'Blame is all part of this game'

In my continuing efforts at self-promotion, here's a story from this morning's Journal Sentinel:

Blame is all part of this game
Creation examines post-hurricane politics

By DAVE TIANEN

Although he admits you can't win it, Bill Christofferson hopes you'll still play The Blame Game.

Bill Christofferson helped create a board game that pokes fun at the political mess after Hurricane Katrina.

The Blame Game is a little board game designed by Christofferson, a longtime Milwaukee political consultant, and his old Marine Corps buddy, artist and freelance writer Gordon Fowler.

Christofferson was in Austin, Texas, visiting Fowler during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans.

"I guess I was down there when the Republicans said we're not going to play the blame game," Christofferson says. "Gordon and I thought maybe we should play the blame game."

In two days of concentrated labor, the men came up with The Blame Game, a little zip-locked board game in which the players are the unfortunate citizens of New Orleans trying to escape their beleaguered city. Fowler did the artwork, and Christofferson wrote most of the copy.

When it comes to fixing blame for the New Orleans mess, Fowler and Christofferson cheerfully concede rampant partisanship. They are both, as the phrase goes in Texas, "yellow dog Democrats." The game comes with 20 event/blame cards, and President Bush is the only or partial culprit in 15 of them.

Although Christofferson says the cards portray "pretty much what happened," he's also acknowledges that, "I'm not claiming fair and balanced. I'm not Fox News."

If pressed, Christofferson readily admits, "Nobody came out of this looking great."

The Blame Game is an exercise in creative futility.

Players move along a track on the cardboard playing board trying to get out of town - but if you actually get to the end of the game track at the Gretna Bridge, the sheriff forces you to go back to the start. Since you not only can't win the game, you can't even finish it, Christofferson is not expecting to push Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit off the store shelves. The Blame Game is, basically, a timely political novelty.

"Some Democrats at a party might play it," Christofferson offers.

The motivation is not purely partisan. All proceeds from the game, which sells for $10, will go to help the victims of Katrina. Fowler's wife is the well-known blues boogie pianist Marcia Ball. Ball has started a fund for New Orleans musicians displaced by the storm called NOLA Relief, and proceeds from the sales of The Blame Game will go to Ball's relief fund.

"We don't have to sell many games to break even," Christofferson says. "It is starting to get some mention on some blogs. If we sold them all,which is unlikely, we could make a profit of $15,000."

The Blame Game is available online at www.zzzingers.com .