Geek Out!

I have a confession: I’m a geek. Chances are, if you’re reading this on a board gaming site, you’re a geek too. So let me ask you this: when you’re in a group with other geeks, what are your favorite things to do? If you said “brag about my knowledge of geekdom and get into impassioned arguments about minutiae” — and you know you did — then Geek Out is a fantastic game for you.

Geek Out is a trivia game that — wait! Come back! I promise it’s not that bad! — a trivia game that includes the entire spectrum of geekdom. Forget questions about the cause of the Crimean war and the name of Louis XIV’s dog, the categories for this game are Gaming, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Comics, and Miscellaneous. The starting player rolls a die and the player to her right reads the question of the category shown on the die (or, in the event of a blank face, the category the starting player chooses). All questions are posed in the form of numbers, e.g., “two characters from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.” The starting player accepts the bid or bids higher, and once everyone else at the table passes, the last bidding player tries to give enough answers to meet their bid and win the card. If they cannot, they receive a penalty chip worth -2 points.

Naturally, this spawns some fast and furious nerd-contests. We often found ourselves biting off more than we could chew; it’s very easy to bid confidently and then find yourself struggling for those last two or three answers. But when you drastically overbid, find yourself in a situation you don’t think you can manage, and then end up pulling it off anyway? The feeling is amazing (wooooo, 25 Final Fantasy characters in under a minute, baby!).

Besides showing off your geek knowledge, Geek Out also lends itself to…shall we say, “lively” discussions. What exactly constitutes a “franchise?” Do cyborgs count as robots? Does “film” include both movies and TV shows? Do Youtube videos count as TV shows? All these questions and more came up before we even made bids, and we all made impassioned arguments about silly little things. And let’s face it, isn’t that part of what’s so much fun about being a geek?

Despite being an extremely fun trivia game, Geek Out does have some fairly significant flaws. The audience is limited — though the categories do stretch deeply into all subsets of geekdom, those with extremely specialized knowledge or very little geek knowledge will find themselves twiddling their thumbs for much of the game, only able to bid on a few of the questions that come up and often eclipsed by other mega-geeks at the table. From a scoring standpoint, many at the table complained that -2 points felt like a harsh penalty for not being able to complete one’s bid. I thought it was meant to discourage overbidding, but I do have to admit that those -2 tokens stack up a little too quickly.

Finally, the presentation is not great. Geek Out looks like a generic trivia party game, the cards feel flimsy and cheap, and there’s nothing to the game except cards and a die. All this being said, though, the creators obviously put a lot of thought and love into the game: there are TONS of cards, and the questions drill very deeply into geek culture (there were a few things that no one at our table of five hardened and lifelong nerds even recognized). I wish that passion for the content translated itself better into the presentation, but I also wish I had a pony, and I don’t hear any hooves in my backyard.

If you have a group that loves geeky things, and especially one that prides itself on how geeky it is, then Geek Out is a ton of fun. The bidding mechanic sets it apart from other trivia games, and the dedication to things we nerds love make it a pretty special game. That being said, be aware that some of your players may feel left on the sidelines, and that’s no fun for anyone.

Trivia? Love it, but it can be difficult to review or recommend. Fun, but with a set ‘shelf-life’. Only so many plays before the same questions start coming up; hurting replay value. Here is the brilliance of Geek Out!, there isn’t a ‘right’ answer; only accepted ones. Geek Out is a blend of trivia, Name That Tune, and game-night debates. Convinced you know more about animal themed super-heroes than your friends? Time to prove it! Take turns rolling for category deciding minimum bid and topic. For example, Two Animal Themed Super Heroes; now comes Geek Out’s twist. You can agree to that number OR you can bid higher, then everyone will have a chance to do the same until everyone is out and the highest bidder must deliver on their geeky bragging. Can you outbid, out-geek or outwit your friends through a combination of knowledge and strategic bluffing? If the high bidder manages to name the promised quantity, they get the card (worth 1 point) and the bragging rights. If, however, their bidding bests their brains, they get a Penalty Chip (worth -2 points) making more work for themselves. The official rules suggest playing to 5 points, but you can adjust as you see fit for longer or shorter play. If time is a factor, you can also play ‘marathon’ style; set a timer and see who can get the most points before the bell. Get the determined point total and hold your head high; you’ve out geeked your foes! Play or Nay: Quality: Cards are a bit on the cheap side. Not unheard of in the genre but with so few components and most being cards, it is notable. NAY Ease: Setup is basically just opening the box, play is quick to get into. Perfect for a party game. PLAY Fun w/ Friends: Great for any number of people. Teams are best with more than 8. PLAY Fun for One: Not made for solo play, but I’ve been known to challenge myself with cards in downtime. PLAY Value: Coming in under the 20 dollar mark, with mechanics that lend themselves to greater replayability. PLAY Overall: We don’t know about you, but arguing about nerdy things is a large portion of our day anyway. Add in that I can do so and maybe win? Don’t mind if I do! PLAY Pros:

Lends itself to replayability thanks to bidding mechanic
Engages all players with bidding and challenging answers
Easy to set up and clean, as a party game should be

Cons:

Group Dynamics can make or break the fun, best with nerdy but amicable groups that are looking to have fun, not ‘rule lawyer’ their way to victory.