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The Game (game)

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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
Rules complexity	Low
Strategy depth	High
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 they are playing. Gameplay involves a player announcing when he has thought about the game and (temporarily) lost. Since its spread to new players via word-of-mouth is explicitly encoded in its rules, The Game serves as a powerful example of a meme.

1 Rules
2 Strategies
3 Cheating
4 Emergent effects
5 The Game as meme
6 Spread of The Game
7 See also
8 External links

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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:

When a loss is announced, all other players have a 30 minute grace period in which to forget about The Game before they also lose.
When one player loses, all players present are immune from losing until The Game is forgotten again.
If you say you have lost the 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.

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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

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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).

One variation of the game requires that the cheater be poked repeatedly for not acknowledging their loss. Everyone playing in the vicinity must gang up on the player and poke them multiple times. This may be refered to as "hardcore playing."

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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.

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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.

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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 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 1996, although neither of these can be backed up with credible evidence.

A link to this article 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).

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