The origins of The Game are difficult to determine. It mainly spreads by word of mouth, and its name makes it very hard to investigate.
How do you fit into the story? Add yourself to the Game Tree
This page is a summary of all the evidence this site has obtained so far. Any further evidence supporting or disproving these claims would be very much appreciated. Please leave any information in the forum, or email us at mail@losethegame.com
There are currently 4 claimed creators of The Game:
Jamie Miller (1996)
Dennis Begley & Gavin McDowall (1994)
Two brothers from Melbourne, Austalia (1996)
Riz (?)
The Internet (2002)
The earliest known mention of The Game on the internet was made by theaardvark on the 10th August 2002 (source). He claims to "have no idea where or when this started" but "found out about it online about 6 months ago".
John Harrison (Mellow & Mellowtrax, creator of justlost.co.uk which is no longer running) replies. He later clarifies that he was told by a girl called Zet in 1998 in Buckinghamshire, UK. (source & email)
techno teacher replies "I've been playing the game for years (learnt it on Mixmag.net in about 99), and it features at www.maggiethatcher.com/game.html"
archive.org suggests that mixmag.net was not set up until 2001 (source)
Jamie Miller (1996)
On the 21st October 2002, Euryon claimed to have created The Game in 1996. (Google cache has been deleted)
On the 7th December 2002, Marnevel quoted Euryon as his "good friend" Jamie Miller. (source)
The claim has been quoted in a number of other forums since.
In April 2006 Wikipedians investigating The Game, who had found his 2002 post, contacted someone called Euryon on flickr. He said that he was Jamie Miller and had created The Game in 1996. losethegame.com asked the Wikipedians to tell him to contact us.
He then emailed us with the following information:
He is from Walthamstow, East London, UK.
His
web-pseudonym is Euryon.
He created The Game in 1996 and has since "Spread word of game through verbal communication and occasionally
online chatting" .
In 1998 at the Greenbelt festival, he met a stranger, from the either north of England or Scotland, who knew about The Game. Since then he has "spread it online as much as possible... on msn/icq, or that sort of thing".
He posted the rules on the forums of dragonforce.biz (now dragonforce.com), thedarktower.net and "probably some vampire rpg site" during 2002.
Pil, who quotes him here, knew him on the dragonforce forums.
People he can remember telling about The Game include:
"Dan Storey (Friend) East London
Dan Munday (Friend) East London
Rich Miller (Brother) East London
Tom Richardson (Friend) East London
Naadir Jeewa (Friend) East London
Various students from Ilford County High School (Essex)
Various students from Davenant High School (Essex)
Various people who attended Greenbelt Arts Festival (people from all over
UK, based in Northampton)
Various people who may have frequented clubs/pubs in Essex area."
Dennis Begley & Gavin McDowall (1994)
Mike Codling claimed the following in an email:
"I’m sure I was told of the game in either ’93 or ’94 by either Dennis Begley or Gavin McDowell, two sound engineers who live and work in the south-west of
It was explained thus as the ‘
Three young men, following a heavy night out in the west end, accidentally took the wrong branch on the northern line, and found themselves stranded at
The story was told a long time ago, and I’m making a bit of a leap of faith that it was East Finchley, could have been any of the Finchley underground stations, my subsequent knowledge of London geography suggests this station is likely, as the train exits the Highgate tunnel here and travels above ground, which probably started the cogs turning."
When asked for their contact details, he replied:
"I don't have email addresses for them, only their home phones.
I talked to Dennis and was told I had 'said too much' already :) I'd like to be able to say that dennis and his other mate made it all up while touring with an 80s rocker, but I know he'll deny all knowledge of this (and you didn't get it from me!)
Suffice to say, I would be very surprised if you were able to trace the game back further than this, and this sort of thing happens to dennis more than you might imagine, he's quite a character
Dennis Begley and Gavin McDowall (check spelling) are both live sound engineers based in the south west of England and can be tracked down as such by anyone with the will!"
