I find females fascinating. I was talking to SugarShock’s sister yesterday and she was saying how when they (3 girls) were growing up, when they played Life, they would let each other replay the job portion until everyone was a doctor or lawyer, which had the highest salary at $25,000. Meaning, if someone got stuck being a teacher ($12,000), they’d just replay it until they landed on lawyer/doctor. Same thing with having children. Point is, and maybe I’m misunderstanding, but yeah, it seems like competition wasn’t the main point when they played; they wanted everyone to win.
That’s absolutely fascinating to me. I dunno, guys just need a little bit of competition for games to be fun, even if it’s nominal. People who are too competitive or take it too personally are no fun, but neither are those that aren’t competitive at all. Maximum fun is achieved when the people you play with aren’t overcompetitive but they honestly try. That’s why I enjoyed the Eric/Arthur Bohnanza games so much.
But having no competition at all… I dunno if guys could do that. What I think it is is this – we need some sense of purpose. And competition provides that. I think that’s sometimes why guys can get so devoted to a game – it provides a clear sense of purpose. But anyway, yeah, take away the competition, and there’s no “point” to the game, and that makes it hard for guys. Even if the goal is camaraderie or whatever, there’s still no point to the *game* if that makes any sense at all. So yeah, we need to keep score, even if it’s not accurate and even if we don’t really care who wins or loses, because a score provides the nominal point. I dunno, maybe that’s just me, but that’s how I feel about it.
She was also saying how her women’s college didn’t really have a rival school. If anything, they felt a kinship with the other women’s schools. Again, interesting.
The thing that’s weird about it to me is that, I dunno, women definitely are competitive. I dunno, I grew up with a sister, and I’ve seen my female friends, and it’s there, I think. It’s just, females compete in more subtle weird ways. Whereas males are more straightforward and direct about it, even setting up specific clear rules for it like in sports. I dunno, that’s interesting to me.
Or maybe I’m just talking out of me arse. Isn’t the first time. Nor the last.