Games are a great form of recreation.
They can bring us closer together with friends and family (or drive a wedge between us—looking at you, Mario Party), and provide an excellent way to blow off some steam by ourselves.
Not all games are totally straightforward about how you win them, though. Sometimes you win the game by losing.
Redditor sidasauras asked:
"What is a game you win by losing?"
Golf
"You win at golf by playing less golf than everybody else."
-subtle_anarchist
"Yeah but generally you play more golf to hopefully play less golf."
-choppa17
"I've never played any golf, so I win by default."
-Xogoth
"i'm not golfing right now and i'm kicking ass at it."
-chizzo257
Shill Bidding
"Pumping up an auction so the winner pays more. I need Kevin Garnett to pay more for that black opal."
-Dumb_Vampire_Girl
"The trick is to scout out your escape routes so you can bail if they don't raise above you at the end."
-IceFire909
"There’s even an economic term for that; it’s called the 'winner’s curse.' If it’s an item with a specific but unknown value (not something like a painting that has subjective value), the person who most overestimates the value of the item will win the auction."
-ShinjukuAce
Monopoly
"Monopoly, because once you lose you finally don't have to play anymore."
-TallShaggy
"Games like Monopoly you have to play to absolutely crush everybody else, by clever use of the actual rules, so nobody ever asks you to play again."
"this also works for most games. For games that allow a "shared" victory, you still crush everybody, for the same reason."
-Squigglepig52
"Yes, for example, you don't build hotels unless you have the cash reserves and open property to immediately rebuy all the houses."
"There is a finite number of houses. You don't add more when you run out. In this way, you have 3 properties, with 4 houses each, so you have 12 houses off the market."
"The only time you build a hotel is when you can rebuy those 12 houses in one turn in order to not let your opponents buy them. It's about creating an artificial scarcity to starve out the competition."
-AlphaTangoFoxtrt
Hades
"Hades"
-Pimp__Flaco
"You only progress in the game story-wise by dying, so yeah."
-Jetninjapro27
"Can’t wait to play this game. Heard such amazing things."
-MK8390
"I was going to say hades. Brilliant game, dying doesn't make you mad or set you back."
-Cambuhbam
Beer Pong
"Beer pong."
-Jayflax
"Played that with rum on my 30th birthday. I even remember part of it."
-Gotis1313
"My friend and I made a really good beer pong team. One night he had beat everyone else at the party, some of them twice. Then we got cocky and started playing with whiskey to our opponents’ beer. Our play deteriorated quickly and we got very drunk."
-Rolling_Beardo
The Mad Magazine Board Game
"The Mad Magazine Board Game"
-ohara1250
"Had that! Took it to school to one day to play it with friends. Forgot to bring it home. It was gone the next day."
-tangcameo
"That's the one I was looking for. A friend of mine is a bit of a collector and he has that. We were talking about Monopoly one night and he later broke that out for us to play."
-tacknosaddle
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
"One Night Ultimate Werewolf has this as a character class."
"The game is divided into two teams - the villagers who are trying to hunt down the werewolves and the werewolves who are trying to get the villagers to execute an innocent person. But the game has a few fun roles which mess things up."
"The Minion is technically a villager, but he's on the Werewolves' team. He is trying to get a villager killed in order to ensure a Werewolf victory, but if sowing discord doesn't help, he can let himself become the prime suspect and get voted to die, which causes a Werewolf victory."
"The Tanner card, however, is just trying to get themselves killed. He hates his job and he hates his life and expressly wants to die. He is trying to ensure that he is killed by whomever."
"The Tanner is technically on his own separate team and is trying to convince the others to kill him. If he is killed at the end, then neither the Villagers or the Werewolves win - he's the sole winner and the two teams lose."
-res30stupid
That One Episode Of Fear Factor
"There was an episode of Fear Factor where a group of guys had to milk a goat with their mouth. The guy that lost said something like "well at least I suck the least" and walked off like a boss."
-MrBum80
"I know that’s the point of the show, but I seriously wonder how people could throw away their dignity on TV for money."
"But seriously, what writer is in an office brainstorming these things??? 'HOW ABOUT WE MAKE THEM SUCK MILK OUT OF A GOAT WHILE THEIR S.O. IS DROWNING IN CONCRETE'"
-Mindflowers1968
The Game (Yes, That One)
"The one you just lost by remembering that you're playing it."
-Deus-system-failed
"I was looking for this comment. OP made me lose again."
-HEW1981
"There was a long period of time where I forgot how you played, but then I read a comment explaining the rules, and I sadly lost once again."
-Hakuraze
Games With Kids
"Any game you play with a little kid...it's actually hard to lose sometimes"
-IntlPartyKing
"Kinda cute when you're throwing and they're giving their all and barely beat you. My nephew learned not to gloat too much whenever he wins. Rematches where I absolutely crush him tend to happen if he's a sore winner."
-InEnduringGrowStrong
"I learned Pinochle - a trick-taking card game similar to Euchre or 500 but with points for card combinations awarded ahead of the tricks - from my grandmother. At one point, when I was a brash teen, I made the mistake of taunting her with something to the tune of 'you can do better.'"
"She's a wonderfully gentle old lady, and she doted on her grandkids - but she learned Pinochle from her father, my great-grandfather, and he played to win."
"I found out that day that she could too."
-WorkingMouse
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