Fun Ways to Blow Minds: The Game

The Game is a great way to perplex — and possibly entertain — a group of people, all in the name of shaking the tree a little. It takes a certain amount of effort, but hey, we all have to suffer for our art. If you have Discordian inclinations, The Game is a great addition to your Operation Mindfuck toolbox.

Pick twenty-four people at random from the phone book or, if your phone book doesn’t have addresses in, pick twenty-four addresses randomly from your town. Select a superpower, fighting skill, or other competitive talent for each person, and divide them up into four groups of six.

Then prepare a simple letter to each person explaining that their alter-ego has been selected for entry into ‘The Game’, and post the letters. Compare the abilities of each of the six in each group, and either decide the top two winners straight out, or play them off against each other. At the end of the week, inform the winners that they have gone through to the next round, and commiserate the losers. Remember to thank them for playing. To make it more interesting, tell each person about some of the contests they fought, and why they won or lost.

Raven Lost The Game, by Scragz

If you have the patience –- and the money for stamps –- you could just do one match-up a week at the group stage, letting people know how they are doing in the table.

After the group qualifiers, you’ll have eight quarter-­finalists left. Again, wait a week, and then pair them up, choose victors, and let the contestants know. Wait another week for the semis, and then one last week for the final. If you are feeling generous, you might like to send the winner a small prize, like a book token or a certificate.

What ever you do, under no circumstances explain anything to the contestants or provide any details about yourself. The fun of the game lies in the complete mystery of the situation.

If you live in the USA or somewhere else where suing people is a religion, then you’ll need to take extra precautions. Make it very clear on every letter that this is just a game, that all activity is entirely fictitious, and it has no implications or inferences for real life. You can also use a laser printer to print the letters and envelopes. If you’re feeling really paranoid, use a different mail box each week to post your letters, wear rubber gloves to handle them, and wet the backs of the stamps with a sponge rather than licking them.

The most golden rule of the game though is never, ever write anything threatening to the recipients –- that really can get you arrested. So when you describe contests, make sure that it is perfectly clear that you are talking about their alter ego, not themselves. When someone gets knocked out, do not even describe their character as being killed or injured, just as having lost.

Although you’ll probably never get to see your victims’ utter confusion first hand -– unless you select friends and acquaintances to play –- you’ll have the deep satisfaction of knowing that you’ve left twenty-four perfectly ordinary people scratching their heads and talking about your actions for years to come.