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I just lost the game.
As a side effect, so did you.
I learned about the game at a barbecue on my final night in London this year, from a man who’d had the misfortune to just lose the game himself.
The game is the anti-memory game. As soon as you think of the game, you lose the game. And you have to announce to the room “I’ve just lost the game”, thus causing everyone in the room to lose the game also.
So the story goes that this man had learned the game from a friend in Edinburgh, where, quite coincidentally, he lives. A friend of his, who he hadn’t seen in years, visited Edinburgh from Borneo, only to announce in the pub, quite unexpectedly, “I’ve just lost the game.”
His friend had learned about the game in the jungle.
A further story goes that this man’s girlfriend was at a bar in London, where, on ordering her drinks, announced, “I’ve just lost the game.” Another patron, an older gentleman, stood with the dim lights of recognition in his eyes. Turning, responding without sadness or anger, he stated, “I haven’t thought about the game in 12 years.”
The beauty of the game is that once you hear about it, you’re playing it. It’s viral. It travelled from Edinburgh to London and then back to Glasgow. I’ve sent it to Fukushima, and by telling you, I’ve spread it even further. And that’s the power of word of mouth, I guess.
The inverse is it might take years for everyone to be playing the game, which is why no companies ever rely on word of mouth alone to sell their products. So yet again this year I trouped down to London for London Game Week. This year, however, London Game Week was a battleground between the traditional London trade show, ECTS and it’s conference, the EGDC, against the brand new shows, EGN (European Game Network) a trade show, EDF (European Developer’s Forum) a conference, and Game Stars Live, a consumer show which appeared to be taking the place (and expanding the mandate) of last year’s sweaty, monstrous Playstation Experience. The battle lines drawn between the conference centres of Earl’s Court in central London (the position of ECTS and EGDC) and Excel in the east end (EGN, EDF and Game Stars Live), most visitors had to choose between the shows, including myself. Due to the sorry state of ECTS and the large variety of games on show at Game Stars Live, most of my time was spent at Excel. Which is somewhat obvious from the unbalanced nature of my reporting. Ahem.
[next: Game Stars Live]
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