Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Rock, Paper, Scissors as a decision-making tool

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Water Cooler Games served as the web's primary forum for "videogames with an agenda" — coverage of the uses of video games in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment.

The site was maintained at watercoolergames.org from 2003-2009, where it was edited by myself and Gonzalo Frasca. It is now archived here in full.

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Rock, Paper, Scissors as a decision-making tool

by Ian Bogost October 24, 2003

categories: Social Games

Heard on NPR today, a report on the 2002 Rock Paper Scissors Championship. The Managing Director of the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, Douglas Walker, praised the social benefits of the game:

When you really get down to it, the primary purpose of the World Rock Paper Scissors Society is both the promotion and standardization of Rock Paper Scissors as a decision-making tool. So, for all of those daily decisions of life - who's got to take the dog for a walk on a rainy day, take out the garbage - things that can often end up in, you know, disagreements and potentially fights or in the worst cases violence, Rock Paper Scissors really is the impartial judge and jury in those situations.

In light of the straightfaced irony on the Official World Rock Paper Scissors Website, I'll admit feeling rather odd talking seriously about it. Nevertheless, what's interesting about Douglas Walker's comment is that elsewhere the RPS Society talks about the game as a sport, to be played on the basis of its strategic merit alone. I wonder if they strive for an analogue to a sport like golf that might be played casually over a business negotiation, or under the bitter competition of the PGA. At the same time, I have to admit that RPS and its kindred are among the most effective and respected ways to make trivial decisions (not so for the National (American) Football League where the stakes are higher).

The website offers the RPS Online Trainer, a digital RPS opponent. As with the rest of the project, there's not just a little self-irony in this. From the RPS-OT page:

increased performance across all platforms

optimized for dual processor CPUs

Lower RAM requirements

Updated Graphical User Interface

New neural net technology allows the RPS-OT to improve as you play

and a whole slew of new moves, strategies and tactics culled from the pro and veterans RPS circuits

Irony notwithstanding, this digital version of the game offers an effective HCI: the player uses his hand and times his move against a very basic graphical representation of the opponent. It does a disturbingly good job at defamiliarizing (pace Russian Formalism) the game's psychology. And the weirdly sensical strategic tips and research at the World RPS site make me waver between affable mockery and earnest respect.

Comments (2)

Speaking as an official championship referee, I have to say that the effects of "competitive" RPS are amazing. Yes, luck is a part of the game; but there's a deep psychological element to it. It's all about expecting your opponent's throw or expecting them to expect your throw. Or expecting them to expect your expectation. And so on.

If someone were to throw three rocks in a row, you can't help but anticipate something different.

But, above all else, the most fascinating thing that I witnessed was the sheer competitive nature of it. Even though it was "just RPS", when you are competing for $5000 the nerves and strains do begin to show. People get really into it, and upset with themselves if they lose -- whether or not it was just blind luck.

There's a lot to be said about it, but I'm not the right person for that.

nowak on November 6, 2003 10:46 AM

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M. Adrees on October 11, 2004 11:06 AM