Cards Against Humanity turned the tabletop gaming world on its head when it was released in 2011. The “party game for horrible people” uses a very similar fill-in-the-blank style to Apples to Apples, but with much more adult themes. It became the number one game on Amazon just a month after its release. Almost everyone has played it and has hilarious card combinations that they often tell people about. It’s a game that’s absolutely a staple for any tabletop game collection. However, people really need to realize that other games do exist.

I personally love having game nights, gathering large groups of friends to marathon several tabletop games at a time. I’m a fan of such a wide variety of games, which can be good for changing up game nights so they aren’t always the same experiences. It’s fun to play goofy party games, but it’s also exciting to play competitive strategy games like Settlers of Catan or intense bluffing games like Coup. Unfortunately, far too often, people meet up to play games and only show interest in playing Card Against Humanity.

Card Against Humanity is an incredibly fun game. Sometimes more dumb, potty humor-based cards are played, and other times they are surprisingly highbrow, making the game great for any group of people. There are plenty of expansions for the game, and more are always being released. This helps prevent it from getting stale, especially after the same card combinations are played so often that they are no longer funny.

One of Cards Against Humanity’s greatest strengths is the ability to play with larger groups of people than other games typically allow. I can see why this causes the game to be played so often. People may usually spend time in big groups. The issue with this, however, is that there are plenty of other party games that can be played by a substantial number of people. Joking Hazard, the tabletop game based on the Cyanide and Happiness comics can hold up to ten players. Snake Oil can also be played by ten players. Funemployed can go up to twenty players, and Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition can be played by a whopping seventy-five players.

It’s exhausting to be excited to play Castle Panic! or Boss Monster only to play a never-ending game of Cards Against Humanity. It seems to be the only thing others want to play and the only game they know about. The game’s popularity has caused several ripoffs to spawn, like Deadpool vs. the World, Cards Against Disney, and Crabs Adjust Humidity. There are so many of these that it’s somewhat hurt the world of tabletop since it’s sometimes difficult to get people to play anything else. Also, adding Disney or Deadpool to the formula doesn’t make it better. I’ve received a couple of these ripoffs as gifts from people who know that I’m into tabletop gaming. It’s as if they only think that tabletop gaming outside of games like Monopoly only consist of Cards Against Humanity style party games. What’s worse is that these clones forget that CAH can be clever and highbrow and only focus on the dumbed down humor, making them not even as fun to play as CAH.

I do genuinely love Cards Against Humanity. I think it’s hilarious and is a staple to any tabletop collection. I hope to keep collecting the game’s expansions and to continue to play it with different groups of friends. However, it has left a black mark on tabletop culture since it has become the only thing people want to play. People need to realize that there are other games out there that are a lot of fun. Perhaps those are games that they will enjoy just as much as they do Cards Against Humanity.