The Game (homebrew level rules)

First off, you just lost the game.

Now then, what I propose here is an addendum to the rules of "The Game".  Specifically, I propose to add a level system to the game.  This addendum adds purely theoretical rules to the game, and has no practical benefit.  Further, it is practically impossible to measure certain aspects of it.  In such, this rule is made purely as a joke, just as the rest of the game is.  Without further addo, I present an addition of levels to the game.

The best place to start is at first level.  In fact, everybody who has not heard of the game starts at level one.

1.  EACH INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS NEVER LOST THE GAME STARTS AT LEVEL ONE.

The first time one loses the game, they become level zero.  That's right, you lose levels instead of gaining them.  The second time you become level negative one.  The third time you become level negative two.  The fifth time you become level negative three.  If you don't see a pattern, and I'm sure you don't yet, let me explain it to you.

2.  YOU LOSE A LEVEL IF YOU LOSE THE GAME |level|! TIMES SINCE YOU LEVELED.

Thus, if you are at level 0, you must lose the game |0|! times which equals 1.  Here is a small chart to help you count to level -5.

 |1|! = 1
 |0|! = 1
 |-1|! = 1
 |-2|! = 2
 |-3|! = 6
 |-4|! = 24
 |-5|! = 120

Now, I haven't formally defined what losing the game is.  There are two ways to define in.  There is a discrete definition of losing the game, and there is a continuous definition of losing the game.  They are as follows:

 D1.  TO LOSE THE GAME IS TO THINK ABOUT THE GAME AT ANY POINT IN 1 MINUTE.
 C1.  TO LOSE THE GAME IS TO COUNT UP THE TOTAL TIME YOU HAVE LOST THE GAME, ROUND UP TO THE NEAREST MINUTE, AND DIVIDE BY THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF MINUTES.  EACH MINUTE IS ONE LOSS OF THE GAME.

Continuous makes more sense for the nature of the game, but the discrete definition is probably easier to keep track of.  Of course, you could change the time span.  If you want to seam with the other optional rule, and be practical, use this other definition for losing the game.

 D2.  TO LOSE THE GAME IS TO THINK ABOUT THE GAME AT ANY POINT IN 30 MINUTES.

Alright, so now each individual has a level, but how do you determine the average level of a group or place?  Well, the answer is easy.

 3.  TO DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS, ADD THE TIMES LOST TOGETHER AND DIVIDE BY THE AMOUNT OF INDIVIDUALS IN THE GROUP.  THEN TREAT THAT NUMBER AS THE NUMBER OF TIMES LOST.  ROUND UP ANY FRACTION OR DECIMAL
 4.  TO DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF A PLACE, DIVIDE THE AMOUNT OF TIMES THE GAME HAS BEEN LOST IN THE PLACE BY THE AVERAGE AMOUNT OF INDIVIDUALS IN THE PLACE.  ROUND UP ANY FRACTION OR DECIMAL.

So, what use is finding the level of an individual, a group, and a place.  For an individual, it is simple.  You get to know how often that person is losing.  For a group, you get to know how often they think of petty games like this.  For a place, you get to know how often a place can evoke this specific thought.

I left two unknowns open to interpretation.  They are as follows:

Individual:  Usually this constitutes humans only, but anything sentient enough to know of the game should count.  If you count non-sentient things as individuals, you'll turn most place levels into binary (0:  Somebody has lost the game here, 1:  Nobody has lost the game here.).  The same happens if you have too many individuals who are non-sentient in a group.  For looking at each non-sentient individual, if you define them that way, you'll only find a level 1.  Because of this, it is best to ignore them.  But in the spirit of theoretical games, I'm describing them anyways.

Place:  Spacetime is four dimensions.  Since everything is relative, you must choose a relative place (so Earth counts, the position Earth took 5 seconds ago counts, though is probably useless), in the car counts, and so on.  But that is only the first three dimensions.  You should also pick a time dimension.  Usually this is 'Since the game was first heard about by somebody who entered the place' but it could also be 'Since the dawn of time [or more likely the dawn of the time of the place, since being relative, it didn't exist since the dawn of time, unless it is the whole universe]'.  It could also be 'in the past hour' or something like that.  Another place that people don't think about is the metaphysical places.  For example, an IRC chatroom could be considered a 'place' for this definition.

Anyways, I've complicated it much more than I needed to by giving my personal analysis on these rules.  One thing I didn't give you was a way to take the amount of times you lost and find your level without starting at level one.  I'm going to leave that as an exercise to the reader.  (I do already know a simple way.)