Most students don’t know that they are being secretly manipulated by a Quaker cultural trend here at Guilford. What is this trend you might ask? Is it related to our anti-military positions or our cultural attitudes about different religions? Well maybe, but I was thinking about the tendency of young Quakers to play card games. Wait, let me clarify, our tendency to play card games until 4:00 A.M. and with a “if you make a mistake the peace testimony is out the window” kind of competitive drive. You may or may not be this type of person or have friends like this, but you’ll have to trust me in two things: one, young Quakers are definitely like this. Secondly, this isn’t a solely Quaker thing; when the African American Resource Center hosts a Spades tournament, you better come prepared to play or you won’t last long.

So if this applies to you or if you, even you, are a more casual card player, what do you do on a lonely night with nothing to do? Perhaps more likely you have lots of stuff you don’t want to do: then what do you do? You go on the Internet and start playing games.

Ok I’ll start by acknowledging that it is rarely as much fun over the Internet as it is in person, but after intensive research I assure you that you can find competitive, spirited games pretty easily. I looked for competition in a variety games, each of which I am at a different skill level. I

I tested how many games it took before I found a competitive game in a particular game. There were three games I play very well Spades, Chess, and Canasta, one game that I play okay Backgammo, and one game that I almost always lose Reversi. I included non-card games because they just as competitive.

What I found was that without real expectation, the three-game rule applied to all the games I played. Basically judging your competitors by their ranking in the online league, it will only take you three games before you find players who are about as good as you are looking for. With little expectation, it is always possible to find players who are better then you are.

Playing Canasta, I actually found some really good players in the first game and improving the experience, I won all three times I played. In Chess, the first game I played was a little too easy but the second two just at my talent level; I lost twice in close games. Reversi was the only time the rule faltered. I wasn’t even competitive in the first two games and in the third I found somebody bad enough that I could at least stay close till the end. It isn’t really a problem, though, since nobody plays games they aren’t good at.

I know you game freaks are out there. Send stories about various Internet game sites you’ve enjoyed.