RISK Factor: Man Land
- Brand
- RISK
- Year
- 2008
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Enter The Studio
Objective
Hasbro built this site to promote its 2008 relaunch of the classic board game RISK, and aimed the whole campaign at adult men, buying targeted media on CNN, UGO and The Onion to pull that audience in. Beyond awareness, the site doubled as a lead-generation funnel, pushing players toward registration for the RISK Factor Sweepstakes.
Solution
Players land on Man Land, a chunk of earth hovering over the globe and cluttered with guy-territory props: a TV, a recliner, a pickup truck, a slot machine, a dog pile, a stretch of racetrack. Clicking any object drops the player into a short arcade minigame — Super Commuter, Weekend Warrior, Neighbor Wars — and each round's score feeds a running Manly Meter that cracks jokes at the player's expense and posts them to a scoreboard under a generated handle like "Sally 141" or "Rookie 103." A Boss Button and a Wife Button sit onscreen the whole time as a one-click cover story, and every scene change wipes the screen with a can of spray paint before the next minigame loads. In the top-left corner, tokens marked "Click to unlock!" pull players off to a separate page where an age gate and entry form sign them up for the RISK Factor Sweepstakes.
- 1
Players arrive via banner ads on men's-interest sites (CNN, UGO, The Onion) that lead either to Hasbro's RISK brand page or straight to the promo hub; a "Risk Factor" link on the brand page opens that hub, which gates entry with a date-of-birth check ahead of sweepstakes registration. The playable game itself is a separate Flash-only experience that loads at its own address and requires the Flash Player plug-in to run.
- 2
The game opens on "Man Land," a single floating patch of ground scattered with male-stereotype hotspot objects — a plasma TV, a man-cave shed, a giant remote, an arcade cabinet, a pickup truck, a dog mess, a race track, a RISK board box and more — each one an entry point into its own minigame.
- 3
A persistent HUD frames every screen: a player-avatar silhouette next to a running score labeled "[Nickname]'s Manly Meter," whose caption below the number changes as the score climbs (from a jab at low scores to a nod at higher ones), alongside a scoreboard link, an audio toggle, and Boss/Wife buttons.
- 4
A padlocked badge reading "RISK FACTOR SWEEPSTAKES — CLICK TO UNLOCK" sits fixed in a corner of the world, giving players a constant route into the sweepstakes from inside the game itself.
- 5
Hovering a hotspot highlights it and reveals the name and tagline of its minigame; clicking it triggers a black paint-splash transition that wipes the screen before opening the chosen minigame inside a torn black border.
- 6
Each minigame opens with a comic-panel briefing — a title, a reaction card, and a short setup narrative — with the RISK board box shown alongside as a constant brand anchor, then offers How To Play, a Dumb It Down easier mode, Start Game, or Return to World.
- 7
The minigames vary in setting and mechanic: one is a top-down driving game weaving through highway traffic against a timer, with a score that can go negative; another is a top-down office maze where the player acts against a clock among cubicles and scattered obstacles. Both keep a timer, How To Play, and Return to World on screen throughout.
- 8
Leaving a minigame returns the player to Man Land to pick another object; points from every minigame feed into the same running Manly Meter, which the player can review at any time via the Scoreboard.
- 9
After the promotion's run ended, the same address stopped loading the game and instead showed a stub page announcing that the sweepstakes closed on July 31, 2009.
