Majority rules

Consensus: a game where your opinion counts

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of April 24, 2009 / 30 Nissan 5769

The season of long Shabbat afternoons is upon us. Though the weekly time warp can be draining both for children and the adults who must entertain them, a fun, interactive game to play with friends is a productive way to combat the boredom.

Consensus, a newly developed board game, aims to do just that and more, billing itself as a game “that takes a minute to learn and requires no prior knowledge of anything whatsoever.”

“This game is not about strategy and not about trivia,” explains creator Marshall Chrein, a HAFTR graduate who grew up in Lawrence. “It is strictly a game about opinions, where you learn how family and friends think about all sorts of things. It is a social game and a family game.”

Consensus works like this: a maximum of eight players choose between 10 noun cards –– varying in topic from celebrities to foods to life cycle events –– and choose which one they believe is the most appropriate fit for a randomly selected adjective card. Whichever noun receives the most votes is deemed the consensus for that round and the players who chose it get to move forward in the game. The winner is ultimately crowned “the greatest mind.”

Consensus brings to mind a similar board game called Apples to Apples; in both, players are asked to categorize randomly selected nouns under a single adjective, often producing humorous results.

By way of its design, Consensus is a completely interactive game which leaves no room for bias; all players are choosing from the same group of noun cards and the winner is simply determined by majority, whereas in Apples to Apples, each player is dealt a private hand of nouns which they then pair up to the adjective, and which are later judged on their merit by a fellow player. Consensus also seems better suited for a more mature audience (perhaps even older than the age 12 and up recommendation), while Apples to Apples can be enjoyed by young children as well, based on the content of each of the games' cards. A flaw inherent in both games is that more than one person can be declared the winner.

Consensus has proven to be a successful icebreaker, particularly at singles gatherings, where the players may not have known each other from before. Several months ago, Consensus was the featured activity at a YUConnects event which attracted 100 people who played 12 games simultaneously in a speed-dating forum. Three men and three women at each table played the game for 10 minutes, after which the men moved on to the next table, allowing everyone to meet.

“It is probably the ideal game where people can get to know each other on more than just a superficial level,” Chrein said, explaining the value of Consensus for singles. “Since there are real issues that people discuss, you can remember people based on their opinions on the issues. There is no stigma of ‘I am speed dating’ because you're playing a game. Incidentally, you can meet a ton of people and learn things about them that you probably wouldn't learn from going on dates. Nobody is holding back and they're not afraid to express their opinions because it's a game.”

The creation of Consensus in August 2008 was Chrein's first foray into the world of board games.

“I’ve always loved games, and I grew up in a family where everybody always played games,” noted Chrein, who is the CEO of Mindlogic, Inc., the company he founded to produce Consensus. “Professionally, I own an attorney placement firm or headhunting company, and I’ve been doing it for 10 years, but I kind of lost my pizzazz for it. I was looking for a physical product that belonged to me that I could call my own.”

And so, Consensus was born. At first, Chrein only marketed rough prototypes of the game to family and friends, which he would bring along when he went away for weekends and holidays. After he received positive feedback from those who played, he decided to turn Consensus into a real board game.

The game, which is manufactured in China, is now available nationally, mostly in specialty stores and in mall kiosks. Barnes & Noble is to begin carrying it in June. A movie edition of Consensus was recently released, and Chrein has plans to produce a music and a juniors edition in the coming months.

“My true love is the board game business,” Chrein said, “and that is where I want to spend most of my time.”

Another unique feature of Consensus is that it can be played on Facebook; both the original and the movie edition are Facebook applications, “one of the first times, if not the first time that a real board game can be played on Facebook in an extremely socially interactive capacity,” Chrein added.

The game can be purchased locally in Cedarhurst at La Toys Etcetera and at Sakoff's. For more information about the game and tips on how to organize a Consensus tournament, visit www.consensusgame.com.