Rock, Paper, Scissors
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Wikipedia-Article "Rock, Paper, Scissors"
- For the Catatonia album, see Paper Scissors Stone (album).
Rock, Paper, Scissors (called "Roshambo" later in this article and also known by other names) is a popular hand game most often played by children. It is often used in a similar way to coin flipping, Odd or Even, throwing dice or drawing straws to randomly select a person for some purpose, though unlike truly random selections it can be played with skill if the game extends over many sessions, because one can often recognize and exploit the non-random behavior of an opponent.
Various sports (for example, Ultimate) may use Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine which team gets the opening play (rather than a coin toss). Similarly, uncertain calls, or even the whole game in case of rain, may be decided by the game. It is also often used as a method for creating appropriately biased random results in live action role-playing games, as it requires no equipment.
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Game play
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| Each of the three basic hand-signs ( from left to right: rock, paper and scissors ) beats one of the other two. | ||
Two players each make a fist. They count together "1 ... 2 ... 3 ... Shoot!", "Rock ... Paper ... Scissors ... Shoot!", "Rock ... Paper ... Scissors!", "Scissors... Paper... Stone!", or "Ro ... Sham ... Bo!" while simultaneously bouncing their fists. On "Shoot", "Go", or "Scissors", each player simultaneously changes their fist into one of three hands (or weapons):
- Rock (or Stone): a clenched fist.
- Paper (or Cloth): all fingers extended, palm facing downwards, upwards, or sideways (thumb pointing to the sky).
- Scissors: forefinger and middle finger extended and separated into a "V" shape.
The objective is to defeat the opponent by selecting a weapon which defeats their choice under the following rules:
- Rock smashes (or blunts) Scissors (rock wins)
- Scissors simply cuts Paper (scissors win)
- Paper covers Rock and roughness is covered (paper wins)
If players choose the same weapon, the game is a tie and is played again.
Often times, the short game is repeated many times so that the person who wins two out of three or three out of five times wins the entire game.
International variations
Australians often play the game as "scissors, paper, rock!" or "paper, scissors, rock!", with emphasis placed on the word "rock". The throw is made on the final word so that players only have two calls to synchronize the play. Similarly in Britain, it's often just called "scissors, paper, stone".
Due to the influence of the Japanese-Brazilians, Brazilians prime the game as "jan ... ken ... po!", with emphasis placed on the "po". The throw is made as "po" is called, so that as with the Australian variation, only two calls are made before the play.
In Taiwan, there is commonly no priming. Both players simultaneously throw the hands after a chant of "scissor, rock, cloth!", with no hand-bouncing. This is often confusing to visitors—seeing that the fist-bouncing can be interpreted as rock, most Taiwanese start with paper when playing foreigners.
In the Philippines, the game is called "Jack en Poy" or "Jack n' Poy", derived from the original Japanese Jan Ken Pon. As with many Japanese references in the Filipino culture, it may have originated from the Japanese occupation during World War II. The game is usually primed with a rhyme: "Jack En Poy, Hali-hali-hoy. Sinong matalo, siyang unggoy." (Translated as: Jack en Poy, Hali-hali-hoy. The loser is a monkey.)
In Israel, the game is called "Even Neyar uMisparayim" (literally, "Rock Paper and Scissors"). As in the Phillipines, a short rhyme precedes the game to indicate the throw: "Even Nyar uMisparayim, hamnatze'ah bein hashnayim, ahat shatayim shalosh!" (Rock Paper and Scissors, here's the winner of the two, one two three!)
In Sweden, the game is called sten, sax, påse (rock, scissors, bag). The gestures are the same - the flat hand is considered a bag, which you can put the rock in.
In Iceland, the game is called "skæri, blað, steinn" (scissors, paper, rock), with the emphasis placed on the last word.
In Latvia, the game is called "Akmens, šķēres, papīrīts". The rhyme is "Akmens, šķēres, papīrīts, viens, divi, trīs", which translates as "Rock, scissors, paper, one, two, three".
