User:Quadraxis/The Game (fairly old version)
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| The Game | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Players | Unlimited |
| Age range | 8 and up |
| Setup time | less than 2 minutes for rule listing and explanation |
| Playing time | Lifetime |
| Random chance | Unknown |
| Skills required | Forgetfulness, Anti-social tendencies |
The Game is an abstract, self-referential mental game in which the goal is for players to forget that they are playing. Play is, in some sense, continuous, but the active and visible episodes are only those in which a player announces that he has thought about the game and therefore (temporarily) lost. Knowledge of The Game is spread to new players primarily via word-of-mouth, and since that spread is explicitly encoded in its rules, The Game serves as a succinct example of a meme.
WARNING: According to the game's rules, once having read the rules below, you cannot stop playing the game. Of course, this is contingent upon the reader accepting them.
Contents |
[edit] Rules
The Game is built on a few simple rules. However, as it spreads, these rules are subject to various additions, deletions, and rewordings. Most players generally abide by at least some version of the following three rules:
- To know of The Game's existence is to play The Game.
- To realise that you have thought of The Game is to lose The Game.
- When you lose The Game, you must announce this fact to everyone present. Announcing a loss is usually done using a short sentence such as "I've just lost The Game" or "I thought of The Game" or "I've just lost", or more commonly phrases like "I lose", or even simply "The Game" both to create intrigue in others as to what the loser is talking about and as an in-joke to other Game players.
Some players often also follow additional rules such as:
- If a person loses, they and anyone who has heard them lose (and so therefore lost as well) have a 30 minute grace period in which to forget The Game before losing again.
- If during this 30 minute grace period someone who is playing the game dies, then that player loses forever. However, if they are currently not losing, they get a patch. (However, they do not "win" a patch because you can never win The Game)
- If you say you have lost The Game in the presence of non-players and are asked what the game is, you must explain to them the rules of The Game.
- When a loss is announced, all others who are aware of the game and hear the announcement lose as well. (Some play that when the announcement is made the only person who loses is the original loser. The hearers of the announcement then gain a 30 minute reprieve.)
[edit] Strategies
It is not possible to have the knowledge that one has won at The Game, only to have won it and remain ignorant of the fact; if one remembers that they have won it, they have subsequently lost. Participating in the meme can be argued to be a humorous group bonding tool, and some players have come up with strategies to make others lose more often. One strategy employed by players is to force other players to associate common occurrences or objects with the game. Another includes using reminders of the game in various places either online in internet forum usernames or signatures, or in real-life locations in order to foster game-loss. [1]
In some situations where speech is not possible or appropriate (e.g. during an examination or class), some players have developed non-verbal strategies, including (but not limited to) sign language either for "game" or simply just "G", tracing the letters in the air, passing notes or subtle actions that have previously had the intended meaning explained, such as rubbing the head or scratching the nose.
In schools where The Game is played, it is not uncommon to see "The Game", "You Lose" or similar messages written on class whiteboards, or pinned onto notice boards for unsuspecting students to view.
It can be argued that it is necessary to practice Doublethink in order to play The Game effectively. That is to say, one must deliberately forget The Game, knowing full well that this is only a means toward not losing The Game. It might also be possible to think of The Game without realizing that doing so means that one has lost, although this may be construed as cheating (albeit without realizing it).
[edit] Cheating
Cheating is as simple as failing to announce that you have lost The Game. Some players cheat simply because they have grown tired of the game. Often they will pretend that they have won instead of lost, or just say that they have quit. At this point, more serious players of The Game may be inclined to give them a gentle reminder (pointing out the obvious fact that once playing there is no way to either stop or win).
Additionally, some people who do not properly appreciate the game, opt to sabotage players of the game by announcing as often as possible that the players of the game have lost. In many circles, this is considered a cheat, disregarded, and a free grace cooldown period begins.
[edit] Emergent effects
A player's announcement that they have lost The Game usually comes as a non-sequitur. Others who are present and don't know about The Game will probably be confused, and may ask for an explanation. If the player responds by explaining The Game, those bystanders unwittingly become players in The Game. This is how The Game spreads in a viral manner. If a player loses The Game in the presence of others who are familiar with it, the usual result is a cascade of losses, in which everyone present has to declare that they have lost.
[edit] The Game as meme
The Game's rules act like a virus' genome. Without the capability to reproduce by itself, a virus relies on a host's cellular replication systems to create new virus copies. Similarly, The Game can not spread from mind to mind by itself; it must instead use a player's communication capabilities to reproduce. A player's innate desire for play, as well as the desire to follow rules and try new things, lead to the spreading of nearly exact copies of the statement of rules the player received to many potential other players.
[edit] Spread of The Game
The Game has been heard across the English-speaking world, especially in the United Kingdom and the USA - most evidence suggests that The Game's origins lie in these two countries. It has spread across Europe, and as far afield as Australia, Brazil, Japan and Israel.
It is claimed to have originated independently in several cities around the world and some variations are alleged to have been traced back as far as 1993, although these can not be backed up with credible evidence.
A group of people traced one creation of the game to an engineering class in the U.S.. The rules for their version is a 15 minuet grace period verses the 30 minuet.
A link to the Wikipedia article on The Game has been displayed in an advertisement for OmniGraffle in MacAddict publications. [2]
The Game is also mentioned in the March 2006 issue of Macworld (page 8).
The spread of The Game is being recorded in an online family tree at The Game Tree
[edit] Losing Cascade
Known by many different names, this is basically the effect when one person loses, of making many, many other people lose, often by text message or instant messaging. The losing is spread far and wide, and through many people, until eventually (although unlikely) everyone that is playing will lose. [citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Lose The Game - dedicated to finding the creator of The Game by tracing its spread backwards. Vote on & discuss the rules.
- Metafilter Post referring to The Game
- The psychology of thought suppression and mental control
- Forget The Game - a fansite dedicated to players of the game.
![[2]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Thegameinadvertisement.jpg){kind=link}