By Larry Coonrod, Lebanon Express writer | Posted: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 12:00 am
Sweet Home woman tapped her roots, but was inspired by Kentucky
For Sweet Home native Lisa Steenson, a trip to see a friend in Somerset, Ky., in 2003 turned into the inspiration for one of the hottest selling new games in the country: "The Game of Redneck Life."
"There was a huge crowd parked at the Super Wal-Mart drinking. That's apparently the thing to do in Pulaski County," Steenson said.
Thinking about her own upbringing in Sweet Home, Steenson started working on a prototype game to celebrate redneck culture.
The objective of the game is simple: Be the player to finish the game with the most teeth.
Players start out the game by rolling dice to get a suitable redneck name, education, job, home and vehicle. A second-grade education equals a job as a honey bucket engineer. A relatively advanced 12th-grade education leads to a plum job as shop teacher and wrestling coach.
Steenson is constantly scouring the country for dilapidated houses and rural customized cars and trucks to photograph and use as game cards in new editions and expansion packs of "Redneck Life." The blue house with the pronounced lean and the ivy and bushes growing up the side and on the roof on the "Home, Sweet Home" card is Steenson's childhood home on Old Holley Road, a few miles outside of Sweet Home.
Gamers all over the country now send pictures to Gut Bustin' Games, Steenson's gaming business, hoping they will be included in a game pack.
With no previous game design experience, Steenson has found "Redneck Life" to be a learn-by-doing experience.
"The one thing I do know about games is the instructions have to be short and concise or people lose interest," she said.
After testing her game on friends and family and finding an illustrator on Craigslist.com, she had 1,000 game sets printed at a business copy center and started selling them at the Vancouver Saturday Market in Washington.
Four years later, the game now in its fourth printing, is manufactured in China in lots of 10,000 and is distributed by one of the largest game distributors in the country. There is even a distributor in London, England, which Steenson finds amusing.
"I don't how it translates over there," she said, wondering if the British have their own version of rednecks.
Don't look for a copy of '"Redneck Life" at Wal-Mart any time soon. Steenson has turned down offers from Barnes and Noble and Spencer Gifts to carry her game.
"Big chains want to mass market it and sell it for less. I don't want to undercut the smaller stores that have been carrying it," she said.
Besides game stores, the game has been extremely popular in rural stores.
Santiam Feed and Garden Center in Sweet Home has sold almost 100 games since last summer.
"Once people found out it was from a local girl who grew up here and used to come in with her parents and weigh herself on the scales, that piqued interest," said owner Garry Burks. "People started playing it and found out how much fun it was and started giving them as gifts."
Steenson credits word of mouth with the popularity of the game. At the 2007 Gen Con game convention in Las Vegas, more than 500 people signed up to play "Redneck Life." Fans of the game were so loud that organizers threw Gut Bustin' Games out of the board game room, Steenson said. She moved to a new location and hung out a new sign saying "Welcome to the trailer park." It was the only place in Vegas hosting a Spam-carving
contest.
The Kentucky Fried Gamers, who bill themselves as the "premiere redneck gaming community in the world," chose "Redneck Life" as their official game.
Steenson said she has never had anyone complain that the game puts down the less affluent.
"It isn't about poverty. It's about how you choose to operate your life. The same things go on with the rich," she said. "People have a sense of humor and want to have fun."
In May, Gut Bustin' Games plans to release its newest creation, "Trailer Park Wars!", which pits players against each other to become the most successful trailer park operator by inflicting the competition with such plagues as rat infestations and meth labs.
An OSU graduate with a degree in physical education, Steenson left Sweet Home nearly three decades ago, but she's never lost touch with her own redneck roots. She lives at the end of a gravel road outside tiny Yacolt, Wash., with a miniature donkey, and counts Tonya Harding among her friends.
For her next game, Steenson plans to turn her attention to making fun of rich people, she said.
More information about "Redneck Life" and other Gut Bustin' games can be found on the web at www.rednecklife.us.