Children’s games
“Rock Paper Scissors”
Myself
Atlanta, GA
November 2020
Informant Data:
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia on February 7, 1999 and grew up in Atlanta before moving out at the age of 18 to attend Dartmouth College. My dad worked as a real estate appraiser for the majority of my childhood and my mom was a stay at home mom from the time I was born to when I was around 12 or 13 years old. I have two brothers, whose names I’ll abbreviate as G.H., who is two years older than me, and P.H., who is two years younger than me. I went to elementary school at the same school from the age of 3 to the age of 12.
Contextual Data:
Growing up, my relationship with my brothers was very rowdy, and we roughhoused a lot. My mom eventually got tired of mediating between us and having to decide objectively which of us won the fight. In the absence of my mom’s participation in squabbles between my brothers and I, this game often served as a mediator between us, allowing us to settle matters in a way that each of us viewed as fair.
The function of the game as a mediator extended to my elementary school classmates. When two people disagreed about something, for example who should be allowed to go on the swings first, they would play Rock Paper Scissors to figure out a solution.
This game didn’t only serve as a mediator, however. As kids, my brothers and I as well as my friends at elementary school would often play this game as a source of fun. We would have Rock Paper Scissors tournaments on the playground during recess. Sometimes, we would play this game under the table in class if we were bored.
The simplicity of this game made it popular among my elementary school classmates. Unlike other games, winning Rock Paper Scissors requires almost no skill, besides the ability to predict which move the other participant is going to make. Since this game is relatively easy to play, and since it reveals almost nothing about the players’ intelligence, it is enjoyable for all participants, no matter what age.
Item:
The two participants (or multiple participants) face each other and form a fist with their right hand. They then say, “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot,” pounding their right fist onto their open left palm. On shoot, each participant forms either scissors with their index and middle fingers, rock with their fist, or paper with a flat hand. Rock beats scissors, scissors beat paper, and paper beats rock.
On the occasion where participants are playing multiple rounds (2 out of 3 or 3 out of 5, for example), the first person to win the minimum number of rounds wins the game.
If participants are playing a tournament, it can either be structured as a bracket, with the winner of each individual match advancing to play other winners, or it can be structured as a group-wide activity, with one person having to win outright among the others to win the game.
Florida Huff, Age 21
Dartmouth College
RUSS013
Fall 2020