Google searches for these names confirm them to be UK sound engineers.
On 20th September 2007 we were contact by Adrian McCrickard claiming the following:
"Here is the correct story of the origin of the game.
The 'East Finchley' story has some elements of the truth in it,
although it was actually Finchley Central.
It is called 'Finchley Central'.
The game was taught to me by one of the three guys on the platform that
night. They were just waiting for the train after a night out.
Obviously you can't stay in the station all night as they were closed
after 12ish. Unfortunately, I cannot remember his name (if it comes to
me, i'll let you know) but he was a scientist (physics I think) from
Esher. He had a yellow Triumph Spitfire and collected vintage port. We
both worked for BNFL at Risley, Warrington and I was renting a room in
his house. This was in 1982 and I seem to remember it was invented
while he was at university which would have made it 1979-81.
I have noticed people in the forums trying to come up with ways of
winning the game. Well, there is one. It is called 'Finchley Prime'. It
was devised some months after the original game. The idea is that if
you say the word 'winning' in normal conversation without
pre-meditation, you win. The catch is, obviously you either don't
realise you've won or you do realise them immediately lose. Damn!
I have just seen the Game World Championship page. This is operating on
an erroneous supposition. Just because you are not losing does not mean
you are winning, you are only playing, and you can only play once you
are aware of the game.
Hopefully this will clear up the confusion over the game's origins. And
we can all start calling it by its proper name now."
Two brothers from Melbourne, Austalia (1996)
These people have requested to remain anonomous.
"In May 1996 my friend's [two twin brothers] came into class and told us all about this game they said they'd invented during their absence (they had the chicken pox) called 'the game'... there are about 25 other people in the class at the time."
Someone then claiming to be one of these twins said:
"we did play a version of the game but i certainly don't claim i created it."
Based on this it unlikely that the twins created The Game. However, this suggests The Game existed in Australia in 1996.
Riz (?)
"The father of 'The game' is a 17 year old boy in California High School in the city of San Ramon, obviously in America. I know him in person, and he is a very akward, yet comfortable person to be around. His nickname is Riz, however, his last or true first name shall not be disclosed." - Roku Shinzui
Other Early Cases
"I have been losing The Game since 2001 at least, possibly 2000... learned it at a summer camp that year called Camp Wildwood in New Brunswick, Canada" - Julian Williams
"I think it may have been 1999 that I first heard about it, people from Birmingham University Rock Soc were the first people that told me about it." - Tom Michael (Mostly Zen)
"I first heard of the game around 1998 as it was quite well known around Peter Symonds College in Winchester. I was told of it by one Alistair Williams who claimed to have been playing for a few years." - Daniel Fishman
John Harrison in Buckinghamshire in 1998. (see above)
1990 - 1994
"I was at a house party with him in Southampton circa 1997 when I was introduced to the game by a Dan Fisher who claims to have been playing the game since at least 1990 along with several friends of his, including John and Dan Ahern who appear in Nathan Halcrows tree." - Kei Taniguchi
"I'm the 'John Ahern' (actually Jon Ahearn) referenced on http://www.losethegame.com/origins.htm and I certainly wasn't playing the game as early as 1997, not for at least 5 years afterwards." - Jon Ahearn
“I haven’t thought about the game in 12 years.” - 2004 (source)
Prior to 1990
"i worked with someone in their 40's and they told me that they had been playing since he was 17" - ash (source)
Oceanic Origins
"A friend of his...visited...from Borneo. [He/she] had learned about the game in the jungle" (source)
"Myself and a group of about 15 people we have been playing since 1998, friends and I where told of the game at a party in Bucks, England. The teller of the game told us she had been told of the game by someone that had travelled around the Papa New Guinea (I think it was the place, will confirm this)" John Harrison
Further Questions
When was this reference made?
Other Possibilities
