The Game (net culture)

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Player admits she lost the game .

The Game (German: the game ) is a running gag and internet phenomenon about a game whose only goal is to forget the game. The Game is therefore not an actual game that can be actively played. Rather, the “players” spread allusions to it, in particular the message that they lost the game in order to make others lose. For example, anyone reading this article inevitably lost The Game . So it can be seen as such a hint.

The Game was mainly known in English-speaking countries in the years after 2007, but has also spread worldwide through the Internet. It was particularly popular in American schools and colleges.

The game

The following basic rules for The Game are given, which are also varied and specified:

  1. Everyone is playing the game.
  2. If you think about the game, you lose.
  3. Whoever loses the game must tell at least one person.

There is no generally accepted way to win the game; the players can only try not to lose for as long as possible. It is sometimes said that if the Queen publicly announced that she had lost the game, you would have won the game. The addition "[for example] by a note, passed on in class to easily excitable friends" to the third rule shows that it is mainly about the glee at seeing others lose.

Once you have remembered the game and announced it, you have a certain amount of time (between three seconds and half an hour) to lose the game again from consciousness - and thus automatically continue playing the game. Losing the game that way over and over is "the whole perverse point of an otherwise pointless pursuit," writes The Kansas City Star . The interviewed pop culture expert J. Fred MacDonald said: "I have no doubt that Vladimir and Estragon could have talked about it in Waiting for Godot ".

Manifestations

Whoever reads this sign has lost The Game

Since the game cannot be won, the players develop strategies to make others lose: for example, they write sticky notes with the message “You lost” , spray graffiti on bridges or write notes on banknotes a website dedicated to The Game . Students tell how they came up with the game as a group in a shopping mall and then announced it aloud. “Then we heard a few people, just some people in the store, say it, which was quite amusing.” Countless hints, as well as reports of losing the game, are spread on Facebook and Twitter . T-shirts, buttons , bumper stickers, mugs and posters are now being produced by The Game , and various websites are dealing with the phenomenon. As part of the network culture , it is also taken up by webcomics : Reallifecomics described the rules of the game in November 2007; in March 2008, xkcd released a strip with the short message: “ You just won the game. It's okay! You're free! "(German:" You just won the game . It's okay! You're free! ")

origin

The origins of the game are unknown. As a possible origin, among other things, two men are given who missed the last train and should have spent the whole night on the platform. They tried not to think about their situation and whoever did it first lost. The first documented mention of the game on the internet is from 2001.

The game is an example of the Ironic Processes theory , also known as the White Bear Phenomenon , according to which trying to avoid a particular thought makes it much more persistent. A classic example of ironic processes is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's quote from his travelogue Winter Notes on Summer Impressions from 1863: “Set yourself this task: Don't think of a polar bear, and you will see that this cursed thing will be in your head any minute . "

Web links

Commons : The Game (mind game)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e 'The Game' is a fad that will get you every time . In: The Kansas City Star , July 21, 2009
  2. ↑ a b c Teens around the world are playing 'the game' . Report from The Canadian Press to CTV , Jan. 17, 2008
  3. ↑ a b c Nederland gaat nu ook lost ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Report in De Pers newspaper , December 15, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.depers.nl
  4. ↑ If you read this you've lost the game . In: British newspaper Metro , December 3, 2008
  5. ^ Strip from July 24, 2007 on reallifecomics.com
  6. ↑ Anti-Mindvirus on xkcd.com