Evil Corp: The Board Game
- A UK-based activist made a board game that satirizes Big Tech.
- Called "Evil Corp," the game is intended to protest the power wielded by tech moguls.
- Players can choose from six tech CEOs, including one that appears to be based on Elon Musk.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A new board game let's you pretend to be a billionaire tech CEO intent on saving the world.
Called "Evil Corp: The Board Game," the game was created by UK-based activist Alfie Dennen to warn against the downsides of Big Tech and protest the power wielded by tech moguls.
The game was launched on Kickstarter in 2018, where it raised 25,088 pounds, or about $35,000. The company tweeted at Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk around the time it launched on the crowdfunding site, hinting that the "Visionary" character was based on him – that card reads "First, we take Mars," which appears to be a reference to SpaceX's plans to take humans to the planet.
Musk replied that the board game had a "great name" but that it was "a little on the nose."
While the makers of "Evil Corp" appeared to want to get Musk's attention back in 2018, they're very clear that the game is not intended to be a flattering portrait of tech CEOs. In a press release about the game, the creators describe the characters as "evil billionaires" and say that the game is intended to protest Big Tech, not celebrate it.
The game is "a warning that the massive power to shape our collective future is held in the hands of a handful
of CEO billionaires, driven - regardless of their public-facing attitudes - by shareholder value," the press release says.
In another dig at the tech giants, the slogan of the game is the same as Google's original motto: "Don't be evil."
The set up of "Evil Corp" is similar to "Monopoly," the creators say. Up six players can play at a time, and they'll each take on the persona of one of six CEOs: the Visionary, the Expansionist, the Technocrat, the Savant, the Utopian, and the Oligarch.
It's not clear who, exactly, the characters are based on, but the Expansionist bears a striking resemblance to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and the creators hinted in a follow-up tweet to Musk that another character was based on early PayPal employee and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman.
The only type of currency in the game is billion-dollar bills.
The goal of "Evil Corp" is to "save the world, no matter the cost," the creators say. Players will form a research and development team, build a prototype app, and then launch their "killer app."
"And by killer, we do mean killer," the creators write on the game's website. "There are no CEO plans which don't result in catastrophe for us mere mortals."
After the game is over, players are encouraged to visit a URL on the back of their character card to find out the impact of their choices on humanity.
"Evil Corp" costs $70 and is available to buy on the game's website.