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Comment by henrikschroder | Hacker News Reader

You can play this game in it's simplest form with children, to teach them about anticipation and social cues and hidden rules.

The base game is super simple. You go around taking turns, each player saying a London underground station - or pick a similar, familiar, enumerable set - and the first one who says Mornington Crescent wins the game. When someone does, you quickly announce the winner and immediately start a new round.

If you play it with children, see how long it takes them to realize that the fun lies in not saying the winning station. And how much fun you can have by anticipating what the others are going to say.

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Anyone got other good social-games for kids?

I’ll contribute: Questions, in which one attempts to carry on a “conversation” consisting entirely of questions that may not be nonsensical or non-sequiturs. First person to ask a garbage/illegal question or to make a statement, loses. Traditionally initiated with “would you like to play questions?”

And: some of the imagination games from Impro can be good. Collaborative automatic writing (though the adult will need to self-censor a bit); tricking a kid who “can’t think of stories” into writing a story by asking you questions about a “secret story” you wrote (you did no such thing—of course you eventually clue them in that they’re far more imaginative than they believed), that kind of stuff.

Did you know that Whose Line Is It Anyway has some great examples of that first game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cX8KLOb0w8

My wife and I are convinced that Pokemon is a giant secret extended game of Mornington Crescent played by the younger generation. Which is a comfort.

I'm convinced that corporate Agile is a Mornington Crescent-like game in which a team pretends to be an effective team that responds to vague, changing requirements with adaptable solutions... but they're really engaged in appeasing upper management, who have already set a budget and a deadline, with burndown charts and good JIRA velocity numbers.

If so, there is at least hope of it being brought to a sudden, swift conclusion.

And be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

I don't understand this. Why wouldn't I just immediately say Mornington Crescent? And why would I anticipate what the next person says? Why don't they just say Mornington Crescent? This is baffling.

Perhaps listening to a game would help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lziCsPmlbZI

I was looking for that, thank you!

This is another good one where the taking part is the fun bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqLIvLCwxLo

No, I'm still confused. What is going on? Is the whole point that it's gibberish?

It’s not actually a game about saying “Mornington Crescent.” It’s a game where you pretend to play a game which is about saying Mornington Crescent, and pretend there’s all these rules and clever moves to make and clever things to say, and the more satisfyingly similar to that imaginary game that you get, the more clever / nonsense your “moves” sound, the more you have won.

Oh. I see. An Elizabeth Line reverse swing strategy here, I see. What has this come to?

Look tomoyoirl, I'm as upset as you are about you being barred from the AMCC (Amateur Mornington Crescent Committee), and you running off in protest to join the ACMC (Amateur Mornington Crescent Club), but there's really no need to spread these absurd stories!

Is this about that time you were Clapham Junctioned on that West flank? I agree it shouldn't have happened and you were right to argue you weren't in nib, but c'mon... no need for this, it's just a game...

I just like being helpful to people who are confused and afraid. Sorry if that’s a problem to you, or anyone else.

Anyway. Aldgate East. Your move.

You know full well that you can't start play with any station on the Hammersmith & City line in a leap year February outside of sanctioned L4+ tournament play.

Well, ordinarily no, but as it happens I am qualified to use the Orthodox rules for the calculation of the date of Easter, which you will find bypasses the 40-day window entirely and renders the restriction moot. Have a pleasant pancake day, and remember you are dust; to dust you shall return.

I am so happy that at least a few people here knows how the game works, and it's made even funnier by the smattering of commenters who don't get it! :-D

Like I said, it's a great exercise for teaching kids about interpersonal communication. And apparently a couple of adults as well.

It's kind of like a more cerebral party game. The object of the game is not to win; the object of the game is to use it as a framework for a social interaction.

The closest analogue is probably something like Apples to Apples, but with debate permitted. You're trying to make the most amusing (and therefore strongest) play every turn, but nobody really cares who wins.

Gibberish was actually a station near Baker Street that closed in 1937. Are you making a joke?

One tease is to mention stations nearly adjacent to Mornington Crescent, and see if the other contestants take the bait. Of course, a 9-dan player will acknowledge the potential move, but then give a preposterous, but perfectly valid, reason why it cannot be accomplished.

It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part

> Why wouldn't I just immediately say Mornington Crescent?

Congratulations, you win! Let's play another round. I'll start.

Tottenham Court Road. Your turn.

(Also, thank you for illustrating why this is a good exercise that a lot of people - including you - would benefit greatly from!)

Mornington Crescent.

This game is great.

(Seriously, though, I get the joke now)

Congratulations, you win! Let's play another round, I'll go first.

Hyde Park Corner. Your turn!

Northfields

Mornington Crescent.

No, I'm sorry we've already stated in this thread we're playing the Atlantic variant for our American cousins - you therefore can't do the Piccadilly Stretch from Northfields, and you therefore lose the game.

I'm Greek, which means I can capture High Barnet under the Her Majesty variant and win the game.

Oh I am sorry, you might not be aware that Greeks explicitly lost the ability to play Monarchial Variants when Prince Philip passed away. It's stipulated in Volume XIIV of the Windsor Appendix. To be fair to you, it is in itself in Appendix IV, Section 41, so it's easily missed by casual players.

Too soon.

You can if you're playing the 1972 West Kensington Consortium rules but most players consider this rather poor form.

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