Prepare for Paranoia

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the time of year for tracking down students, snagging schedules, and switching Instagram usernames. 

Every year as a part of GOFA, Mayo organizes a school-wide game available to every student: Paranoia. The idea behind the game stems from today’s culture of the world and the understanding of what true paranoia could feel like; it’s also takes hide-and-seek to another level. The game is organized fully by Mr. Terpestra and starts on December 12th and ends on December 20th. Signed slips are due on the 6th of December with a payment of five dollars in your history classroom in order to qualify to play Paranoia. 

The game of Paranoia is fairly simple. When one has entered the game, they receive a slip of white paper- on this paper includes a student’s first and last name and the grade, with nothing else. The trick is you’re both the tagger and the avoider. The goal of the game is to find your “target” and tag them before you are tagged by the player who has your name, but you only have between 7:40 and 3:03 to do so. If you are tagged, you are disqualified and forced to stop playing the game. If you tag someone else, that person gives you their slip of paper with a new name and grade, who is your next “victim.” The goal of Paranoia is to be one of the final people standing with as many names collected as possible, and each year there are several prizes awarded to these people. This year’s prize is $75 in cash or by gift card to the person who is still standing by the time of the final GOFA pep fest with the most tags and $25 to the person with the most tags all around, whether or not they are still in the game. 

Several strategies are used throughout Paranoia every year as well. Offensively, you can buy your “target’s” schedule from the main office, and pay teachers to leave class a couple minutes early to wait outside that person’s classroom for them. Defensively, it is smart to switch up usernames and different accounts on social media to protect your identity from other students, and to pay teachers to leave class early to quickly get to your next class to avoid getting tagged. All of the money is, of course, going towards the GOFA fundraising too. 

 

Some of the rules of Paranoia include… 

  1. You must give up your slip when tagged out 
  2. There is a zero tolerance policy on any violence 
  3. You are only allowed to tag people in hallways 
  4. No tagging in classrooms and outside of the school 
  5. Have fun!