Oddball and Business Trivia Brings Board Game Success

GAMES Magazine named Brain Chain one of the 100 best board games in the world for 2007. While the party game mixes strategy with trivia to the delight of its players, the folks at Brain Chain say it is clear that two of their question categories receive much of the credit for the game’s success and critical acclaim.

Co-creator Scot Blackburn says, “We were not sure how the game-playing public would respond to our Oddball and Business trivia categories, but when we began to test the questions and answers people seemed to enjoy them. As we got better and better at crafting these novel types of questions, our fans could not get enough of them.”

As it turns out, these two categories have greatly contributed to Brain Chain’s appeal. “The popularity of our Business Category took me a bit by surprise, but we wanted to expand the typical trivia fare and our question writers did an incredible job, says co-creator Alicia Vaz. “There is some gritty business information to be gleaned from these questions such as accounting, economics, management and marketing concepts. Still, a lot of non-business people have communicated how much they enjoy the slogans, ad-campaign trivia and the questions which demand that the answering player’s team match a given product with the company that produces it.”

While the business category has certainly encouraged Dad and Grandpa to play with the rest of the family, the innovative Oddball trivia questions have really struck a chord with Brain Chain fans. These questions require the game’s players to pick the one word, title or phrase that does not correspond with the other four items. For instance:

Question 1: Teddy Bear, Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, Yesterday?
Question 2: Leonardo DiCaprio, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane?
Question 3: Date, Malibu, Palm, Venice?
Question 4: Crash Davis, John Dunbar, Wyatt Earp, George C. Scott?

Ready for the answers?
Answer 1: Yesterday was not an Elvis Presley song [title]
Answer 2: Susan Sarandon because she was not in [the 1997 movie] Titanic
Answer 3: Date is correct because it is not the name of a [famous] beach
Answer 4: Geoge C. Scott was not the name of a character played by Kevin Costner.

“We are thrilled that people love our Business and Oddball questions,” says Blackburn, “I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to get emails from Moms and Grandmas letting us know how much they appreciate our game getting the entire family, including Dad and Grandpa, together around the table. The typical email details how the kids love those Oddball trivia questions and will even forego their Game Boys or Play Stations for an hour to play… while Dad and Gramps can’t wait to show off their business knowledge.”

Vaz, Blackburn and Co-creator [and math/history teacher] Kris Harter set out to design an engaging game that the whole family could play. It looks like they have designed, instead, a game that the entire family wants to play.

Brain Chain is owned and distributed by Brain Chain Games, Inc. and can be purchased at http://www.biffleys.com, http://www.curiocityonline.com, http://www.funagaingames.com and other great game retailers and gift sellers.

Scot Blackburn can be reached at SBlackburn@BrainChainGames.com.
More information about Brain Chain can be found at http://www.BrainChainGames.com www.BrainChainGames.com, at http://brainchaingames.blogspot.com at http://brainchaingames.blogspot.com, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Chain at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Chain.