If you spend enough time online, you will become aware of the negative stereotype of The Karen. It is a name associated with extremely petty and entitled customers, usually depicted as upper middle class women. If you or a friend has ever worked in the service industry and have heard the dreaded phrase, "I would like to speak to your manager," there's a chance it was uttered by one of these nightmares. But Asmodee Publishing and Format Games understands that not everyone associated with the name are all insufferably annoying people, and do not wish for the name of Karen to die. As such, they are holding a contest where, for legally changing your name to Karen, they will not only pay for the legal fees, but possibly send you a lifetime supply of board games.
Format Games' Karen contest
Why exactly is Format Games going through all of this trouble? The long and short of it is they wish to promote their newest board game, Karen. This game asks its players to fully embody a customer service monstrosity by creating the most unhinged one-star customer reviews. And what better way to promote your board game than recognizing that not everyone with the name is the butt of a joke? That tongue-in-cheek humor is found throughout the official Asmodee UK blog post. In the post, Karen's lead designer, Matt Edmondson cites data from the SSA, showing the number of people with the name has dropped from 33,000 in 1965 to a mere 325 in 2020. This threatens the possibility of "extinction" of the name...that is unless some volunteers step up to "repopulate" the world.
That is where the contest comes in. All you have to do is add your name and e-mail address to their list, stating that you are willing to legally change your first name to Karen. If you already are named Karen, your application will not be accepted. Once the offer ends on December 31st, 100 "lucky" applicants will be chosen. These applicants will then have four months to confirm that they have legally changed their names. Once this is confirmed, Format Games will send a check meant to cover the legal fees. Finally, out of those 100 applicants, one will receive a lifetime supply of board games developed by Format Games.
This Save the Karens contest is only available for UK residents.