In some parts of India, the game is played as Man, Gun, Tiger (man is greater than gun, gun greater than tiger, tiger greater than man)
In Germany, the game is called Schere, Stein, Papier (scissors, rock, paper) or simply Knobeln. Regionally the game is also known by the rhyme Schnick, schnack, schnuck, Ching, chang, chong or Klick, klack, kluck or similar. The emphasis is almost always placed on the final (third) word of the rhyme.
In Russia, the game is called "камень, ножницы, бумага" (rock, scissors, paper).
In Chile the game is named Cachipun, and it is played saying Ca... Chi... Pun!. However, the symbols are the same and in Spanish the game should be called Piedra, Papel, Tijeras.
In South Africa, the game is most commonly known as "Ching, Chong, Cha", with emphasis on the "Cha". It is also known by "Rock, Paper, Scissors", but this is less common
Strategies
Strategy between human players obviously involves using psychology to attempt to predict or influence opponent behavior. It is considered acceptable to use deceptive speech ("Good old Rock, nothing beats that!") to influence your opponent.
Mathematically optimal play (according to game theory) is a simple matter of selecting randomly, and so the game may be considered trivial in that sense when played in a way that eliminates psychology, as with a computer. But "optimal" in this sense means only "incapable of being defeated more than expected by chance", while it does not imply that the random strategy is best at taking advantage of a suboptimal opponent. In fact, if the opponent is human or a non-random program, it is almost certain that he plays suboptimally and that a modified strategy can exploit that weakness. This is easily demonstrated by Roshambot, a computer program that easily defeats some human players (as does its author Perry Friedman, who won an $800 competition against seven opponents including former world poker champion Phil Hellmuth in August 2001). Poker player Darse Billings of the University of Alberta organizes a computer Roshambo competition to explore these possibilities, and their application to computer game play in other fields (notably poker, in which exploiting an opponent's non-random behavior is an important part of strategy).
One high-profile strategic opinion came in 2005 from Alice Maclean, age 11. When rival auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's agreed to play rock-paper-scissors to determine the rights to a highly valuable art collection, Maclean's father Nicholas, a Christie's employee, asked her for advice. As later told to reporters, her strategy was summed up thus: "Everybody knows you always start with scissors. Rock is way too obvious, and scissors beats paper." (Christie's won, with scissors)
Cheating
One of the first tricks learned by a Roshambo novice is to hold back a throw of paper until the last possible moment to dupe an opponent into believing that you may actually be throwing a rock. This allows you the extra few milliseconds for fine-tuning your approach and delivery. Both paper and scissors also have this ability; however, unless you are employing a "double-back" strategy, cloaking a paper throw is likely to draw an instinctive paper from your opponent.
The opening ritual before the actual throws are made ("1… 2… Shoot!" or “Paper, rock, scissors, shoot!”), called "priming", is intended to get both players in sync so as to ensure simultaneous delivery of throws. This can be used to an advantage when two players are meeting for the first time, since it is often unclear as to what the priming speed will be. The tendency is to default to the priming speed of the faster player. This allows the faster priming player the luxury of dictating the flow of play and causes their opponent to dedicate more energy to "catching the prime" rather than concentrating on delivering an effective throw.
Variations
See Rock, Paper, Scissors variations
Math and non-transitivity
Roshambo is also often used as an example of the mathematical concept of non-transitivity. A transitive relation R is one for which a R b and b R c implies a R c. A reflexive, antisymmetric, and transitive relation on a set is known as a partial ordering, from which notions of "greater" and "less" follow. A game option which is "greater" than another is closer to being optimal, but such a notion does not exist in Roshambo: The relation used to determine which throws defeat which is non-transitive. Rock defeats Scissors, and Scissors defeat Paper, but Rock loses to Paper. In fact, Roshambo could be called "antitransitive" because if A strictly defeats B, and B strictly defeats C, A necessarily loses against C.
