Kids here are crazy about games. More importantly, games which combine collecting with smashing things. One such game combines these pursuits perfectly and it’s name is Dak Ji. Dak Ji is a game consisting of throwing plastic pieces of shit (PPOS) around and trying to collect as many as you can in the process. Now they’re not actually plastic pieces of shit, but I call them this because they essentially cost the same to make, and have zero intrinsic value. You throw them around until you realize that they are actually just a PPOS and then throw them away. Why would kids do this? Because it’s fun.
A hive of unguarded Dak Ji pieces
See there are rules to the throwing. Let me pretend that I’m a kid again and not an old spoilsport and explain. So you and your opponent put your PPOS down flat on the ground. Then, you take it in turns to pick up your PPOS and throw it at the other players’ PPOS. If you manage to turn their PPOS over then you take it, thus becoming the proud owner of another PPOS. If you don’t, he has a chance to get yours. To a kid, the prospect of this is the most terrible thing in the world. Now, if your PPOS is lying flat on the ground, you have a pretty good chance. But if, in the midst of your attacking, your PPOS lands on the curved side, then your opponent has a good chance to flip it and take your PPOS forever.
Close-up of a PPOS
Whoever thought of this game must be rolling in money now. These crazes take hold of kids, and I was no different in my youth. Matter of fact, I still suffer from it now with my handphones and iPods. But at least my PPOS does something like play music. Back in my youthful days we went through marbles and yo-yos, ninja turtle cards and elastics. We pursued these things like they were the Holy Grail, the very answer and key to our existence. If someone took them from us, we felt like we had been robbed of our life savings, but even after losing we just scraped together what we had and traded, swapped, saved and bought again until we had a superior collection. We were wary of those who were experts at the game and despised those who didn’t play by the rules. One day, in a game of cross-country marbling a crow flew down and ate mine. I have never liked those damn birds since.
Marbles was possibly the most interesting because they were like gemstones. I’m not sure how the value system of marbles came about, but all we knew was that some were more valuable than others and we had to do all that we could to get them. During elementary school, the school oval would be like a Turkish bazaar of marble swapping and playing. People set up tracks where you could step up and try your hand at hitting the kid’s marbles. You had to be careful of course, just in case the track was “rigged” in favor of the vendor. It was our first foray into carnival capitalism and when we established a nice collection of our own, we did our best to acquire a track and set up shop. Once this happens, you cultivate your track and do your best to get one which is fair, but not too fair.
But suddenly, as soon as it started, it was forgotten again. The collection which I had amounted through many games around the schoolyard and at home went into a cupboard and I haven’t thought about it until now, when I see these kids smashing their PPOS around. Of course in a little while there will be another craze over another POS, plastic or otherwise. I can bet you it will seem equally pointless and will take hold of kids like Michael Jackson. But somewhere deep down, I know that there are complicated thought processes churning around behind those kids’ innocent eyes. Strategies and market analyses are being formed in order to acquire more and more and more of the shit that they so desperately need. Maybe I should teach them about mergers and acquisitions, keeping tidy records and managing losses. I should point out to them a weaker player, such that they might focus energy on exacting the maximum payment of plastic, then using said plastic for the conquering of other players. Maybe they can use their plastic as a tool of manipulation, giving generous donations to buy partnerships. The possibilities are endless if they know how. Maybe I’ll play too and become the supreme champion of Dak Ji and own all the PPOS for miles around.
Or maybe I’ll just listen to my iPod and let them be kids.
Contemplation of flinging strategy
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