Game Description
Сatena is an entertaining word game that helps develop creative thinking. Catena trains a free, associative style of thinking, and assists in observing both dominant patterns and vertical thinking. It also has many other uses.
Rules
1. The game consists in connecting two words with a chain of associations. The resulting chain is called catena.
2. Only nouns are allowed.
3. Elements consisting of two words are only allowed when they are stable, e.g. bell tower, and cannot be used separately (e.g. the transition «bell tower — tower» is not allowed).
4. There can be any number of players. The winner is the one who builds the shortest and wittiest chain.
5. Allowed kinds of associations are:
- Associations which are essentially characteristic for the object (e.g. Russia — vodka).
- Analogies (rain — fountain).
- Metaphors (bell tower — candle).
6. Forbidden kinds of associations are:
- Vertical associations based on hierarchical systems: deduction, induction, classifications, categories (e.g. horse — mammal).
- Associations which are not essentially characteristic for the subject or are characteristic for multiple objects (e.g. beer — water, because there is water in beer).
- Arbitrary, personal associations (cherry — love, because I love cherries).
- Associations by opposition (water — flame).
- Subcultural associations — slang, anecdotes, movies etc, e.g. mother — atom, because there is a song by Pink Floyd called Atom Heart Mother.
- Associations by alliteration.
- Synonyms.
7. Criteria for evaluation of the resulting catenas:
- They should conform to the rules.
- The shorter, the better
- Wittiness, humor.
- Two-way links are better. An example of a two-way link: game — rules; one-way link: repairs — building, but not vice versa.
- Strong links are better. An example of a strong link: game — child; weak link: game — emotion.
Some examples:
- market, mist:
market — forecast — mist,
market — morning — mist - mather, atom:
mother — nature — physics — atom,
mother — warmth — energy — atom - Prague, stool:
Prague — bar — stool - euro, eternity:
euro — coin — circle — eternity - ticket, thought:
ticket — road — crossword — thought
History
Catena is a game of associations developed by Vitaly Kolesnik. The name came from philosophy — the term «Catena Mundi» was used by Descartes for describing the connections among everything.