Mostly my fault. I announced this in an English class subbie year and it exploded from there. I didn't make it up, though: www.losethegame.com. The reason this has captured a lot of people is that, even if you say that you're not playing, The Game pops up in your head every once in a while and you wince: but what greater joy (or at least nullifying of D'oh) than to share that with the world? Personally, I would love to stop playing, but remembering The Game now hurts on an illogical level: it's almost instinctual.
At about the point I started associating people (Conrad, Andrew) with losing, I went moderately insane: and at about the point where every single subbie and freshman picked this up, my mind snapped. I go into every class, lose, sit down, wait five minutes, lose again...grarr.
I think it's worth noting that I'm sorry about this too.
The actual rules. 1-3, and 7, are the important ones.
1) You are playing The Game.
2) If you remember you are playing The Game, you lose.
3) Loss must be announced, verbally or electronically, in writing, whatever way you feel like.
4) The Game is over when the British Prime Minister acknowledges The Game.
5) The generally accepted, though not universally agreed upon, way to win The Game is to cause every human on the planet to lose at the same time, without causing your own loss. If you win The Game, you're free.
6) Because you're probably not going to win The Game (which is, by the way, always capitalized like that), a subgoal is to tell as many people as you can about The Game.
7) You can put a 10-minute limit on
There is also an Anti-Game, which functions the same as The Game except you win when you remember you are playing it: and because it is so inane and can make people bipolar, you can quit the Anti-Game if you like. The Anti-Game is dumber than The Game by a factor of infinity, so no one plays it.
The Game
Mostly my fault. I announced this in an English class subbie year and it exploded from there. I didn't make it up, though: www.losethegame.com. The reason this has captured a lot of people is that, even if you say that you're not playing, The Game pops up in your head every once in a while and you wince: but what greater joy (or at least nullifying of D'oh) than to share that with the world? Personally, I would love to stop playing, but remembering The Game now hurts on an illogical level: it's almost instinctual.
At about the point I started associating people (Conrad, Andrew) with losing, I went moderately insane: and at about the point where every single subbie and freshman picked this up, my mind snapped. I go into every class, lose, sit down, wait five minutes, lose again...grarr.
I think it's worth noting that I'm sorry about this too.
The actual rules. 1-3, and 7, are the important ones.
1) You are playing The Game.
2) If you remember you are playing The Game, you lose.
3) Loss must be announced, verbally or electronically, in writing, whatever way you feel like.
4) The Game is over when the British Prime Minister acknowledges The Game.
5) The generally accepted, though not universally agreed upon, way to win The Game is to cause every human on the planet to lose at the same time, without causing your own loss. If you win The Game, you're free.
6) Because you're probably not going to win The Game (which is, by the way, always capitalized like that), a subgoal is to tell as many people as you can about The Game.
7) You can put a 10-minute limit on
There is also an Anti-Game, which functions the same as The Game except you win when you remember you are playing it: and because it is so inane and can make people bipolar, you can quit the Anti-Game if you like. The Anti-Game is dumber than The Game by a factor of infinity, so no one plays it.
I lose.