Though The Game is very simple, it can be difficult to comprehend initially. A new player usually has to lose The Game once or twice to fully understand it.

Rules

1) When you think of The Game, you lose The Game.
2) When you lose The Game, you announce it to those around you.

Game Play

The first thing a new player needs to know is that when someone loses The Game (i.e. when someone thinks about The Game), game play temporarily stops for that person and for those around that person (since he must announce his game-loss aloud). The Game then restarts on a person-by-person basis when each person stops thinking about The Game. The Game never actually ends permanently.

No One Wins!

No one can ever technically win The Game. It could be argued that when one is not losing The Game (i.e. when someone is not thinking about The Game), they are winning The Game, but it still holds true that no one can ever definitively win The Game. You probably still don't understand The Game and how to play, so consider the example below.

Example

You have just learned the rules of The Game and how to play. Because you now know this, you are playing The Game, and will be playing The Game for the rest of your life. At this moment in time you are thinking about The Game, so you are losing The Game. Let's say you leave this site, start doing something else, and The Game leaves your mind. But then you start thinking about this site again and therefore you start thinking about The Game... that's a loss of The Game! Keep in mind that it doesn't matter what makes you think of The Game. Usually it is something completely random and unrelated to The Game that all of a sudden reminds you of The Game. This is what makes it so interesting and fun! If you have a game-loss story you'd like to share, go to http://ilostthegame.org/

The Bottom Line

Any time you aren't thinking about The Game and then start thinking about The Game, you lose The Game. It's that simple.

The precise origin of The Game is not known at this point. However, the branch of The Game in my area seems to have come from Camp OSRUI in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin a few years back.

Another reliable source believes a professor at the University of Chicago invented The Game at some time.

In terms of how old The Game is, no one knows for sure. However I have recently been provided with an informative story: Recently a girl out to dinner lost The Game and declared it aloud (as one should). Then, a man tapped on her shoulder and told her that he had not lost The Game in twelve years until that moment.