Tournaments
There are Roshambo tournaments held occasionally. Some of the Roshambo websites spoof comparable sites for other games. Real Roshambo tournaments are an interesting psychological exercise. Obviously, the strategy dictated by game theory is to pick each choice one-third of the time randomly. However, a human cannot be truly random, and the skill in the tournament involves inciting and exploiting nonrandom throws from one's opponents. The ability for certain experienced players to consistently reach the finals of high level tournaments is a strong testament to skill influencing the outcome of the game.
In Japan, Janken tournaments are often held on television variety programs, especially between popular actors, and the game is also often used by advertising kiosks as tool for audience participation.
WRPS International World Championships
Starting in 2002 the World Rock Paper Scissors Society (WRPS) standardized a set of rules for international play and has overseen annual International World Championships as well as many regional and national events throughout the year. These championships have been widely attended by players from around the world and have attracted widespread international media attention. WRPS events are noted for their large cash prizes, elaborate staging, and colourful competitors.
WRPS International World Championship Results since 2002
| Year | Host City | Champion | Gender | Nationality |
| 2002 | Toronto, Ontario | Pete Lovering | Male | Canadian |
| 2003 | Toronto, Ontario | Rob Krueger | Male | Canadian |
| 2004 | Toronto, Ontario | Lee Rammage | Male | Canadian |
| 2005 | Toronto, Ontario | Andrew Bergel | Male | Canadian |
Since 2004 the championships have also been broadcast on the U.S. television network Fox Sports Net.
History
Like Go and Mahjong, Rock, Paper, Scissors was invented by the Chinese. According to a book named Wǔzázǔ (五雜俎 or 五雜組) written by Xiè Zhàozhì (謝肇淛) in the late Ming period, warlords of Later Han played a game called shǒushìlìng (手勢令), which is considered to be Rock, Paper, Scissors. Shǒushìlìng can be translated as "hand-command."
There is no record of Rock, Paper, Scissors in the West before they had direct contacts with Asians. Western writers in the late 19th century only mentioned it as an Asian game. The Chinese and Koreans use Cloth along with Rock and Scissors, while the Japanese have somehow renamed it Paper.
Jan Ken Pon - Some Historical Data
Pop culture trivia
- Used in the Tremors movies to determine who does all the dangerous work.
- In the Sega Master System game Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Alex Kidd plays JanKenPon with his enemies. Also, the main villain in the game is called Janken.
- A cosmetic variation was presented by Hyde to Fez on That '70s Show : Foot, Cockroach, Nuclear Bomb. Foot beats cockroach by smashing it, nuclear bomb beats foot by blowing it up, cockroach beats nuclear bomb by surviving the blast.
- In the 1990 Tim Burton film Edward Scissorhands, Robert Olivieri's character turns down Edward Scissorhands' (Johnny Depp) request to play "Paper, Scissors, Stone," because he is "tired of always winning."
- Piers Anthony presents another cosmetic variation of this game as a plot device in his fantasy series Xanth called Fire, Water, Sand. There are two different schools of thought on how the elements interact. Mermaids believe that Water quenches Fire, Fire melts Sand, and Sand covers water. Dragons believe that Fire evaporates Water, Water dilutes Sand, and Sand puts out Fire. This misunderstanding is the cause of a long-standing feud between the two clans.
- On the teen reality show Endurance, the two teams who are selected to go to the "Temple of Fate" (elimination challenge) play a version of rock-paper-scissors: water puts out fire, fire burns wood (represented by a bonsai tree), and wood floats on water; best 2 of 3 games to stay in.
- In the TV series South Park, Cartman and his friends play the game "I'll Rochambeau you for it", by kicking the opponent in the crotch. The first one to fall over loses the game. This of course means the first person to go is usually the winner. This is a way of choosing, and it's called Rochambeau, yet it is important to note that game play is obviously unrelated to the actual game of Rock, Paper, Scissors as described here.
- KRAMER & MICKEY: Rock, paper, scissors match.
- MICKEY: All right, rock beats paper!
- (Mickey smacks Kramer's hand for losing)
- KRAMER: I thought paper covered rock?
