In this previous post, I discussed how we play Scattergories and ruling issues. We played on Saturday night before going out to the bar. I was pretty drunk and my answers were a bit haywire. I’m going to share my answers and my thought process for the list and then give a few of my thoughts on the rules.
List 7 – Letter J
J isn’t the easiest letter either just to point out.
1. Fictional Characters – I had Jack in the Box and changed it to Jiminy Cricket. Jack and Jill would have been a great answer. Going with Jack in the Box may have been too risky so I swapped and Jiminy got canceled out with another player. Safer to go with the obscure answer?
4. Capitals – Jefferson. Someone else had Jefferson City. I’m not getting this point. Close but no cigar for this particular example, there is no fighting this.
7. Footwear – I put jellies. I had to look at the only girl in the room and get someone on my side because this would be an answer that could easily lead to a heated debate if no one knew what they were. No guys should know what jellies are but they are shoes usually worn by little girls. I had a sister growing up, I’m not a pedofile.
8. Something you keep hidden – I wrote Jews. I have nothing wrong against Jews and I know that this is a really wrong answer but I have no problem offending people for 1 point. Amber said she didn’t want to write it because it was in bad taste. I am not that person. This is an answer that could lead to debate though. Have Jews been kept hidden? Yes. Are they always kept hidden. No. I have a strong stance on this point of the game, CREATIVITY should be rewarded. This is where practicality gets thrown out the window, we all have a good laugh about the horrible period of time, life moves on.
12. Crimes – Jerking in Public. I think this answer deserves some analysis. Obviously jerking isn’t a crime and notice it’s a verb. Should I be able to add additional words to describe an answer? I think this is where rule interpretation deserves a standard. On another question, for the letter O, the question was household chore and someone put “oven preparation”. It’s the same adding additional words to your answer except this time it’s the noun which is the key word. It’s why the game is very difficult to judge and why it leads to debates.

I have a couple other thoughts on rules that I think make sense:

  • Jkash had “tripping” down for a bad habit. Obviously not the best bad habit and he explained it as falling down, vetoed. I had “tripping” for a leisure activity and explained it in terms with drug use. If Jkash explained it as tripping drug wise, he would get the point, because he didn’t, he doesn’t. When you use answers you have to be able to justify them properly (or at least other people can produce their own opinion of them DURING THE RULING). Evan, this is why Nick Nolte as a TV star doesn’t get you two points. It doesn’t matter that he was in TV but you (and no one else) could produce one of his series. Everyone playing the game needs to understand this.
  • Which brings me to my next part of not getting salty. I actually think we do a very good job on this and it’s something that I’m going to write another post on. Let’s face it, most people could judge their own answers as a good answer or not. There are going to be some good answers, some bad answers, and some iffy answers. If your bad answers get vetoed, accept it and move on. I read on a forum about someone saying they didn’t like the game because it leads to heated arguments. If the game is going to lead to heated arguments, don’t play the game. It’s a game. It’s fun. No one cares who wins. I didn’t write this last section for how we played by the way but for others who search for this post.