The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! The Game! minus 20.
This blog post is not for credit, just some random thoughts if anyone wishes to have a simple conversation. Although I doubt anyone will read this post, I would like to discuss the idea of The Game.
First off, I shall explain the significance of The Game for anyone who has yet to lose it (if you do not want to join The Game and its never-ending cycle of inevitable loss, please stop reading now). The Game is as its name implies a simple game where one loses upon thinking about it. Although I am unsure as to where it began, I do know that many people are a part of it.
With this level of background knowledge, anyone who decides to read this prompt should have the ability to understand the following rant (which I shall begin now).
The Game represents two major conflicts: the struggle between humans and failure, and the humanity dealing with its imperfect methods of communication. Humanity versus failure, the first of the major conflicts, parallels the idea of conservation (for a small physics reference). No matter how much humans want to succeed, we cannot circumvent the natural laws of the world. Though we can make gold from lead, we need an enormous amount of energy to do so; to travel across the world we need to spend time, money, and energy/fuel. Similarly, no matter how much you may want to win, if you play The Game you will ALWAYS lose. The only way humans can deal with this problem of inevitable failure, is make the most out of failure. In this way, there are many people who cope with the epic fail (pardon the colloquialism/slang or whatever that is) associated with the game through various methods. Some choose to make others lose with them, while others choose to ignore their failures at The Game and live their lives in peace.
The second major conflict, humanity versus imperfect communication, simply exists as a more microscopic version of the previous problem. Due to the fact that humans cannot perfectly transmit thoughts among themselves and must rely on manipulating language to send messages to each other, there are times when we cannot send the message we want. The Game takes advantage of this inevitable failure by closely tying the connotation of failure to the ordinary word: game. By having a common word carry connotations that one may not intend, The Game displays the fallibility of language.
In the end, I believe that some failure is inevitable, but also that we must deal with the present and succeed as much as possible until we die (and therefore lose at life). Although I truly despise The Game and its cycle of failure, I appreciate that it has led to my thinking about many important aspects of reality.
As a side note/question (to the few who may read this post): Can humans avoid failure?
In a way, the game could have a helpful purpose in life. It forces humans to fail. Randy already explained how that happens yet conveys that failure as a negative occurrence. I disagree. Humans cannot avoid failure. We face it all the time in life. That failure and our responses to it can help us grow as people. If I fail at something, I have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. I can then avoid them in the future. Failure also serves as a sort of ego check, making sure that we don’t get too full of ourselves and end up in a vicious spiral to Hell (I know that is a logical leap, but I wrote a research paper about the ego leading to Hell and don’t really want to write it again). By playing and subsequently losing the game, we can get in a little dose of failure every day/week/month/ect. That failure keeps us humble and can help us learn to cope with failure in a low or no consequence manner. The worst that happens when you lose the game is that you lose the game. Yet we can take our small failures and use the coping skills we learned from them when we face bigger failures that may actually have an effect on our lives. Because of the game, we can survive those actual failures relatively intact.
Well now that I have lost by looking at the blog page I might as well leave my opinion.
The Game, in my opinion, is useful for teaching yourself to forget something. Beyond blocking painful memories or other undesirable, I don't think The Game is useful to people.
I agree with the previous posts that failure is inevitable and part of being human, but I don't think that it should be common or made to feel any better through repetition. Failure is usually painful because it is bad, and you are not supposed to want to fail or be ok with failing. By making failure even more unavoidable and common, The Game is actually a negative influence on the individual. If someone constantly fails they will think it is acceptable not be as motivated to avoid it, but if failure always feels like the end of the world the person will work harder to avoid the emotional pain. Failure is natural, but it should never be considered the as the standard or acceptable.
First off, which Chris Baker are you? Having two people with the same name is confusing. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the game.
I agree that the game can help teach you to not think of stuff, but blocking memories, especially painful memories, can lead to more harm. If you block something, you are in denial. That denial can lead to bigger problems because the memory will need to be dealt with eventually. For example, I could block the memory that Catcher in the Rye was to be annotated by a week or two ago and just not annotate it, but when Mr. Robin finally checks the annotations, I would have to face my memory and deal with the consequences. If I hadn’t blocked the memory, I could have followed a schedule and finished. By the way—I don’t like being burned by the metaphorical stove so I finished annotating a while ago. The above is just an example. Since memories, especially painful ones, need to be dealt with, the game can actually harm people.
Also, why do people get so into the game? You’re going to lose. Deal with it and move on with life. Though it is kind of funny to watch people who care about the game lose…
You honestly posed a false dilemma to students who voluntarily analyze and blog about the game? Then I will answer with the classic E319 response that fits almost any circumstance. It depends. True, some teens are generally apathetic, and some teens use not caring as a defense mechanism. Yet other options exist. Some teens don’t care because they are ignorant. I have friends who do not know of the game and therefore do not care about it. Cultural differences can also lead to teens not caring. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that in some Eastern cultures, showing much emotion is frowned upon, so teens from those cultures may have just assimilated to that discourse. Not caring can stem from many other causes as well, but I would not care to list them all.
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Ridiculous!
Hello everyone!
This blog post is not for credit, just some random thoughts if anyone wishes to have a simple conversation. Although I doubt anyone will read this post, I would like to discuss the idea of The Game.
