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SQUID GAME CYBERCULTURE

Netflix has invested $500 million to create new Korean programs for its international streaming channels. A breakout hit this year has been Squid Game from South Korea. The premise is not new: people's lives are used for entertainment. Hunger Games and Battle Royale were titles where human contestants battle to the death. Squid Game added the erie twist that the deadly contest uses beloved Korean childhood playground games.

In the preliminary round, the game is called DDAKGI, a “slap game” in which players alternate turns trying to flip a tightly packed paper square set on the ground to its backside.

In the US, there were a few school house paper folded games. One was table top football, where a piece of paper was folded into a triangle football. Players slid the football across a table. If it hung over the edge without falling over it would count as a touchdown. If it fell, no points were awarded. A player could call for a field goal. The player would tee up the football and finger flick it through this opponent's finger goal post to score. Another, popular with girls, was a folded square triangle that could manipulated to show different numbers squares. It was used as a fortune teller.

The first round in Squid Games was RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT. One person stands at the end of the field with his back turned against the players. The person either sings a song or counts numbers, at variable speeds, until he yells “Red Light!” to spin around to catch any player still moving forward. Any moving player is called out. The object of the game is for a player to tag the signal caller before he turns around.

Red Light Green Light was played in America. But there were other types of start-stop tag games. Elementary school children start their socialization with simple games like TAG or DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE. HIDE AND SEEK was a similar game where one player cannot see the other players at the start of a round.

The second round was a game called PPOPGI or the Honeycomb Game. A player is given a piece of honeycomb candy, a hard but at times brittle treat that has an imprinted shape like a star, circle, square or triangle. The game is that the player needs to cut out the shape with a needle without breaking or cracking the shape. It is much more difficult than it sounds.

In the US, we did not such a candy cut-out game. The closest memory is mean junior high biology teachers would bring in chocolate covered insects to class for the students to eat - - - a really gross pop quiz. If you gagged or vomited, you were ridiculed by the other students, which in some circles was worse than death. And speaking of death, the only needle game was a back yard classic called JARTS. A jart was a sharp large spike with arrow fins. You would toss it high in the air to try to land it on a target. The closest would win. However, the game was banned because serious injuries of the needles landing with velocity on kids heads and limbs.

The third round was TUG OF WAR. It is almost a universal game. It was a staple at summer camps and military run gym classes.

But more common rope games were Rope Climb and Jump Rope. Rope Climb was a timed ascent up a thick ship rope hung from the gym ceiling. Many kids could did not have the body strength to crawl up the rope (to the taunts of the gym teacher). Girls at recess used to Jump Rope, either individually or as trio counting as many clean jumps made by a person.

The fourth round was MARBLES. Also a common game around the world, but with various ways to play. In Korea, it was played in a traditional method of dropping you marbles in a circle then outside try to knock out your opponents balls. If you hit one, you got to keep it. Another way to play was odd-even A player would place marbles in his hand and his opponent would have to guess odd or even. If he guessed right, he'd win the marbles. If he lost, he would have to give up an equal number of marbles to his opponent. It was really an early simple form of gambling, which except for the state lottery, is illegal in South Korea.

In some American schools, kids had different size marbles: regular and Jumbo. It took two hits to win a Jumbo marble. And some kids had steel ball bearings called “steelies,” which you had to hit three or four times in order to win. A similar hand coordination game was JACKS. A small rubber ball was bounced on the ground as a player attempted to pick up jacks (steel pointed stars) in a successive order of one, two three, etc. If you missed a jack or did not catch the ball, you would be out.

The fifth round was GLASS BRIDGE crossing. Players would have to move forward along a glass bridge. Some glass was tempered and some regular plate panels. If you stepped on a weak one, you would fall to your death.

In the US, the only children's bridge or agility games were JUNGLE JIM battle for boys or HOPSCOTCH for girls. A jungle jim was a horizontal ladder placed five feet off the ground. Opponents would climb up to either end and meet halfway. They would kick and tug each other until one would fall to the ground. In Hopscotch, a stone pebble was placed in a square that could not be touched. So a girl would use a series of one and two foot jumps in rapid succession to complete the course. In some variations, the girl had to reach over and pick up the stone without losing her balance.

The sixth round was the SQUID GAME. A completely unique field game where a pattern was placed on the school ground dirt. Defenders play defense instead the shapes while the attackers play outside usually hopping on one foot. The idea was to fight your way to the squid's head and tap a triangle without being pushed out. If you got to the triangle and yelled Hooray! your team would win.

America had many field battle games. RED ROVER pitted two teams that lined up facing each other. One team would call a player over. That player had to run to try to break through the interlocked arms of the calling team. If he did not, he would have to join his opponent. If he won, he'd take out one of his opponents. CAPTURE THE FLAG was another field game. Teams hid their flags. The object was to capture your opponent's flag and return it to your HQ without being tagged. If you were tagged, you were sent to jail. You could only be released if a teammate tagged you.

Similar attacking games included DODGEBALL where gym balls were thrown across the gym court. If you hit someone they were out. If you caught the ball, the thrower was out. Last man standing won for his or her team. FOUR SQUARE was another game in which a field of four touching squares were laid out. A player hand balls a rubber ball to another square. That must use his hand to return it to another square or he'd be out. Last person standing would win the game.

What Squid Game has brought more than a drama is nostalgia. It is interesting that no matter the culture, children found ways to entertain themselves when they played outdoors. The games had similar physical requirements: speed, strength, coordination, balance and strategy. They were early learning applications as well as being fun.

If there is a Squid Game sequel, as Netflix is want to do, what would be the seventh game?

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