- MICKEY: Nah, rock flies right through paper.
- KRAMER: What beats rock?
- MICKEY: (looks at hand) Nothing beats rock.
- KRAMER: All right, come on.
- KRAMER & MICKEY: Rock, paper, scissors match.
- KRAMER: Rock.
- MICKEY: Rock.
- This pattern then continues for some time.
- In the TV series The Simpsons, Bart and Lisa play the game in episode 9F16, "The Front", in order to settle whose name is listed first on the Itchy and Scratchy script that they have written:
- LISA: Look, there's only one way to settle this. Rock-paper-scissors.
- LISA'S BRAIN: Poor old Bart. Always picks 'rock'.
- BART'S BRAIN: Good ol' 'rock'. Nuthin' beats 'rock'!
- BART: Rock!
- LISA: Paper.
- BART: D'oh!
- In the game Zork Grand Inquisitor, in which a grue is a darkness-dwelling monster, there's a time in the game when you play a game called "Grue-Fire-Water". Grue drinks water, water douses fire, and fire scares grue. The first one to be naked wins. However, in the game the player has far more articles of clothing on than the opponent. Also, the player is telepathic, so she always knows what the opponent will pick next.
- One of Gary Larson's The Far Side cartoons depicted two cavemen playing Rock Paper Scissors with the caption "Before scissors and paper." The cavemen are both holding their fists up, and one of says, "Darn, tied again."
- In the Japanese anime Dragon Ball, Son Goku has an attack called Jan Ken Punch, a reference to the Japanese version of the game (Jan Ken Pon). Goku will use the hand symbols as attacks to either punch (rock), slap (paper), or poke the eyes (scissors).
- In the TV series Farscape, human astronaut John Crichton introduces the game to his alien friends, particularly fellow Alpha male Ka D'Argo, with whom the game is often used to amicably settle disputes. When Crichton is faced with a duplicate of himself in a third-season episode, a marathon game ensues between the two where they continuously remain tied.
- In the Disney TV cartoon show Talespin, Baloo and Louie play the game to decide who is elected to help a female character in distress -- while Louie proffers a rock, Baloo emerges victorious by proffering a "steam shovel", indicating to an incredulous Louie that under the rules of the game, "scissors cut paper, rock smashes scissors, steam shovel smashes rock".
- Rock, Paper Scissors is a key theme to the Doctor Who story "Destiny of the Daleks".
- In the Megaman series of video games, each level's boss gives Mega Man a particular weapon when defeated, and each boss is especially vulnerable to one particular weapon. Thus, there is a cyclic, Rock, Paper, Scissors-like relationship between them, with each boss trumping and being trumped by exactly one other boss.
- In the Fire Emblem series of video games, the three melee weapon classes - axes, swords, and spears - share a Rock, Paper, Scissors relationship. Axes beat spears, spears beat swords, and swords beat axes. The three schools of magic in the game - Light, Dark, and Anima, or Fire, Thunder, and Wind depending on the game - share a similar relationship.
- In 2004, following an appearance of Saddam Hussein before the Iraq Special Triubunal, an Internet meme known as Rock, Paper, Saddam appeared, in which images from the televised proceedings were given captions suggesting that Saddam was attempting to play a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the judge, using increasingly ridiculous (non-legal) plays.
- The Pokémon Trading Card Game had a trainer card entitled "Misty's Challenge" which instructs the players to play a game of rock, paper, scissors. The flipping of a coin is given as an alternative if neither player knows how to play rock, paper, scissors.
- In White Wolf, Inc.'s LARPs, rock, paper, scissors is used as a method of resolving actions between players. Certain abilities allow people to throw a fourth throw, the bomb. Bomb is thrown the same as a rock, except with the thumb sticking straight up rather than hidden. The bomb beats rock and paper, but is beaten by scissors (which cuts the fuse). This addition tends to change the strategy, with the bomb user usually throwing either bomb or rock, and the non-bomb user typically throwing scissors or paper.
