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This is a game with a great concept. You're a spammer and you're trying to make the lives of the average net denizen miserable, just so that you can make a quick buck. The concept is treated with laugh-out-loud humor, as you try and convince "Mindless Wintel Zombies", "Death Row Inmates", and "SMArM" (The Secret Masters of Ars Magica, of course) that they should visit Hot-Models-Want-You-To-Be-A-Travel-Agent.com, buy in to "Rule Your Own Island Nation", or sign up for "We Pay You to Earn Free Cars".

The art on the cards ranges from OK to quite fun. The only real flaw is that the two types of cards (action and list) look fairly similar from the back, even though it would have been simple to differentiate them more.

The gameplay, unfortunately, is where Spammers tends to fall down. As one of my friends says, "It's a great game; you just have to be drunk."

The basic idea is that you put down "scam" cards (like "Air Goes MLM" and the aforementioned "Run Your Own Island Nation") and then make mailings about the scam to mailing lists, some of which are public, some of which are proprietary, and doing so gives your scam points. Eventually you win if one of your scams gets 12 points or if all of your scams (of which you can have up to 5, usually) total 20 points.

The game gets a little monotonous, especially if you're playing with a lot of players. Our 6-player game lasted a bit over two hours, and it was painful for the last 30-60 minutes.

Unfortunately, the game has a number of flaws in it which probably contribute to the boring endgame.

The worst problem, and a very common one in beer-and-pretzel games of this sort, is that Spammers suffers win-by-attrition syndrome. There are a large number of cards that can prevent game win--by lowering scam values, moving scams around, and cancelling special card effects. When someone gets close to victory, they're generally stopped, and thus it's the third or fourth place person who eventually wins, at the point when all the stop-victory cards are finally used up.

There's also a huge random factor, another common beer-and-pretzel problem. You can do a little bit to save up the good cards for a theoretical game win, but based on card draw during a game you can either have a good-chance or no-chance to win. There are a couple of critical cards--such as the 6 consolidate your scam values on one scam and the 5 stop another special card from being played--that are nearly required for a win.

Worse, some cards, like the 3 switcheroo which lets you you change any two peoples' scam (and their values), totally change the texture of the game. The person who was in last place can end up in first through absolutely no work of their own.

Overall, a fun game for just fun, but it falls down on strategy and long-term play and reuse.

Spammers
Spammers Playtest Review by Shannon Appelcline on 13/04/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 2 (Sparse) Funny game, but slight strategy and slow endgame limit replay. Product: Spammers Author: Jeff Tidball Category: Card Game Company/Publisher: Atlas Games Line: Cost: $24.95 Page count: 4 Year published: 1998 ISBN: 1-887801-62-6 SKU: AG1200 Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by Shannon Appelcline on 13/04/02 Genre tags: Modern day Comedy	This is a game with a great concept. You're a spammer and you're trying to make the lives of the average net denizen miserable, just so that you can make a quick buck. The concept is treated with laugh-out-loud humor, as you try and convince "Mindless Wintel Zombies", "Death Row Inmates", and "SMArM" (The Secret Masters of Ars Magica, of course) that they should visit Hot-Models-Want-You-To-Be-A-Travel-Agent.com, buy in to "Rule Your Own Island Nation", or sign up for "We Pay You to Earn Free Cars". The art on the cards ranges from OK to quite fun. The only real flaw is that the two types of cards (action and list) look fairly similar from the back, even though it would have been simple to differentiate them more. The gameplay, unfortunately, is where Spammers tends to fall down. As one of my friends says, "It's a great game; you just have to be drunk." The basic idea is that you put down "scam" cards (like "Air Goes MLM" and the aforementioned "Run Your Own Island Nation") and then make mailings about the scam to mailing lists, some of which are public, some of which are proprietary, and doing so gives your scam points. Eventually you win if one of your scams gets 12 points or if all of your scams (of which you can have up to 5, usually) total 20 points. The game gets a little monotonous, especially if you're playing with a lot of players. Our 6-player game lasted a bit over two hours, and it was painful for the last 30-60 minutes. Unfortunately, the game has a number of flaws in it which probably contribute to the boring endgame. The worst problem, and a very common one in beer-and-pretzel games of this sort, is that Spammers suffers win-by-attrition syndrome. There are a large number of cards that can prevent game win--by lowering scam values, moving scams around, and cancelling special card effects. When someone gets close to victory, they're generally stopped, and thus it's the third or fourth place person who eventually wins, at the point when all the stop-victory cards are finally used up. There's also a huge random factor, another common beer-and-pretzel problem. You can do a little bit to save up the good cards for a theoretical game win, but based on card draw during a game you can either have a good-chance or no-chance to win. There are a couple of critical cards--such as the 6 consolidate your scam values on one scam and the 5 stop another special card from being played--that are nearly required for a win. Worse, some cards, like the 3 switcheroo which lets you you change any two peoples' scam (and their values), totally change the texture of the game. The person who was in last place can end up in first through absolutely no work of their own. Overall, a fun game for just fun, but it falls down on strategy and long-term play and reuse.