Turns Out Lots Of People Want To Play The CIA's Card Game

from the collect-it-all dept

Wed, Apr 25th 2018 3:30pm — Mike Masnick

Well, it appears we can both confirm and acknowledge that lots and lots of people want to play the CIA's in-house training card game. As we announced on Monday, we've taken the available details of the internal CIA game Collection Deck, and are in the process of turning it a version you can actually play, which we're renaming CIA: Collect It All. To see if anyone else actually wanted it, we put it on Kickstarter and set what we thought was a fairly high bar: $30,000. And yet, we hit that in about 40 hours and we still more than three and a half weeks to go. We're a bit blown away by how many people are interested, and we're committed to making the game as awesome as we can possibly make it. We recently posted an update to the campaign concerning questions around international shipping, since that's been a big topic of conversation, so if you're interested in that, go check it out.

Either way, thanks to all of you who quickly jumped in and backed the campaign (and told others about it). As we've noted in the campaign, the idea here is to do this as a one shot deal, not to keep making the game. So, while anyone can download the FOIA'd release of the rules and make your own, if you want one of our versions, you'll need to back this campaign.

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Filed Under: card game, cia, collect it all, foia, public domain

16 Comments

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Ninja (profile), 25 Apr 2018 @ 3:56pm

That was fast. I think I'm going for the pdf version. Can I send it to my friends if I get it? Of course if I go to the US I'll buy the physical thing as well ;)
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2018 @ 6:07pm
  
  Re:
  No, legally you basically cannot. That's because althought the unredacted, CIA-created content is public domain, the new content that will replace the blacked-out stuff is by law copyrighted from the instant the new content is "fixed in a tangible form" and absent an explicit written permission (which Mike has always refused to give) then technically your head is on the chopping block for $150,000 per DMCA violation if he (or his successors or estate) should ever decide to register the copyright sometime in the future and file suit against you. So while the NSA's motto might be "Collect It All" the US Copyright Office's should be "Copyright It All."
  
  https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
  
  And don't think that living in another country is any protection. as the DMCA has been enforced in Australia, the UK, and perhaps other countries that arrest their citizens and ship them off to U.S. prisons for something that may not even be a crime in their own country.
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  - Ninja (profile), 26 Apr 2018 @ 6:49am
    
    Re: Re:
    Heh, the DMCA can go eat shit for all I care. At the very least I know some of my friends will want the original as well when they play it, even if it's a "lousy" pdf version.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2018 @ 7:08pm

out_of_the_blue proven wrong again! Dang, he is not going to be happy about this.
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John Snape (profile), 25 Apr 2018 @ 8:09pm

I had started putting it together when I saw it on Ars Technica, but now I realize I won't have to.

I have the Hunt for El Chapo game on my computer, maybe I should put that one together?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2018 @ 10:19pm

This game will be available for free right? I don’t feel like paying for the Kickstarter but I want the game, so you’re going to let me have it, right?
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 25 Apr 2018 @ 10:36pm
  
  Re:
  Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2018 @ 10:19pm This game will be available for free right? I don’t feel like paying for the Kickstarter but I want the game, so you’re going to let me have it, right?
  
  The FOIA files are free for everyone. Have at it. Isn't the public domain wonderful?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Apr 2018 @ 9:59am
    
    Re: Re:
    
    Isn't the public domain wonderful?
    
    It'd be great if you helped enlarge it. Maybe voluntarily limit your copyright length on the polished game?
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    Anonymous Coward, 26 Apr 2018 @ 10:35am
    
    Re: Re:
    No no, I want your version. You’re giving it away for free, right?
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    - Anonymous Coward, 26 Apr 2018 @ 8:16pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      I'm confused.
      
      Why do you want a card game if you can't read?
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- Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2018 @ 11:49pm
  
  Re:
  It's hilarious to see that this is what average_joe has been reduced to: the Techdirt equivalent of a middle school edgelord.
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Apr 2018 @ 1:45am
  
  Re:
  You done walked into that one, son. Put some burn cream on it, and stop being such a bitch.
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drewdad (profile), 26 Apr 2018 @ 6:32am

How did this not get named "Intelligence: The Gathering"?
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Sok Puppette (profile), 27 Apr 2018 @ 6:45am

You guys gonna buy a beer or something for whoever originally invented the game?
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- That One Guy (profile), 27 Apr 2018 @ 4:44pm
  
  'So... check our site often?'
  That might be a tad awkward, given who it originally came from.
  
  As we announced on Monday, we've taken the available details of the internal CIA game Collection Deck, and are in the process of turning it a version you can actually play, which we're renaming CIA: Collect It All.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bill Poser (profile), 28 Apr 2018 @ 11:20pm

restriction to US
Why does the game ship only within the US?
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