- In The Adventures of Pete and Pete, young Pete faces a foe named "Paper Cut" in one of the episodes. Paper Cut would force his classmates to play Rock, Paper, Scissors, and would intimidate them into throwing rock, where he would always play paper. With this game, the winner slaps the loser's wrist.
Evolutionary strategy
Biologist Barry Sinervo from the University of California, Santa Cruz has discovered a Rock-Paper-Scissors evolutionary strategy in the mating behavior of the side-blotched lizard species Uta stansburiana. Males have either orange, blue or yellow throats and each type follows a fixed, hereditable mating strategy:
- Orange-throated males are strongest and do not form strong pair bonds; instead, they fight orange-throated males for their females. Yellow-throated males, however, manage to snatch females away from them for mating.
- Blue-throated males are middle-sized and form strong pair bonds. While they are outcompeted by orange-throated males, they can defend against yellow-throated ones.
- Yellow-throated males are smallest, and their coloration mimicks females. Under this disguise, they can approach orange-throated males but not the stronger-bonding blue-throated specimens and mating while the orange-throats are engaged in fights.
The proportion of each male type in a population is similar in the long run, but fluctuates heavily in the short term. For periods of 4-5 years, one strategy predominates, after which it declines in frequency as the strategy that manages to exploit its weakness increases.
References
- Sogawa, Tsuneo (2000). "Janken". Monthly Sinica, Vol.11, No.5. (Japanese)
- Culin, Stewart. (1895). Korean Games, With Notes on the Corresponding Games at China and Japan. (evidence of nonexistence of Rock, Paper, Scissors in the West)
- Gomme, Alice Bertha. (1894, 1898). The traditional games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 2 vols. (ditto)
- Opie, Iona and Peter (1969). Children's Games in Street and Playground Oxford University Press, London. (Details some variants on Rock, Paper, Scissors such as 'Man, Earwig, Elephant' in Indonesia, and presents evidence for the existence of 'finger throwing games' in Egypt as early as 2000 B.C.)
- Alonzo, S.H. and Sinervo, B. (2001). "Mate choice games, context-dependent good genes, and genetic cycles in the side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana". Behavioral Ecology Sociobiology Vol.49, pp.176-186
- Sinervo, B., and Lively, C. (1996). "The Rock-Paper-Scissors Game and the evolution of alternative male strategies". Nature Vol.380, pp.240-243
Other names
Sometimes the elements in its name are permuted, or modified to include
- Rock replaced with Stone
- Paper with Cloth
- Ca-Chi-Pun
- Ching-Chong-Cha
- Even-Neyar-uMisparayim
- Farkle
- Fing Fong Fooey
- Gawi-Bawi-Bo
- Ick-Ack-Ock
- Jack en Poy
- JanKenPon
- Janken
- Kai Bai Bo
- Paper-Rock-Scissors
- Mora
- Morra Cinese
- Rochambeau
- Roshambo
- Row-Sham-Bow
- Schnik Schnak Schnuk
- Scissors-Paper-Rock
- Scissors-Paper-Stone
- Paper Scissors Stone
- Stein, saks, papir (In Norwegian)
- Piedra-Papel-Tijeras (In spanish)
- Shitou-Jianzi-Bu (Stone-Scissors-Cloth in Mandarin)
External links
- World Rock Paper Scissors Society
- Regional variations on Rock Paper Scissors, from the "Multiculturalpedia"
- RoShamBo Programming Competition
- BombBeatsThemAll, an AIM Rock Paper Scissors bot that allows two people to play RPS over AIM
- Stanford University's RoshamBot
- Javascript RPS game at CoolToons
- Email based Rock Paper Scissors for two people
- stensakspapir.dk - Challenge a friend and watch the match (Flash based)
- Article from Forbes FYI
- Dr. Barry Sinervo's web page on the lizards' mating strategy
- RPS upgrades of up to 25 different throws!
- Another upgrade with 5 throws: Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard
- Rock, Paper, Scissors in flash