Rock Paper Scissors - The Classic Game

Rock paper scissors, jokenpô among other designations. Who has never found himself settling a dispute with this match. We see it in movies, series, anime and cartoons, and best of all, it's very normal.

It's such a well-known joke that we don't even ask where it came from? what does it mean?, if there is any similar? Questions like these that don't even cross our minds, but we're going to give the answers here.

That's right, let's discuss a little about the history of Rock Paper Scissors. In addition to releasing some curiosities. But anyway, let's get straight to the point.

Rock paper scissors - learn more about the game

Rock paper scissors - jokenpo

As we know, this game is usually played by two people. Thus, each player will simultaneously and individually decide which of the options he will choose to form with his hand.

That is, players will choose whether to form:

  • Stone: represented by the closed fist
  • Role: represented by a fully open hand
  • Scissors: represented by a fist with the index finger and middle finger extended, forming a V;

In this way, the result will always be zero since:

  • Rock loses to paper and wins to scissors
  • Paper loses to scissors and wins to stone
  • Scissors loses to stone and wins to paper

But it can result in a tie when the forms are repeated, in which case the game is restarted.

History of Rock Paper Scissors

The first known mention of this game appeared in the book Wuzazu by the Chinese writer of the Ming dynasty Xie Zhaozhi. In it he had written that the game dated back to the time of the Chinese Han dynasty, that is, from 206 BC to 220 AD. In the book, the game was called shoushiling.

Originally Chinese, this type of game spread across Asia. In this process, different signs appeared over time. but now let's take a little bit into the Japanese history of this game.

Throughout Japanese history there are frequent references to sansukumi-ken, which are ken games, ken means fist. The first Japanese sansukumi-ken game was known as mushi-ken (虫拳), coming directly from China.

Currently, the best known sansukumi-ken is called jan-ken (じゃんけん). Jan-ken uses the rock, paper, scissors signs, and our modern game derives directly from this game.

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the game spread beyond Asia. Perhaps because of the increased contact between the West and the East. In other words, once again we have to thank globalization because of the giant cultural exchange.

Strategies in the jokenpo game

Looking at it mathematically, it's impossible to have any kind of strategy. But we have to remember that humans and any and all animals are not usually perfectly mathematical. What does that mean?

Basically, human beings think and are influenced by other things. So the game itself cannot be influenced, but the person playing can. To exemplify, let's cite an anime focused on game, No Game No Life.

In this game, we see a scene that fully represents this thought. The protagonist makes a rock-paper-scissors bet. But before playing, he tells his opponent which form he will choose. This leaves the opponent in a big dilemma. Which in turn comes to the conclusion of not believing.

But the point was that the protagonist told the truth. And as a result of the opponent's mistake, the protagonist wins the bet.

Another strategy is delay. But this one is much more difficult to achieve as it requires great motor coordination in addition to a great sense of timing. And as we can deduce, the strategy is to delay your movement as long as possible without being noticed.

Thus, the opponent's move can be discovered and the choice will be decided from there.

The article is still halfway through, but we recommend also reading:

Adding New Shapes to Rock Paper Scissors

A matching game will always work as long as it follows these two rules with no exceptions:

  • the number of bids is an odd number
  • each move defeats exactly half of the other moves while being defeated by the other half

With more shapes, the chances of a tie are reduced and the complexity of the game increases. For example, there are versions of jokenpô in 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 25 and 101 forms.

A popular five-form variation is "Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard". In this game "Spock" is represented with the Star Trek Vulcan salute. Meanwhile, "lizard" is shown, forming a hand in a mouth similar to holding a sock puppet. Spock crushes scissors and vaporizes the rock; He is poisoned by lizard and refuted by paper.

Spock crushes scissors and vaporizes rock, as well as being poisoned by lizard and refuted by paper.

The lizard poisons Spock and eats paper, as well as being crushed by the rock and decapitated by scissors.

Rock paper scissors - learn more about the game

Have you played Rock Paper Scissors today?

It's all we have. Games will always be something that attracts our curiosity. I remember the first time I saw this game in Dragon Ball. Maybe it's one of the anime where there were more rock paper scissors disputes in history.

But the most epic game was for sure in No Game No Life, which I have already mentioned here. Anyway, do you know of any other occasion in the anime where you decided on Rock Paper Scissors? I can remember several. But anyway, leave your comment below.

Also remember to share the site on social networks if you liked it will help us a lot. Anyway, thanks for reading this far, bye.

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