I had no idea about this cultural history. A bunch of us in high school comp sci used to play the online version bundled with Windows XP once we were done with our assignments...we'd try to queue up at the same time to get matched in the same game.
How you play Spades is how you play life
21–30 of 127 posts
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#22I have to say... what terrible UX ! Scroll right? In a world where literally everyone else scrolls down ? Its completely un-natural if you're not using a tablet or smartphone ! Unless you have one of those fancy mice with the horizontal scroll button, but most people won't and will have to click and drag (rinse and repeat).
For me, I am also having an issue where the text is too large for the cards, causing large portions of text to not fit the screen and be unreadable. Interesting design concept, but appears to be buggy/not-tested.
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#23I (as a white American) didn't know about this history, and have played Spades as a family game for as long as I can remember. Some interesting variations - we usually played with no Jokers, no bag, but with a negative score rule when not meeting bid. Also, a card selection mechanic if 2 players are playing - the players would alternating picking cards from from the deck, decide whether they wanted it, then keep it a…
I (also white American) play the same rules and was taught them by my grandfather. He said he learned the game in the Navy during WWII, but I'm not sure if that timeline lines up.
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#24There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one?
I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to some more modern environmentalism ideas. These "You don't control the hand you're dealt" are exactly the kind of thing that filled those essays in school. "The monster, representing the unchecked progress of technology, causes great harm to the world..." You can just draw random connections between any two ideas if you don't limit yourself to strong, unique, or meaningful connections.
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#25There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one? I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Ma…
In games like Magic: The Gathering you do get to decide what possible cards you can be dealt.
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#26There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one? I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Ma…
Funny enough, one counter example is another card game that's largely seen as part of African-American culture, bid whist. In that game, there's a small pile of cards dealt separately as a kitty, which the winning bidder gets to incorporate into his hand after the bid is done.
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#27There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one? I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Ma…
In spades all 52 cards are dealt out 13 to each player, so there's absolutely no way* to change anything in your hand. There's no deck or discard pile to draw from, unlike other card games were you can draw or otherwise pick cards up others have discarded/played, or some games even allow you to play cards off other cards already on the table.
*in some variants you can trade 2 cards with your partner if you are taking a nil
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#28There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one? I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Ma…
There are games where you build your deck either before game or during game. Then you have control over what card comes at which probabilities.
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#29I used to hate spades, because I would get excoriated by my partner, for every mistake, and never given credit for doing well.
I preferred Hearts, where I got to "stick it" to others.
Yeah...I have issues.
Re: How you play Spades is how you play life
#30There was a line in there that reminded me a bit of a thing you might write in a school essay - "When playing Spades, you’re dealt a hand and have no control over the cards you get—unless you’re cheating." I'm having trouble thinking of a card game where you do get control over the cards you're dealt. Maybe there is one? I'm reminded of a time in high school where for some reason I had to write an essay connecting Ma…
In spades all 52 cards are dealt out 13 to each player, so there's absolutely no way* to change anything in your hand. There's no deck or discard pile to draw from, unlike other card games were you can draw or otherwise pick cards up others have discarded/played, or some games even allow you to play cards off other cards already on the table. *in some variants you can trade 2 cards with your partner if you are taking…
Isn’t Texas hold em poker, I would guess the most popular card game, the same way?