I don’t know how to play Rock/Paper/Scissors- please tell me I’m not the only one…

[Zoflorabore]

Hi all, I’ve been on MN for over 10 years and was going to name change but decided against it and am being honest despite being embarrassed!

i am a 46 year old woman. I consider myself to be relatively intelligent and I’m educated to university level but this game burns my head out.

So as not to drip feed, I was diagnosed with ADHD last year and am also on the ASD pathway. My 2 dc are also autistic ( dd 13 and ds 21 ) they however can easily play R/P/S and think it’s pretty pathetic that I can’t.

Over the years I’ve had many, many people promise they can show me how to do it but it just goes over my head and I constantly question the game and how one thing is superior to another and I can never get it.

I see little kids playing it, people in films and i wonder why on earth I find it so hard.

it has come up in conversation tonight with my neighbours as their dc were playing it and I admitted I can’t do it and they were all laughing 😂
anyone else?!

Maybe it's your adhd. You don't have the patience for things like this.

Although my dd2 has adhd and I'm autistic and we play.

Me and my mum have dyspraxia she can't play.

You can't magically play a game you haven't learnt to play. You probably need to play it to understand how it works, because it currently sounds like you think there's one option that is guaranteed to always win 😅 Obviously that's not the case in any game or there wouldn't be a game. In my experience lots of autistic people like games and the security of having clear rules (including me) so I struggle to see why autism would be relevant here.

It's passed me by, too, OP. I know of it but couldn't have quoted the rules without looking them up. I'm not generally ignorant of games and suchlike, but Rock Paper Scissors has somehow never formed part of my frame of reference, if that makes any sense.

The point of it is that it's just a game of chance really (with a bit of psychology, reverse psychology, poker face, etc going on if you think you can guess what the other player might do). But essentially it's a game of chance. And you use it to decide who wins or loses a particular game - usually to make a decision about something else (as someone upthread said, like who has to do a chore). You could toss a coin or roll a die or whatever, but this is easy.

You produce the hand shape at the same time as the other player, and so it's just luck whether you'll pick the winner or loser or the same (in which case you play again). Since each of the things beats one of the others and loses to one of the others, it's all perfectly balanced so that in a total random world, it would always come out even.

Maybe best not to think of it as a game, really; it's more of a decision making tool I think. I mean, yes, it has winners and losers like a game does, but it's a pretty boring game if you were playing it for fun. A bit like tossing a coin would get pretty boring after the first couple of guesses. Maybe RPS is a bit more fun than that as you bring in the element of psychology and trying to guess what the other person is going to do and you can have a bit of silly fun with that, so that could make it carry on for a while longer while you both try to predict the other person's strategy. But it still really just comes down to luck.

@Slayday Why would you think that? OP has been here for yonks, I recognise her name, and there is nothing remotely goady or offensive in her post.

It’s a game of chance where, instead of using cards it eg dice, you’re using your hands to confer greater or lesser value

It's essentially random, so it's like tossing a coin to decide who wins in a situation except that you don't need a coin or a flat surface. Sometimes genuinely handy, more often done as a bit of a joke.

Sorry if it is not but it seems like a complete piss take. I guess if the username has history it’s not, but WTF?? Rock paper scissors? I only came on the thread coz I couldn’t imagine that was really what the post was about.

Do you normally struggle with basic concepts? I mean, it’s been explained on the thread numerous times!

There’s a new version now -

Who me?!

don’t think so love. Been on here posting very regularly since May 2014.

This. Clarity aka questions of logic are often behind a lot of misunderstandings for neurodiverse individuals. We cope with the 'world' through logical frameworks but sometimes either not all information is known to us for various reasons, or the basis isn't pure logic, which creates a brain jam, as we spot the inconsistency in the pattern (we are pattern spotters) and then this triggers another neural pathway known as 'pause and check- a biological development that would have kept us safe in the past as we wait to see if a situation is safe or not. Modern life moves a lot faster though.

I have the same thought about it but you suspend it in order to play the game which is fun - the purpose of the game is fun.

There's a difference in understanding and getting it.

It's a kids game really. The bit I like is the moment before you show as even I rarely know what I am going to show. I have ADHD and possibly autistic. We played games - cards etc. - extensively in my family growing up. I think they are important.

I always thought it was a bit of a pointless game, I could never understand it, I mean I understood the concept just the why? What's the point (but I don't really like playing games which rely on a dice roll/ chance, I prefer a game that requires strategy).
But I didn't realise people use it for chores, I really like that idea, and will try it on my teens! So for that I'm glade zoflorabore posted this thread, and to shortpoet who explained so succinctly how she uses the game.

Because there isn't one best answer! Each item wins against one other but loses against one other.

Oh yes, adults don’t really use it as a game, more as an entertaining alternative to a coin toss - or if you don’t have a coin handy. Heads and tails also aren’t better than each other.

Isn't it used in Squid Games The challenge and the woman makes a big fuss about her strategy, when really it is just a game of chance.

I always end up doing a weird thing with my hand where I've tried to form all three shapes simultaneously but it looks like I've got severe arthritis.

(Edited to make sense!)

As kids, our dad taught us this game but we know it as "Ig, Ag, Og" as in your fist pump your leg/table for Ig and Ag and on Og you'd show your rock, paper or scissors.

@Sethera thank you for vouching for me, I appreciate it. 😊

I don't know about you @Zoflorabore but I am absolutely useless at any games or situations that require any sort of strategy. I just can't seem to see it and just go for the obvious.

I remember playing Cluedo with XH many moons ago and he asked what I thought was a really silly question as we'd already ruled out some of it but apparently it was his strategy.

You MUST learn as it's the only way to settle petty disagreements, or - who answers the door/goes to the shop/makes the next brew.
You can settle literally anything with RPS. They should try using it at NATO.

Don't go down the rabbit hole of Star Wars Rock/Paper/Scissors!