About Squid game

 

Squid Game

If there’s an international equivalent to Squid Game I’d love to hear it. According to The Korea Times, the Squid game likely originated sometime during the 1970s and 80s in South Korea’s post-war era. There are no records of the game either before the Korean war, nor was this a game that continued to be played by children of subsequent generations.

As explained in the show, Squid Game is played on a board drawn in sand with players separating into two teams: attack and defense. Attacking players, who are initially handicapped by only being allowed to move on one leg, must first promote themselves to use both feet before reaching a “home” square drawn into the sand.

Defending players are tasked with stopping the attacking players by pushing them out of bounds. If the attacking player reaches the home square, they win, but if their team is eliminated the defending team wins.

I won’t presume to know how this game originated and there are very few records, even in Korean, about the origins of the Squid Game. However, I have to imagine that this being a game that can be played on any sand yard might have something to do with its rise in popularity during the 70s and 80s.

As the economy was still recovering from the Korean war, children had to find ways to entertain themselves and a lot of playgrounds and schoolyards were un-lawned fields coated in coarse sand. Grass fields were not common even into the 90s when I grew up in Seoul. While it allowed for kids to draw homemade boards quite easily, lending itself well to activities like Squid Game, they also hurt like hell if you fell.