide how long the game should last.”
“Eventually after changing it and playing with a lot of middle and high school kids, I realized it’s actually fun and people learn something,” says Glocker.
That’s when Glocker, who admits she doesn’t have a creative bone in her body, decided to take it to the next level. The Presidential may have national aspirations, but it was born right here in Sag Harbor in November when Glocker approached her friend and designer Russell Patrick and his son, Christopher, who live in the village and operate their design firm in the 34 Bay Street complex, about making the game a reality.
“She said she had an idea for a board game and asked if I knew about them,” recalls Russell. “I said, ‘No, but I’m interested in anything.’ That’s how it is in this business. You tell me about it and I see if I can make it happen.”
So over a breakfast meeting at, appropriately enough, The American Hotel, Glocker shared her vision of the game and the Patricks immediately climbed on board the campaign bus.
“What do I know about the Electoral College?” says Russell when asked about his knowledge of the election system prior to taking on the job. “I’m a good voter, but that other part has always been confusing to me. From her description I said ‘Let me put a board together so you can show me how to play.’ So we mocked it up and played the game. I thought, ‘This is fun.’”
“It’s nice to have a project when you’re building things by hand,” adds Christopher. “So much design is digital — with this we could pull out the T-square and the glue.”
After also getting a thumbs up from friends and the children of friends who played the game, Russell and Christopher set out to tighten up the graphics and design a new prototype Glocker could take to the Toy Fair held last month at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.
As a designer, Russell admits that his original instinct was to include a built in “wow” factor in the game — something flashy that would draw in players, like a calculator that would add the delegates.
“I guess I was so crazy about this ‘wow’ factor that I didn’t realize that’s not the most important thing,” admits Russell who notes that the challenge in designing a game is coming up with a concept that is fun, not overly complicated, but not too mindless either.
“I believe a good game has to be simple,” says Russell. “But it also has to be challenging enough to get your mind working.
“I think maybe intuitive is a better word,” adds Christopher.
“‘Intuitive’ is a your generation word,” notes Russell.
Indeed, there’s an interesting generational dynamic between the father and son designers for The Presidential. For Christopher, 32, while digital communication is the way of the world for people his age and younger, all is not lost.
“There’s still something to be said for sitting around a table with a board game, I believe,” says Christopher. “With video games, you can sit by yourself multiplaying with people in Wisconsin, but it’s still enjoyable to have a game night and friends over to play Monopoly or Scrabble. Even if you’re playing video games or Scrabble on line, there’s not an opportunity to look at each other and belly laugh across the table.”
In the end, the Patricks note there is a small “wow” factor in The Presidential. It’s an online app of the Electoral College map. As the game progresses, players can call up the site on their computer or other digitial device, scroll over a state and click once or twice to make the state blue or red, depending on who takes it — much as election night maps appear on the big TV networks.
Though the method of play reflects an earlier era, there’s another decidedly 21st century twist to this board game — the use of the Internet site KickStarter to raise funds to take the game into production.
“It’s crowd sourced project funding,” explains Christopher. “You put up an idea — it could be for a movie, or a product, or a sketch of a prototype. You post your idea and set a goal for how much you’ll need to develop it further or put the product into production.”
He adds that people look through the site, and if they like the idea offered, they pledge money at different levels. The money is only collected if the online goal is reached.
“You’re not buying stock in the company – you’re generally just getting the product or maybe a little more,” adds Christopher.
For The Presidential, pledges start as low as $1 and can go up to $1,000 or more. At the $35 level, investors will get a listing on the website and a copy of the game if the goal is met. The $1,000 level includes all that, plus your name on the game box and a night in the Presidential Suite at The American Hotel. Glocker’s goal is to raise $35,000 by Monday, March 12, and by this past Tuesday, the game had attracted a total of 97 backers who had collectively pledged $14,734 at eight different investment levels.
Forging her own way in the gaming world may be Glocker’s future, at least for the time being. The game hasn’t yet gone into production, and though, by all accounts early reviews are promising, Glocker notes that research shows big makers like Hasbro, which owns Risk and Scrabble, aren’t looking to add new board products to their line up and in fact, are struggling to keep their old stand-bys relevant.
“The board game industry is on its hands and knees and trying to figure out how to make it all digital,” says Glocker. “Now, many of them only do things electronic. I think it’s a real shame. My friends say they’d like something to get their kids away from the computer. It would be great if they could learn something. This is a game to promote conversation and the game makers in general don’t think there’s a market for it. The other thing is games for smart people have an educational benefit that adults and kids both enjoy. There’s not a lot of them created here in the U.S.”
Despite the challenges, because of its educational value and its adult appeal, Glocker feels there is a strong market for The Presidential. She hopes she can get a distribution deal, but in the meantime, is ready to sell the game at museum stores, high quality toy and book shops or even through schools.
Glocker is also well aware that realty is fleeting, and politics are always stranger than fiction, which is why the game can be customized so that down the road, players can design potential political fates and pratfalls based either on real life events or their own fertile imagination.
“We will give you 40 blank politics cards,” explains Glocker. “We can’t be as un-pc as you can, so you can write your own cards and make it more partisan if you want or take a different policy stance if you want. We think it should be as much fun as you want it to be.”
Those itching for a shot at the Oval Office are invited to stop by The American Hotel on Main Street in Sag Harbor this Saturday, March 3 from 6 to 8 p.m., and play The Presidential for themselves. If they like it, players can join the backers on KickStarter and help send Glocker into production. In keeping with the theme, Glocker hints that there will even be a “presidential cocktails” available to help players calm those campaign trail jitters.
Top: The Presidential board game
