For Immediate Release
The
last two US Presidential Elections were nail-biters
for sure.
And nobody is
happier than Robert S. Baker, the creator of the Race
for the White House board game.
“These recent
close elections are driving the amazing level of
interest in my game,” Baker said. “The ‘political
junkies’ have always loved it. But, now, even folks
only marginally interested in politics are buying it
up.”
Baker developed
the game on his kitchen table during the 1990’s. “It
was truly home-spun,” Baker related. “Back then, my
‘manufacturing’ was done mainly at the local
Kinko’s, but still people ended up buying quite a
few games. For the next few years folks kept bugging
me about getting it mass-produced. I finally set
aside a couple months and got it professionally
designed and mass-produced.”
Internet
Makes it Possible…
In
his former business, Baker was one of the first
players to exploit the internet in his industry. So,
naturally he saw the Web as a key instrument to
utilize in introducing the game to the mass market.
“Board games
grow through word of month,” Baker said. “People
tend to spend their money on a game when they play a
friend’s copy and like it, or if the game has been
recommended by word-of-mouth started by somebody who
has enjoyed playing the game.
“The internet
is an incredible catalyst for word-of-mouth
recommendations.” Baker explained. “When people on
the board game sites start talking a game up, the
interest in a game can grow exponentially,”
Most surprising
to Baker are the orders coming into
raceforthewhitehouse.net
from overseas. “I figured that interest would stop
at the water’s edge,” he said. “I was wrong.”
Makes
You Feel Like One…
Baker
makes the claim that his game is more realistic that
other similar political games.
“Most games in
this genre don’t really have much similarity to an
actual Presidential Election,” Baker said. “Many
are trivia games or games of chance where the
election aspect is just a background theme.
Race for the
White House is based on real, current issues.
Each player must take positions that gain him
support among certain constituencies but at the same
time may adversely affect his appeal to others.”
“You find
yourself trying to straddle issues or, better yet,
avoiding taking any position at all,” added Baker.
“The game doesn’t just help you understand
what it’s like to be a politician, it makes you
actually feel like one,” he added.
The game’s
current edition has been updated and has issues that
are based on today’s current political landscape.
Election
Night Excitement…
As
the game progresses, states are won and each player
moves nearer
to the magic
270 electoral vote total needed to win. But, Baker
has incorporated certain game-play attributes that
make nearly every contest close to the very end.
“The candidate
running behind during the middle of game almost
always comes back near the end, so the elections
tend to be very exciting,” Baker said. “Plus, the
game was designed so that the largest
states—California, Texas, NY, Florida, Illinois,
Penn, and Ohio—are usually not decided until late in
the game. With the big electoral prizes remaining in
play so long, the underdog always thinks he has a
shot at catching up.
Baker sees the
interest in elections among Americans higher than it
has been in years. “It used to be that people had to
be old enough to remember closely contested
elections like Kennedy-Nixon or Carter-Ford to
realize how dramatic an election night can be,”
Baker said. “Now, with two Presidential elections
during the last six years decided by just a handful
of electoral votes, nearly everybody can relate to
the excitement of a down-to-the-wire election
night.”
Baker created
and has registered the “Board Games Bring Families
Together” trademark for his company. “At work or
play people are spending much of every day in front
of a TV screen or a computer screen of one kind or
another,” he said.
“People want to
get away from that. They want face-to-face
interaction with their friends and family—real
people. That’s why there is such an incredible boom
going on in the board game industry right now, ” he
added.
The game is
sold exclusively through select independent hobby
shops or from on-line game retailers.
It also
available direct from the game’s web-site:
raceforthewhitehouse.net.
The retail price is $30.00.
For
more information about
Race for the
White House, contact Bobbie Thomas, Director
of Sales, at
; phone:
269-276-0888 x100.
Boardgames
BFT Inc.
