College and University Blog
College Drinking Games
Heavy drinking has increased among young adults, particularly at colleges. For many college students, heavy alcohol use often occurs while playing drinking games. Between 47% and 62% of college students participate in these games. The games are considered good ice-breakers and are sometimes used to reduce social anxiety and get to know people at parties.
Drinking games typically involve a set of rules designed to ensure a large consumption of alcohol. These games commonly take place at parties and bars. The objective is usually to drink competitively for speed or to win via others becoming drunk. The games are often designed in a way that being inebriated significantly increases the fun.
There are many popular drinking games. They fall under several categories:
- Endurance games – The simplest drinking games are endurance games in which players compete to out-drink each other. Players take turns drinking and the last person standing is the usually the winner. These games may also favor speed over quantity, in which case players race to drink a beer the fastest.
- – These are games played where whoever loses must buy the next round of drinks for all other players.
- Movie games – Typically, in these games there is a specified list of rules for which a person has to drink to, and with a specified number of drinks (anytime someone in Star Wars says the word the force, take a drink). Typically, for events that happen quite often, you drink once, as the events occur less and less, you drink more and more per occurrence. These games can also be used during sporting events and TV shows.
- Speed games – Many bar games involve competitive drinking for speed, not necessarily the quantity consumed. The object of these games may not be drunkenness, but simply “bragging rights” or betting that benefit the fastest drinker.
- Thinking games
- Coordination games
- Card games -Several popular drinking games involve playing card games.
- Dice games
- Tolerance games
Researchers studying drinking games found that participants in such games report increased levels of drinking and drinking-related problems compared to non-players. Alcohol prevention experts say the games do sometimes lead to alcohol poisoning and drunken-driving incidents, and may increase the chance of a woman being sexually assaulted. 44% of men who played said that they did so to sexually manipulate other players. 20% said they had done things after playing a drinking game that could be defined as sexual assault. When you play drinking games, you’re not really in charge of how much you drink. Your drinking is at the whim of other players, which can be very dangerous.
A whole new industry has taken off around drinking games. This has contributed to them being more popular, more intense and more dangerous. Many bars now hold beer pong tournaments. Some even have leagues and keep baseball-like statistics. A popular retailer stocks a popular beer pong kit called