Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Lessons from RISK

I come from a family of avid strategy game players. Growing up, my brothers and I were always playing some sort of board game or card game. Coming from a family of all boys often time came with the price of competitiveness. We've spent many a long night playing a game because no one wanted to quit until they had won. 
One of family favorites was the game of RISK, a game that consisted of a map of the world broken down into continents, which are in turn broken down into individual territories. Each player is given a small army, which grows larger and larger the more territories or continents you control.  Many of my experiences that have to do with persuading or being persuaded have happened around the game table while playing RISK.
In Gorgias’ speech, the Encomium of Helen, Gorgias seeks to take away blame from Helen for the Trojan War. As legend has it, Helen was either abducted or ran away with Paris, the son of the Trojan king. Gorgias points out that there ways other than words that persuade us to do something.
I remember many a RISK game when I was compelled attack or not attack into a territory based on a fear of some sort. Fear of being attacked, fear of spreading myself too thin, that if I took one of their territories they might take a territory that I valued. Fear was a powerful persuader because it motivates us to make an action in hopes of avoiding something much more unpleasant

Another form of persuasion is love. RISK battles consist of rolling dice, which means the outcomes are random. In theory the largest army has the advantage, but that is not always the case. Once my younger brother attacked me with an army double or triple my own. As luck would have it my army won, leaving his forces decimated. It would have been really easy to counter attack and take all of his land, but the way he looked at me with those eyes that said, “If you love me please don’t destroy me” touched my heart and I didn’t attack. I think love and emotions are the most powerful of motivaters. Often how we feel influences what we do. How often have we done something completley irrational because we felt that it was right? Even though the example is a silly one it is a reminder to me of the persuading power of love.


4 comments:

  1. I liked how we both focused on the persuasion power of fear, although our examples varied in out come. You explained how you were often reluctant to make certain moves in the game of RISK in fear of loosing the game, whereas I was motivated by fear to change my circumstance and leave the lake. I guess what I am getting at is that fear can either cause you to not act, or to act depending on the circumstances.

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  2. I love risk! As far as I remember, I'm undefeated. :) But I completely agree, it is also interesting to think about why some people don't really care if they destroy their little brother in a game of risk. What accounts for people's differences in how much their decisions are motivated by emotions? Can you quantify love? Is someone stronger or weaker if they are receptive to their emotions and act accordingly?

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  3. I feel like our posts both emphasize the irrational motivators, but from different angles- fear versus love (although you do touch on love at the end). It's interesting to see how one excerpt can prompt different thought processes.
    Also, I have a family that is malicious at RISK, too, and I completely relate to your post. It looks like there are a few RISK players in this class... friendly match?! :)

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  4. Oh man, my entire family are avid gamers also. Board games, card games, you name it. We have an expression in our family for when someone does the "if you love me and want me to keep playing you better be nice to me." We call it "playing Catan" because that is what my dad would do every time we played. But I agree that love and competition is definitely rhetorical influences.

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