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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1985 PAGE 7 Local policeman aspires tr o board game big time Durham Regional Police Constable AI McDougali is keeping his fingers crossed these days and if averything works out the way he's hoping, by this time next year ha just might ho a miliionaire. AI, and partner Brian Appleton, are sitting on top of a potential gold mine - a new board game cailed Work Far- ce and anybody whose familiar with names like Monopoly, Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit wiii know that the business of amusing diversions is no mean game. Trivial Pursuit, one of the most extraordinary business success stories of the last decade, bas made its inventors and a smail group of initial in- vestors millionaires many times over and AI is quick to acknowiadge the debt ha owes to Trivial Pursuit and another recantly devloped gamne, Scrupies. 'II guess everybody's got visions of Trivial Pursuit and its success dancing in their haad.. We looked at these two games in paricular and tried to figure out what made them appeai to people. "Trivial Pursuit is basically nostalgia - the good old days - and Scruples deals with moral issues and predicamants. Once we figurad that out we tried to dacide what thay had missad," says AI. if the formula was going to work, they aiso had to hit upon something that had the widest possible base of appeal. That somethlng they came up with is a peave as oid as the world's oldest profession. Office Politics. "lWa asked ourselves, "4what does averybody do?" and the answer was "work". Office politics is something that goes with just about any job you can think of SO we decided to poke fun at it in a game," ha says. Work Farce recreates an office anvironmant. Moving around the board according to the roll of the dice, the player must accumulate job credentials and along the way acquiras office politics cards as weii. Once ha has acquired the minimum job qualifications, the player can then enter in- to direct competition for an upper management post. It is at this point that the office poiitics reaily coma into play. 11i think the game illustrates the fact that you can havealal the credantials in the worid but if you don't have the brownie points to go aiong with it, wel..." says AI with a perverse smirk on his face Once they had the basic idea, the real work of making AI and Brian's draam a reality began. The pair spent long hours in the ibrary doing research and reading everything thay could get their hands on that might give them an insight into getting their game off the ground. once again it was Trivial Pursuit that proved to ha the ideal model. According to AI, the markers were al there, it was just a mat- ter of following them to the ltter. "The big thing is that you have to believa in your own idea. The limitations are ail self imposed. 1 don't know how many timas I went out reluctantly to knock on doors and then was glad 1 did afterwards. People are glad to listen if you've got a good idea," says AI. To raise capital for the venture, the pair in- corporated and obtainecl the nacessary copyright and trademark protec- tion and then offered sharas for public sale. And with the iegendary success of Trivial Pur- suit stili fresh in the minds of many a wouid- ha milionaira, it wasn't hard at ail to find the financing. They also of- fered shares in lieu of cash for legal services, printing and the art work for the box and board design. It has takan close to a DuhmRagional Police Constable AI McDougaii thinks ha may have invented the game to haat ail gamnes. AI, and partner, Brian Appeton, are taking a crack at becoming the iatest czars in the board gamne racket that has achiaved such notoriaty in racent years with over-night success stories like Trivial Pursuit. AI is seen hera warming the dice for a big roll. Free Press Staff Photo year to put it ahl together but the first batch of 10,000 games is now off the presses and the two entrepreneurs are negotiating with the major ratailars. At $23.95 a crack, AI says they need to sali about 70,000 games just to break aven but in board game tycoon circlas 70,000 games is con- siderad chicken faad. If a game happens to cat- ch the public imagination, the sales figures can be out of this worid. It's been a busy yaar for AI McDougall and Brian Appleton but once stores, it wiii be out of their hands and the waiting game wili hagin. In the meantime however, they won't just ha sitting around twid- diing their thumbs. AI and Brian hava a board game empire to think about and thera are already in the works. Afterall, board games can ha a pretty serious business. If you think you'd like to try your hand at the dog aat dog worid of Work Farce, the game is already in stock at Good Fun Games and Hobbies in the Sheridan Mail. Get those letters off to SanàbyDc. 15 North Pole ... Santa Claus and his helpers ara gearing up for a record yaar, as thousands of letters from young children flow into Santa's workshop avery day. 'II do so love to get With such a wonderf ul selection of fashion, why flot make JOYCE KENNEDY'S a must on pour Christmas list. Our fashion consultants will ha pleased to assist you ln your selectiofi, wrap your gift and tuck it away tili Christmas! AMPLE FREE PARKING THIRD STORE UNDER TH4E BREEZEWAY O OSLN 0L mail," says Santa, "and I'm most grataful to al my friands at Canada Post who help me make sure that avary littie boy and girl receives a rasponsa to thir lat- ter." Chiidren ail ovar the world can write to Santa at bis own speciai North Pole addrass: Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada, HOH OHO. 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