Goldendale farmer's board game goes high-techBy BRETT OPPEGAARD, The Columbian, January 24, 1997Goldendale- For the 35th morning in a row, farmer George Rohrbacher rose at 3 a.m., began bailing his hay fields by tractor headlights and wondered what he was going to do about his foundering farm. Row after row , he rode through the dark fields agonizing about the ultimatum his pregnant wife, Ann, recently had given him: she was going to quit her job at a local radio station and raise a family- farm or no farm. They desperately wanted to keep their 1,500 acre farm near Goldendale, but two bad harvests out of three years had crippled the family savings accounts and left them with two choices: either sell the land or find a way to make some money, a lot of money. Bouncing along on the seat of his tractor, Rohrbacher's thoughts then drifted to the novel he had been working on for years, yet never finished. Maybe that would do it. He also pondered a letter he had received the night before from a friend, which suggested that Rohrbacher come up with a board game about farming. Something to teach the trade. If Monopoly could coach cutthroat capitalists in pseudo-Atlantic City, why couldn't Rohrbacher create a world of fantasy farmers in the Yakima Valley? " The more I thought about it, the more I realized this was it," George Rohrbacher said, describing the jolt of inspiration that surged through him like a bolt of lightning. "My novel made a heck of a lot better game than book."
It has a remarkable following around the world, said Bruce Downs, president of the Northern Games Co. Ltd., a game distributor in Edmonton, Alberta." People were calling us and asking where they could get it. So we had to find the Rohrbachers down in Washington and talked them into letting us sell their game." Ann Rohrbacher said The Farming Game's sales peaked in the mid-1980s at about 50,000 games per year. Interest has dropped slowly since, in part because the couple quit advertising and promoting the game to pursue other interests. In the 1990s sales averaged about 20,000 copies per year. But Rohrbacher says he now hopes to rekindle interest in his creation through a couple of new products. Last month, he released the first computer version of the game and a 235 page book about his life, called "Zen Ranching and The Farming Game." The computer game is IBM compatible. With profits so far from The Farming Game idea, the Rohrbachers have paid off their ranch, built a 45-foot wide geodesic dome to live in, complete with an outdoor recreation area that includes a tennis court, a basketball court and a swimming pool. A waterfall spills into a seasonal creek that rushes by their back window." We bet the equity we had in the ranch, half our cow herd and just about everything else we owned on my game," Rohrbacher said. "I don't know if we have enough guts to do something like that today. But there is nothing like a good dose of desperation to make you think things will work out...it's still one of those things you look back on and ask yourself, did we really do all that? The Rohrbachers met as students at an apartment complex near the University of Denver and claim it was love at first sight. George asked Ann to marry him about a week after they met. She accepted, and they were married in 1970. " It was like sticking your finger in a wall socket," George Rohrbacher said. "It was just so right. There was no question. The couple rented their first home, near Toppenish, where George Rohrbacher worked as a farmhand and Ann Rohrbacher found a job at a bank. A few years later, the couple bought a small farm in the Yakima Valley raising hay and cattle. Next they took over a 30-acre Sunnyside farm, which they slowly expanded to 120 acres, raising several crops including grapes, corn, and alfalfa. In 1977, they found the 1,500 acre ranch. It was perfect. It was where they wanted to raise their family together, they said. The Rohrbachers sold their Sunnyside farm for a profit and moved to the property about 15 miles west of Goldendale. Copyright© The Weekend Farmer Co. |
During the next 12 hours, Rohrbacher created a majority of The Farming Game on a scrap of Sheetrock from his basement. The game filled a niche in the industry. The game saved the family farm. That was July 1979. Rohrbacher's game since has sold more than 350,000 copies worldwide. It has been translated into Russian. Found in the outbacks of Borneo. Shipped to Egypt and many missionary outposts in Africa. Sold across the United States. Gobbled up by gamers in Canada."