A Simple Game to Play on Zoom

Game overview.

This game utilizes the classic set-up of “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, but with twists and technological upgrades fit for the era of Zoom.

The Rules.

Two players predetermine the number of points they want to play to, e.g. “Let’s play first one to 5 points” (meaning the first player with five points will win). On Zoom, with their hands visible to the other player on the screen, each player chooses Rock, Paper, or Scissors. Simultaneously, they show their hand! Like the classic game, Rock beats Scissors, Scissors beats Paper, and Paper beats Rock. Each victory wins a point for the victor.

However, in this version of the game, there are power-ups. A power-up can be played consecutively with a “Rock”, “Paper”, or “Scissors” move which can turn a losing move into a tie, and a tie into a point-winning move. (Nothing happens in the case of a win — if a power-up is played by a player who would have won anyways, the player wins 1 point in that game per usual.)

Neither player starts out with the ability to use power-ups. In order for the players to earn power-ups, they must play the same move for two consecutive turns. For example, if Player A played Rock in the first point, then if they play Rock in the second game, then they earn a power-up, which they can use in the future.

This extra rule creates “psychological thrill” and the opportunity for strategy because each player is incentivized to play the move they played last turn; thus, the other player is also incentivized to play the move that beats the move the other played last turn.

It creates a more complex set of incentives for each option in the traditional game. For example, if Player A played Rock last round and Player B played Scissors last round, Player A is incentivized to play Rock this round and Player B is incentivized to play Scissors this round. However, that can be risky because each player knows what the other played last round. If Player A actually does play Rock again, then Player B may anticipate that choice and plays Paper.

But, how are the power-ups used? This is where Zoom comes in. To indicate during a game that a player wants to use a power-up, that player should utilize Zoom’s emoji feature to indicate with a thumbs-up that they want to use a power-up during that particular game.

Zoom “Reactions” feature can be utilized to serve as an indicator that a player wants to use a power-up.

A typical game with power-ups may last longer than a normal game and look like the following:

• Players A and B decide to play to 3points.
• They both play Rock — thus, it’s a tie the first time.
• Then, the next move, Player A plays Rock and B plays Paper. Player A gets a “power-up” but Player B wins a point.
• Player A plays Scissors and presses the “thumbs-up” emoji to utilize their power-up while Player B plays Scissors as well. Since Player A uses a power-up, they win the point.
• Player A plays Rock and Player B plays Paper. Player B wins a point and is winning 2–1.
• Player A plays Scissors and Player B plays Paper. Player B gets a power-up but loses the point. Score is 2–2.
• Player A plays Rock and Player B plays Paper with a power-up. (The power-up was not necessary but Player B does not get it back.) Player B wins.

The Results.

After play-testing this game in Zoom, I found out a few key aspects of the game:

• Adding power-ups as a feature created a longer, game-play, since moves were slightly more complex.
• Thinking through past moves in calculating the next move takes more time than the usual split-second Rock-Paper-Scissors move-decision. Thus, more time was generally taken between each turn. This led to a game that felt a bit more strategic and less spontaneous than traditional “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”
• It can be difficult to remember the number of power-ups each player has. One feature that I developed through the play-testing process was using one hand for “Rock, Paper, Scissors” moves, and using the other hand to keep track of the number of power-ups. This seemed to work!
• Game clarification questions: If a player plays the same move three times in a row, does that mean they get another power-up (after already getting a power-up after playing the first two in a row)? This did come up in play-testing! I would suggest choosing to “re-set” the past move-counter after just winning a power-up to ensure that the game is fair.

Additional Zoom Feature Optimization.

Although this feature was not play-tested, I also suggest keeping track of past moves using Zoom’s “Share Screen” → “Whiteboard” tool and notating each player’s moves with “r” for “Rock”, “p” for “Paper”, or “s” for “Scissors.” Note that one can have whiteboard open and see the other player’s video screen at the same time!

Player A has played “Rock” and “Paper”, notated by “r” followed by “p”.

Hope that this simple game makes your next Zoom call awesome!