First off, I shall explain the significance of The Game for anyone who has yet to lose it (if you do not want to join The Game and its never-ending cycle of inevitable loss, please stop reading now). The Game is as its name implies a simple game where one loses upon thinking about it. Although I am unsure as to where it began, I do know that many people are a part of it.
With this level of background knowledge, anyone who decides to read this prompt should have the ability to understand the following rant (which I shall begin now).
The Game represents two major conflicts: the struggle between humans and failure, and the humanity dealing with its imperfect methods of communication. Humanity versus failure, the first of the major conflicts, parallels the idea of conservation (for a small physics reference). No matter how much humans want to succeed, we cannot circumvent the natural laws of the world. Though we can make gold from lead, we need an enormous amount of energy to do so; to travel across the world we need to spend time, money, and energy/fuel. Similarly, no matter how much you may want to win, if you play The Game you will ALWAYS lose. The only way humans can deal with this problem of inevitable failure, is make the most out of failure. In this way, there are many people who cope with the epic fail (pardon the colloquialism/slang or whatever that is) associated with the game through various methods. Some choose to make others lose with them, while others choose to ignore their failures at The Game and live their lives in peace.
The second major conflict, humanity versus imperfect communication, simply exists as a more microscopic version of the previous problem. Due to the fact that humans cannot perfectly transmit thoughts among themselves and must rely on manipulating language to send messages to each other, there are times when we cannot send the message we want. The Game takes advantage of this inevitable failure by closely tying the connotation of failure to the ordinary word: game. By having a common word carry connotations that one may not intend, The Game displays the fallibility of language.
In the end, I believe that some failure is inevitable, but also that we must deal with the present and succeed as much as possible until we die (and therefore lose at life). Although I truly despise The Game and its cycle of failure, I appreciate that it has led to my thinking about many important aspects of reality.
As a side note/question (to the few who may read this post):
Can humans avoid failure?
-Randolph Chua (has lost The Game)
Thank you Mr. Robin. Here I was, expecting an extra credit prompt. Instead, my game was lost due to your postings.
In a way, the game could have a helpful purpose in life. It forces humans to fail. Randy already explained how that happens yet conveys that failure as a negative occurrence. I disagree. Humans cannot avoid failure. We face it all the time in life. That failure and our responses to it can help us grow as people. If I fail at something, I have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. I can then avoid them in the future. Failure also serves as a sort of ego check, making sure that we don’t get too full of ourselves and end up in a vicious spiral to Hell (I know that is a logical leap, but I wrote a research paper about the ego leading to Hell and don’t really want to write it again). By playing and subsequently losing the game, we can get in a little dose of failure every day/week/month/ect. That failure keeps us humble and can help us learn to cope with failure in a low or no consequence manner. The worst that happens when you lose the game is that you lose the game. Yet we can take our small failures and use the coping skills we learned from them when we face bigger failures that may actually have an effect on our lives. Because of the game, we can survive those actual failures relatively intact.
Well now that I have lost by looking at the blog page I might as well leave my opinion.
The Game, in my opinion, is useful for teaching yourself to forget something. Beyond blocking painful memories or other undesirable, I don't think The Game is useful to people.
I agree with the previous posts that failure is inevitable and part of being human, but I don't think that it should be common or made to feel any better through repetition. Failure is usually painful because it is bad, and you are not supposed to want to fail or be ok with failing. By making failure even more unavoidable and common, The Game is actually a negative influence on the individual. If someone constantly fails they will think it is acceptable not be as motivated to avoid it, but if failure always feels like the end of the world the person will work harder to avoid the emotional pain. Failure is natural, but it should never be considered the as the standard or acceptable.
First off, which Chris Baker are you? Having two people with the same name is confusing. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the game.
I agree that the game can help teach you to not think of stuff, but blocking memories, especially painful memories, can lead to more harm. If you block something, you are in denial. That denial can lead to bigger problems because the memory will need to be dealt with eventually. For example, I could block the memory that Catcher in the Rye was to be annotated by a week or two ago and just not annotate it, but when Mr. Robin finally checks the annotations, I would have to face my memory and deal with the consequences. If I hadn’t blocked the memory, I could have followed a schedule and finished. By the way—I don’t like being burned by the metaphorical stove so I finished annotating a while ago. The above is just an example. Since memories, especially painful ones, need to be dealt with, the game can actually harm people.
Also, why do people get so into the game? You’re going to lose. Deal with it and move on with life. Though it is kind of funny to watch people who care about the game lose…
so, for most teenagers, is not caring is a defense mechanism or a gesture of general apathy?
You honestly posed a false dilemma to students who voluntarily analyze and blog about the game? Then I will answer with the classic E319 response that fits almost any circumstance. It depends. True, some teens are generally apathetic, and some teens use not caring as a defense mechanism. Yet other options exist. Some teens don’t care because they are ignorant. I have friends who do not know of the game and therefore do not care about it. Cultural differences can also lead to teens not caring. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that in some Eastern cultures, showing much emotion is frowned upon, so teens from those cultures may have just assimilated to that discourse. Not caring can stem from many other causes as well, but I would not care to list them all.
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