User talk:Tiger yamato

The Game

The Game is a name commonly used for an abstract mental game in which the object is to forget about the existence of the game itself. This social phenomenon is played by an increasing number of people throughout the world and is inherently memetic.

Rules

The Game consists of a few simple rules. However, as The Game is propagated mostly by word of mouth, these rules are subject to various additions, deletions, and rewordings. Most players generally abide by at least some version of the following rules:

You begin playing The Game when you become aware of its existence.
Whenever you think about The Game, you lose.
When you lose The Game, you must announce your loss to everyone present.

Loss is only temporary, and players begin winning again as soon as they forget about The Game.

Common causes of loss include the mention of words such as "game" or "lose" as well as things relating to cognition.

The way in which loss is announced tends to be similar within groups of players, often "I (just) lost" or simply "The Game". This is usually preceded by a curse or swear word.

A commonly played fourth rule (especially in the USA) is that following someone's loss, players gain immunity from losing for a certain amount of time (a 'grace period').

Some people score The Game by losing a point for every loss, while all other players present (n) gain either 1 point each, or 1/n points.

Many players believe that you have no choice but to play The Game once you become aware of it. The choice is whether or not you abide by Rule 3.

Rule 2

Rule 2 is open to a number of different interpretations.

The broadest interpretation is that any thought involving The Game causes loss. This is hard to define, for example, does thinking about this article count as thinking about The Game? This interpretation also makes it relatively easy to accidently break Rule 3, by thinking about The Game without realising you have lost.

Another interpreation is that you lose whenever you remember you are playing The Game. This is subtley different from the previous interpretation, it involves becoming aware that you are a participant in The Game. It is still possible to do this without realising that you have lost, and hence accidently break Rule 3.

A third interpretation is that you lose only when you realise you have lost. This seemingly paradoxical version of Rule 2 is often chosen by experienced players as it makes accidental cheating impossible. This is because it is possible to think about, and even discuss, The Game without a realising you have lost.

Another aspect of Rule 2 that is commonly disputed is whether you should lose if you have been reminded of The Game by someone else's loss.

Origins

The ultimate origins of The Game are unclear, and may never be known. A number of people have claimed to be the creator and, although unlikely, it is possible that The Game was created independently at different times and in different places. At The Game Tree, a website dedicated to tracking The Game back to its originator, the longest recorded player of The Game is one Mike Codling, who claims to have been playing since 1993. He was told that it originated as the "East Finchley game":

"Three young men, following a heavy night out in the west end, accidentally took the wrong branch on the northern line, and found themselves stranded at East Finchley. As they had no money, they decided to wait on the platform until the first morning service to take them back into town. To help the time pass, they decided to play a game, and one suggested that they should try to forget about where they were, and that they were playing a game, and the first one to think about the game, or about East Finchley, was the loser." [1]

However, neither the provenance of the quote nor the identity of Mike Codling can be verified with credible evidence.

Strategies

It is almost impossible to take conscious steps to avoiding loss without losing. Common strategies focus on increasing the loss of others, such as placing reminders of The Game, like notes saying "The Game" or "You Lose", in locations where other players are likely to come across them. Though the person, in placing the notes, must think about The Game while doing so, and therefore lose, the person calculates that he or she will have forgotten about The Game by the time others find the note, and will therefore cause the other players to lose without losing again themself. Of course, for the player to realize this has worked, he or she would have to lose again. In schools where The Game is played, it is not uncommon to see such reminders written on class whiteboards, or pinned onto notice boards for unsuspecting students to view.

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. The Game propagates by word of mouth, and is especially popular in colleges and other places with a high density of young people, some of whom even wear T-shirts with the text "the game" written on them, causing everyone around the wearer to lose upon reading the shirt.

The spread of The Game is being recorded at the Game Tree, with the ultimate goal of finding its origin.

Criticisms

Many people who come across The Game find it pointless or absurd. Its significant differences from other games make it hard to understand in itself, as well as to why people would choose to play it. The fact that it is hard to score, difficult to devise strategies for, and that there is no final victory, means that it is frowned upon by more competetive game-players. Some would argue that it is not a game at all. Whether there is a choice in playing or not is also hotly debated.

External links

The psychology of thought suppression and mental control

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