Last night SEOmoz hosted the much-anticipated Search Spam party (much anticipated by Rand and Gillian, anyway, who have been skipping around the office like giddy little school girls the past couple weeks). Held in the room opposite the Google Meet the Engineers mixer (how very Sharks vs. Jets!), Gillian did a lovely job of setting up tables adorned with Search Spam cards and black and white M&Ms (to enhance the Black Hat/White Hat theme, of course).
Search Spam is essentially an SEO-themed version of the parlor game Werewolf (or Mafia, depending on how you’ve played it). Begrudgingly (threw that in for ya, Rand), Wikipedia has a comprehensive entry about the game and how it’s played, so give it a read if you’re intrigued about the rules. Werewolf is a game of bullshitting, deceit, and persuasion…so we found it only natural to give it an SEO theme and repackage it as Search Spam. 😀
One of Rand’s friends who’s also an artist drew caricatures of several well-known SEOs and search engine reps. These folks were divided into the White Hat and Black Hat players, with Danny Sullivan being the Reinclusion Requester (the “healer”) and Matt Cutts being the Revealer of Hats (the “seer”):
After seeing many confused faces, we got several groups together and taught everyone the ropes one by one. Pretty soon, there were lots of excited shouts and amusing reveals (I’m sure the booze helped quite a bit). We even had a “Tournament of Champions” consisting of the winningest players (and, of course, Rand and Matt):
The Tournament of Champions
At this point, things were getting a bit rowdy and loud (loudy?), and I had the voice akin to a 55 year-old chain smoking, sun bathing, slot playing spinster named Lurlene. Overall, however, it seemed as if everyone had a great time nerding it up playing Search Spam. The cards were well received, lots of people had fun playing the game, and it was a great networking opportunity.
Thanks to everyone who attended, and big thanks to Rand, Gillian, Scott, and Christine for organizing the event and ensuring that everything ran smoothly. We hope everyone who attended had a good time. If you didn’t attend and want a pack of the Search Spam cards, we will have them available to order off our website soon. Until then, happy Werewolfing!
