Highlights Archives
Come Play Cineplexity at the Museum
Hasbro, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers may have claimed a near "monopoly" on the production of card games and board games in America, but Wisconsin is no stranger to the business of having fun. Recently, Madisonians Jon Michael Rasmus, John Sams and Sean Weitner invented a movie trivia game called Cineplexity. This party game challenges players to name a movie that includes elements from two game cards — elements such as where the film is set and whether it is a romance, a comedy or some other genre, such as film noir. On Friday, April 4, the Wisconsin Historical Museum is giving people a chance to meet the creators of Cineplexity and to learn how to play the game. The program begins at 5 p.m., with a donation of $2 suggested.
Cineplexity is produced by Out of the Box, a game company based in Madison with a warehouse in Richland Center. Founder Mark Osterhaus asks his employees, who work all over the country and telecommute from home, to find and create games that are easy to learn, playable within an hour, and full of dynamic player action. The company marketed its first game, Bosworth, in 1998, but the game that put them on the map was Apples to Apples. Introduced in February 1999, this card game won several prestigious awards by the end of the year. Out of the Box plans to keep introducing new and innovative games for years to come.
Before forming Patch Products in 1985, the Patch brothers, Fran and Bryce, had run their own commercial printing business. After printing Trivial Pursuit board games and Cabbage Patch Kids sticker books, they decided to introduce their own line of children's products, starting with frame tray puzzles for preschoolers. In 1992 they entered the board game business by obtaining the license for the word game TriBond. From there Patch Products began creating their own line of toys and games for adults and children. Word games Buzzword and Malarky, dice game Toss Up!, and card game Swap! are recent best sellers.
Predating both Out of the Box and Patch Products is Dungeons & Dragons, considered the grandfather of all role-playing games. It began in the basement of Gary Gygax's Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, home, where Gygax and a war-gamer friend decided to create their own medieval-era role-playing game. When Gygax's wife noticed they were playing a dragons game in the basement, they decided to call it Dungeons & Dragons. In 1972 Gygax and another friend formed Tactical Studies Rules to publish the game. They printed 1,000 copies, which to everyone's surprise sold out in less than a year. Business quickly boomed, and by 1982 TSR Hobbies, Inc., as it was then known, had made $20 million. Gygax left TSR in 1985 and the company struggled on until 1997, when the Seattle-based firm Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) purchased it and closed the Lake Geneva office. Two years later Hasbro acquired WOTC and continues to publish Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax passed away at his home in Lake Geneva on March 4, 2008.
The Come Play Cineplexity! event at the Wisconsin Historical Museum is offered in conjunction with the Wisconsin Film Festival, April 3-6.
:: Posted March 31, 2008
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