6 Much More Important Uses For Your Favorite Games

We all remember playing games during our childhood. From Monopoly to the school-banned POGS (fuck you Mrs. Stewart), games have been fascinating kids from the dawn of time. What you may not know, however, is that these kinds of games have sometimes been used for more important things than just your amusement.

6.  Pogs

You all remember pogs right? The flat, one-sided, cardboard discs that you would destroy with your sparkly 8-ball-skull, metal slammer? You don’t? You have been deprived, my friend. If you do remember, them… by default, you are awesome.

Pogs = Kid Crack

Pogs first started as a simple milk caps game in the 1930’s, played by a bunch of Hawaiian kids. When the glass milk bottle were replaced by cardboard jugs and juices, however, it kind of died down. That is until 1991, when a Hawaiian elementary school counselor named Blossom Galbiso brought the game back, no with improved awesomeness and cardboard pieces.

Believe it or not, Pogs have also been used as a form of currency for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, and have been issued to soldiers since 2001. As a matter of fact, over one million dollars worth of cardboard pleasure has been distributed as change to date. The reason for the switch from metal coins is because pogs cost a hell of a lot less than regular coins,and are much more lightweight, which makes for easy transportation… Not to mention, if you ever get bored, hey! Instant game!

5. Hopscotch

Yes, that’s right. The simple 10-squared game that drove all the little girls crazy actually has a pretty bad ass origin.

Hopscotch actually began in ancient Britain during the time of the Roman Empire. Roman soldiers would use the game as a training course, designed to improve their footwork. Not bad ass enough for you? These hopscotch courses were about 100 feet long, and soldiers had to be in full armor while they ran (or hopped) through them.

Uhh, no. Try adding about 100 more pounds of metal.

This training exercise began to spread as a game when Roman children would draw their own scaled-down version of the courses and created a scoring system. The game has been popular (and exponentially more lame) ever since.

4. Tetris

As addicting as it is, Tetris is one of the most strangely fun and annoying games known to man. I have been sitting here for 20 minutes with a 5-block deep empty space and all I keep getting are these fucking L-shaped things! COME ON!

No matter how frustrating the game might be, some psychologists are beginning to use it to treat post-traumatic stress syndrome. That’s just what they need, more stress. Believe it or not though, it seems to be working.

A recent study done by Plos ONE had 40 volunteers watch a 12 minute clip of disturbing images including graphic surgeries, car crashes, and drownings. They split the volunteers up into 2 different groups where one played Tetris for 10 minutes, and the other sat in a quiet room. After about a week, the volunteers that had played Tetris reported a far fewer amount of flashbacks and nightmares related to the video they watched.

Although this might work with any video game, researchers believe that the geometric shapes and constant game play of  Tetris helps to drown out the images and bad feelings that come with a traumatic experience. So don’t forget to pack a Gameboy next time you go to war.

3. “Highest Card”

In Cave Creek, Arizona, they have a very strange way of deciding elections. State law says that if an election ends in a tie, then the winner must be decided by a game of chance. One specific instance that happened this past June involves two men, Thomas McGuire and Adam Trenk, who were both running for a Town Council position and were given the option to either roll dice, flip a coin, or draw straw… but they chose to draw cards. Is anyone else dumbfounded by the fact that this actually happens? Ok, just checking.

Either way, the cards were drawn. McGuire drew a 6 of hearts first, but Trenk took the win by drawing a King. There is talk now of Arizona changing the law to require the two candidates to each fight a bear… something the requires a little bit more skill. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

2. Rock, Paper, Scissors

Another “good lord, this is irresponsible politics” story happened in 2006, and involves a judge that required two whiney-ass lawyers to engage in a game of rock-paper-scissors to resolve a scheduling debate. One lawyer wanted to hold a meeting in his office, while the other wanted to hold it at the court reporter’s office, RIGHT DOWN THE STREET. Really? Yes, really. And you thought Cave Creek, Arizona was fucked up.

1. Monopoly

Monopoly. One of the most popular, if not THE most popular board game… ever. If you are reading this, chances are that you have sat your self at a Monopoly game at least once, and chances are even higher that one of those games had you wishing to God that it would end after the mindless hours of paying rent and arguing over property trades. We mean, come on! $500 bucks and Illinois Avenue for Broadway? Fucking do it! As a matter of fact, the longest known Monopoly game lasted 1,680 hours (or 70 holy-shit-we-should-really-re-evaluate-our-life days).

But we digress…

Little did you know that Monopoly wasn’t always used for fun, games, or endless torture. In 1939, during WWII, the British secret service branch M19 was attempting to hatch another plan to help the British prisoners of war in Germany escape. The best they could come up with? You guessed it… Monopoly.

The plan was to place inconspicuous silk maps and other small items within Monopoly board games and pieces and send them to the British prisoners. Silk was thin enough that they could fit it inside the actual game boards. Why silk and why Monopoly? Well, you see, the two go hand in hand. A man named Waddington was the apparently the only guy in Britain at the time who knew how to make these silk maps, and consequently also produced mass Monopoly board games.

Now we know what you might be thinking. “FUBOP, wouldn’t the German’s search each box sent to their prisoners?” Well, negative Nancy, you aren’t giving enough credit to this genius plan now are you? See although personal gifts were searched regularly, it was considered unethical to look through items sent by the Red Cross, so those clever Brits used this to their advantage. Each box was specially made and shipped via the Red Cross, where the prisoners received them, untouched.

Over 35,000 British and Ally troops escaped the prisons and about half of these guys had silk maps with them. Not all of them got them from Monopoly boards, but honestly only one is enough to make this awesome.