War (card game)

Raydere

I played this card game with some friends a few days ago.

I suddenly lost interest because of how it gives the player no control over gameplay, because you cannot look at your cards, and you must play them in order. Even bingo lets you have some influence over your winnings by allowing you to play multiple cards in some cases.

MadassAlex

Spoiler:

It's a game about how war exceeds the control of any individual. Usually, it's played by children, and you often see them try to "stack" the cards via particular behaviours, like how some cultures hold rituals in order to allegedly influence upcoming events. It's more a study of behaviour than a game, because it measures the behaviour of people when they have an objective but must rely entirely on luck to achieve it. It's well known in psychological science that people of just about any culture will turn to some kind of ritual when luck is all they have, as it's a way of dealing with lack of control.

Bee

Hold Up+B!  HOLD UP+B!!!

ClockworkUniverse

I recall a TV show I watched a few episodes of several years ago. I don't remember the details of the show, but it was a post-apocalypse sort of thing. Pretty much the only detail I remember is a scene transition that showed the building the characters were living in and had a voiceover of one of them saying "I hate war. Nobody ever wins."

Cut to them inside the building playing War and the other player says "Yeah. Let's play Go Fish instead."

glennmagusharvey

In other card game news, I'm thinking of rebranding the nicer, more creativity-oriented variant of [a card game named after the most famous Chinese dictator], by renaming it "Deng".

Rules of Deng:

1. It is played with one or more decks of standard playing cards.

2. It is played like Uno, but with additional rules, which players must discover and deduce on their own.  (In fairness to newbies, though, the committee may choose to explain a baseline set of rules.)

3. Players may create a new rule each time they win.  Rules should not be unfair or excessively burdensome, but may change fundamental aspects of the gameplay.

4. Players may talk during the game, as long as talking does not become excessive.

5. Players must play (or draw, or other action) within a reasonable amount of time (rather than a set limit such as five seconds).

JHM

But Mao could also be a reference to the "Mao Games" from the beginning of Arthur Machen's fabulous and unsettling short "The White People".

Then again, the occult implications of that aren't too friendly, either...

glennmagusharvey

you get two penalty cards