The Game (mind game)

Depending on the variation, it is held that the whole world, or all those who are aware of the game, are playing it at all times.

While the original version of Finchley Central involves taking turns to name stations, in 1976, members of the Cambridge University Science Fiction Society (CUSFS) developed a variant wherein the first person to think of the titular station loses.

[2] The creators of "LoseTheGame.net", a website which aims to catalogue information relating to the phenomenon, have received messages from multiple former members of the CUSFS commenting on the similarity between the Finchley Central variant and the modern Game.

[1][3] The first known reference to The Game is a blog post from 2002 – the author states that they "found out about it online about 6 months ago".

[5] Other strategies involve merchandise: T-shirts, buttons, mugs, posters, and bumper stickers have been created to advertise The Game.

[7][10] The 2009 Time 100 poll was manipulated by users of 4chan, forming an acrostic for "marblecake also the game" out of the top 21 people's names.