NZ comedian forced to change name

Christchurch comedian Grandpa Figs (Matt Ruse) will legally change his name to “Matt Versus Mortality” this week.

The name change comes off the back of his successful crowdfunding campaign which has raised $12,373 to help build a dedicated Comedy Club in The Garden City.

Hamilton-based game manufacturer Game Kings bought the rights to have Matt change his surname to “Versus Mortality” in celebration of the one year anniversary of its card game, Kiwis Versus Mortality, this week.

Kiwis Versus Morality is celebrating its first birthday with almost 20,000 sales since its release.

The game was launched off the back of a successful Kickstarter which raised $42,864 in November last year.

Including those very first sales, the original game and version 2.0 have now been bought more than 17,000 times, making it the maker’s best seller by at least 10 times the next item.

The game celebrates New Zealand’s most iconic Kiwiana, celebrities, cultural memes, and cringe-worthy historical moments.

Players combine the cards to create the most hilarious — or disturbing — sentences possible; the person who makes the best sentence wins the round.

Eliot Jessep, the co-founder of Hamilton-based Game Kings which created the game, says he’s proud of the 20,000 sale milestone in time for the game’s first birthday.

“It hasn’t been an easy ride but it’s been a very satisfying year which has changed our whole business model.”

“A little over a year ago, we had no ambition of ever being a game-creator. We were just retailing other people’s games.

“Then the idea for Kiwis Against Morality game and we made it happen very quickly, with great backing from the Kickstarter. It’s totally transformed our business from being a game retailer to a game creator.

“Actually making games is way cooler than selling other people’s games.”

Since launching Kiwis Against Morality, Game Kings launched Tākaro earlier this year: a card game designed to help people learn te reo Māori in a fun and social way.

“We’re passionate about using games not just as something to entertain and socialise over, but also as something which can help people learn new things,” Jessep says.

Game Kings has two more games in the immediate pipeline: Aussies Versus Morality — currently being written by Australian comedians — and a drinking game being co-created with popular comedian Memoirs of a Maori.

Jessep says New Zealand is experiencing a renaissance in board and card gaming.

“Games are becoming cool again, and we’re really excited by that.”

“Friends are getting together for games nights across the country as people learn that playing an offline game with real people around the same table is way more social than playing video games against faceless people online.”

To tap into — and help foster — that uptake in offline gaming, Jessep and his business partner Ben Hawken are organising a board game festival in Auckland next year.

© Scoop Media