The "original" dictionary game goes like this:
Materials: pencils and paper for everyone; one dictionary.
Rules: The first player selects a word from the dictionary and writes the definition on a piece of paper, and marks it with his or her name. The word is then read to the group. Each player writes his or her definition on a piece of paper, and marks it with his or her name. The selector then arbitrarily numbers each definition and all the pieces ofpaper (including the real definition) are put in a container from which the selector of the word draws them one by one and reads them aloud, except for the names.
Play: Each player then writes down which number definition he or she believes is the genuine dictionary definition. When all players (except the selector, who, of course, knows) has written down his or her selection of the genuine definition, the selector reveals the genuine definition.
Scoring: One point for each player who correctly identifies the genuine definition. One point for every vote that it was the genuine one goes tothe creator of each definition which got a vote as the genuine definition.
Strategy. Ideally, one would oneself identify the genuine definition while having written a definition which gets everyone's vote but one's own.
Online Non-Rules
Clearly, this game is not tansferable to cyberspace, not because anyone would cheat but because everyone would. except philosophers, of course, who are above such sordid behavior, and thin on the ground no matter where you look.
The basis of the game online, then, is to entertain ourselves by creating interesting definitions and reading others' interesting definitions of words which we are all perfectly free to look up so that we can appreciate each others' ingenuity in creating plausible or witty or funny or offensive or any other kind of definitions -- so long as they are wrong -- or mostly wrong, or at least wrong enough that we know you didn't just crib it from the dictionary.
The word-picker is obliged to judge the entries in as entertaining (and therefore often as whimsical and even capricious) a way as possible, and report on the result to the group, in the process reviewing the other entries in as entertaining way as possible, and then naming the putative winner. Winning, however, is a mixed blessing since the winner becomes the new word-picker, and is then obliged to keep track of the new entries and to judge them.
When a round of play is over is entirely up to the word-picker of that round so long as it occurs within approximately 72 hours of picking the word unless there aren't enough entries. One entry is sufficient.
So if there is a rule it is to be entertaining and, if you have the brains god gave giraffes, to come in second -- or even last! If you should have the misfortune to actually win, you are obliged to immediately choose another word and start keeping track of the entries, or beg off AT ONCE so the former judge can wipe the smug smile off the face of that giggling second-place person by assigning the top spot to him or her.
If, in the judgment of the Judicial Board too much time has gone by between words, or in closing off entries for a particular word, the Board reserves the right to issue, capriciously and whimsically, an arbitrary and binding judgment and either issue a new word or choose a "winner" from the current entries, thus obligating someone else to do the work of judging.
So, to summarize,
The Non-Rules are: Be entertaining and be quick or be quiet.
For adjudications and arbitrations of disputes about Non-Rules and Shady Practices, it's just barely possible that I might be persuaded to scrape my fingers off the cocoa-encrusted table and, raising my bleary, chocolate-reddened eyes to the screen, navigate to whichever file it is in which I've stored THE NON-RULES in order to issue a judgment -- attached to a provocative note which will shock your spouse and astonish your neighbors.
Marcus
Materials: pencils and paper for everyone; one dictionary.
Rules: The first player selects a word from the dictionary and writes the definition on a piece of paper, and marks it with his or her name. The word is then read to the group. Each player writes his or her definition on a piece of paper, and marks it with his or her name. The selector then arbitrarily numbers each definition and all the pieces ofpaper (including the real definition) are put in a container from which the selector of the word draws them one by one and reads them aloud, except for the names.
Play: Each player then writes down which number definition he or she believes is the genuine dictionary definition. When all players (except the selector, who, of course, knows) has written down his or her selection of the genuine definition, the selector reveals the genuine definition.
Scoring: One point for each player who correctly identifies the genuine definition. One point for every vote that it was the genuine one goes tothe creator of each definition which got a vote as the genuine definition.
Strategy. Ideally, one would oneself identify the genuine definition while having written a definition which gets everyone's vote but one's own.
Online Non-Rules
Clearly, this game is not tansferable to cyberspace, not because anyone would cheat but because everyone would. except philosophers, of course, who are above such sordid behavior, and thin on the ground no matter where you look.
The basis of the game online, then, is to entertain ourselves by creating interesting definitions and reading others' interesting definitions of words which we are all perfectly free to look up so that we can appreciate each others' ingenuity in creating plausible or witty or funny or offensive or any other kind of definitions -- so long as they are wrong -- or mostly wrong, or at least wrong enough that we know you didn't just crib it from the dictionary.
The word-picker is obliged to judge the entries in as entertaining (and therefore often as whimsical and even capricious) a way as possible, and report on the result to the group, in the process reviewing the other entries in as entertaining way as possible, and then naming the putative winner. Winning, however, is a mixed blessing since the winner becomes the new word-picker, and is then obliged to keep track of the new entries and to judge them.
When a round of play is over is entirely up to the word-picker of that round so long as it occurs within approximately 72 hours of picking the word unless there aren't enough entries. One entry is sufficient.
So if there is a rule it is to be entertaining and, if you have the brains god gave giraffes, to come in second -- or even last! If you should have the misfortune to actually win, you are obliged to immediately choose another word and start keeping track of the entries, or beg off AT ONCE so the former judge can wipe the smug smile off the face of that giggling second-place person by assigning the top spot to him or her.
If, in the judgment of the Judicial Board too much time has gone by between words, or in closing off entries for a particular word, the Board reserves the right to issue, capriciously and whimsically, an arbitrary and binding judgment and either issue a new word or choose a "winner" from the current entries, thus obligating someone else to do the work of judging.
So, to summarize,
The Non-Rules are: Be entertaining and be quick or be quiet.
For adjudications and arbitrations of disputes about Non-Rules and Shady Practices, it's just barely possible that I might be persuaded to scrape my fingers off the cocoa-encrusted table and, raising my bleary, chocolate-reddened eyes to the screen, navigate to whichever file it is in which I've stored THE NON-RULES in order to issue a judgment -- attached to a provocative note which will shock your spouse and astonish your neighbors.
Marcus
