Category of Analog PVP Milk Cap Gaming

When I was young and in elementary school, for a short time, kids played Pogs. Now it will be totally obvious what this is to most people of my age group who read this, and how the game is played, but a quick recap to fill blog space is exactly what this paragraph needs. Each Pog was a small soft circle of material with an image printed on it, which may be of any number of things. (8 balls, crossbones, ying-yangs, cartoon characters, etc.) So each player would select and agree upon a number of Pogs, 1 to 3 on average. These Pogs would be stacked face up on top of each other, usually one stack on top of the other (though thinking of it now, it may have been more fair to stack them one at a time, alternating whose Pog got put on the pile...)

Once the stack was created, one person would take their "Slammer" which was a circle the size of a Pog but made of a heavy plastic (or metal if agreed upon for use), and would flip it, coin style. The other player calls heads or tails, and whoever wins goes first. The first person holds their slammer vertically above the pile of pogs, and slams it down onto it, in an attempt to launch the Pogs into the air, where they would flip around. Any Pogs that land face down are that player's to keep. In this way, Pogs are lost to your opponent, won from them, or simply kept in your possession. Oodles of fun, if I do say so myself.

I have very fond memories of this game at my school. I was given my first set of Pogs and a Slammer by a friend who had extras. He gave me a small number, most likely no more than 10, and a slammer, and I was charged and ready to play. I, like many other children, would walk around the large, paved area of the school yard, looking for people to challenge, or for challenges to find me. I may have been in grade 2 or 3 at the time, but all grades were playing. It was amazing; in general, people adhered to the rules, even without supervision. I remember distinctly playing against a grade 7 or 8, winning his Coca-Cola Pog, and never playing that one again. I was so happy to have played an older boy, and won.

Even though this was a game that connected total strangers, if not for a short time, reflecting back on it now, this was not really a "social" event. The strangers you met were all business, with the talk being limited to Pogs, variant rules, and gameplay. There was not really mingling, and after a game, the stranger was left and forgotten. It was fun, but really not the great multi-grade mingling I sometimes remember it as. What is really funny to me, is that I do not always remember the truth of how my Pog experience ended.

I used to keep my somewhat large collection of Pogs in an empty Quality Street Chocolates tin. Large octogonal tin, awkward to carry around, but felt cool to have them all spread out inside where I could easily go through them to find ones I wanted. This happened on one of the last days of the game being played at my school, and it was tragic. I was walking around, looking for a game, and I had my tin open where I could see my Pogs. Some older kid came up from behind me while I was distracted, punched the underside of my tin sending it, and all my Pogs, skyrocketing into the air, and down into the crowd of players. He yelled "Scramble!" and ran off. I remember later being upset that I didn't look to see the face of my attacker, and instead tears and panic welled up inside me.

I immediatly freaked out, rushing around trying to recover my lost Pogs, but it was too late. That many Pogs let loose into a packed crowd of Pog players was the death of my collection. I remember of the approximately 150 Pogs I had with me, I was reunited with a measily 14. I was devastated. It was really an awful event, and often when I remember it, I wish I had seen this person's face (probably would have been the only grudge I've ever held), or been a grade 8 myself, watching this happen to a younger student. All I know is it was a really awful thing to do to someone, and I wish I could have, ahem, "showed that" to the culprit. Pogs were, several days after, banned from our school. As it is a Catholic school, and technically playing Pogs was a form of gambling, they declared it unfit as a game for children to play. I think some parents were sad their kids sucked at Pogs and were losing them to other kids in games.

I still retain my good memories about playing this game, and how I felt connected to other players in a neat way, that otherwise I would have had no interation with. The game was easy, and anyone could play and have a reasonable chance of winning (which kind of does make it gambling), and other games after tried to take its place. I remember specifically "Crazy Bones" and Magic Cards became a thing for some, but none as sweeping as Pogs. I never played any of these alternatives myself. Looking back, I am just thankful that I was a part of this game craze while it lasted. It is a part of my childhood I'll not forget, and can think back on fondly.

I can tell you with some certainty that I remember some Pogs I won, but did not like, and would often play them, thinking I wouldn't care if I lost them. These Pogs would have been girly ones, cheap or lame ones (I remember police officers' faces on some), and of course scary ones. I remember having this one that had a severed, decaying head, missing an eye, its face twisted into a fearsome growl. Sounds scary, doesn't it?