The Game (game) - Definition and Overview

The Game is the unofficial but ubiquitous title for a specific mental game cum viral social phenomenon played most widely in the United Kingdom, but garnering many adherents in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. Its origins are uncertain, but some oral histories trace it back to at least 1997.

Rules

1. To know The Game is to play the game. One can never stop playing.
2. To think of The Game is to lose The Game. Therefore, the object of the game is to forget that it exists.
3. When one loses the game, one must announce that one has lost the game to everyone present (usually by saying "I just lost the game" or "Darn! I just lost!").
4. An optional (but widely-used) variant of the game: When a game loss is announced, all other players have an approximately 30 minute grace period which they may use to again forget about the game.
5. A rare variant: A player wins the game if he/she says "moo" before remembering about the game. Of course, this cannot be used with #6.
6. An optional variant of the game: You cannot force someone else to lose the game (verbaly or with any type of time delay), and all players cannot lose the game again until they re-forget and re-remember the game. You do not lose the game if somone near you reminds you of the game. This forces players to lose the game due to independent thought.

Inquiries into the game

If someone inquires about The Game, a common request after a player's non-sequitur game-loss announcement, a player may optionally tell that person the rules of The Game, thereby enrolling the inquirer in the game (according to rule #1 above). Serious players of The Game often take much delight in this.

Scoring

For numerically-inclined players, the game can be scored as a zero-sum game. A person who loses the game receives -1 (negative one) point, and the other n players present get 1/n points. If a person loses the game while alone, no score is given.

Strategies

Because to think of The Game is to lose it, it is difficult to develop strategies. Sometimes, during the grace period that follows a player's losing, people will send emails or voicemail messages, or use some other time-delay mechanism in order to cause people to think of The Game outside of the grace period, and thus lose.

Cheating

Cheating in The Game is as simple as failing to announce loss of The Game. Any other mention of The Game upon losing should be taken as an indication that the player just lost The Game and that all other players are fairly granted the 30 minutes of immunity.