Publish or Perish: The Board Game of Academic Survival

On a crisp fall day in 2023, social psychologist Max Hui Bai, a former postdoctoral fellow and entrepreneur-in-training at Stanford University, was enjoying a board game night with fellow academics. After hours of fun, Bai had a thought: What if there was a game about academic life challenges where players took on the role of researchers? His friends quickly jumped on the idea, suggesting humorous elements like plagiarism and the infamous "Reviewer 2"—the notoriously harsh manuscript critic.

In The Publish or Perish Game, players race to publish as many manuscripts as possible through collaboration, sabotage, or a mix of both.

Bai realized, “This idea had more potential than the tech startup I was working on.” This spark of inspiration led to the creation of The Publish or Perish Game, a satirical game about academic life centered around the cutthroat process of publishing.

While many strategy games focus on maximizing points, Bai remarked, “If this is a game for academics, this is not what they want. Academics already think about complex stuff all day.” Instead, he steered his game toward a party-style experience. The game features action cards for publishing papers worth varying citation points, but also for collaborating with colleagues and sabotaging other players.

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