Over spring break, my friends and I grew hooked on a card game called Cambio, where the main objective is to race against the other players to get the lowest sum of card values in your hand. To start, each player is dealt 4 cards, but you can only take a peek at 2. The cards must remain face-down until the end, yet your knowledge of your cards and even other players’ cards are essential to your win. These mechanics creates multiple dynamics:
- Strategy → players must strategize against each other, shuffling their cards to confuse opponents and hinder their memory, or placing unfavorable cards on the edges of their hand in hopes that opponents are more likely to peek at these cards due to their closer proximity
- Bluffing → players must outwit one another, concealing excitement when uncovering good cards to avoid tipping off opponents, or deliberately displaying disappointment to discourage opponents from stealing valuable cards
- Social Deduction → players must correctly interpret others’ reactions, why did your opponent smile during their initial card peek? Are they genuinely happy, or are they manipulating you? Who’s putting on a poker face? Whose body language is revealing information about their cards?
This creates a competitive kind of fun where players express intellectual dominance over one another. When I successfully memorize, strategize, bluff, or socially deduct, I take pride in my intelligence, cleverness, cunningness, and emotional intelligence (respectively). Even when an opponent recognizes I’ve made a “smart” move by saying “good play,” I feel validated in this praise.
When my friend won a recent game for example, they queued a song, jumped up, and danced to celebrate their victory. The fun that compelled them to undergo this loud demonstration is not just because they won, but because winning meant they demonstrated a strong and keen mental across multiple dimensions.
