Will UNO's Show 'Em No Mercy Card Game Amplify The No Friends Trend?

Goodness me. UNO is still a pretty good game, and that all depends as to whether or not you are more inclined to play card games, as opposed to board games. Then again, you need at least a couple more people to play with you, in order to make the game more interesting. In other words, it would be pretty one sided if the other player (only in a party of two) kept skipping and reversing back to themselves. Depending on your mood, that could surely annoy your friend or family member. Or whoever is playing with you at the end of the day. Uno is one in Italian, but it is also a popular card game, created in 1971. Now UNO is upping the ante with a Show 'Em No Mercy edition. (Yours truly is not sure if someone was listening to the song called Show No Mercy, while being forced to (say) chow down some tarantulas for dinner in a foreign country; while coming up with the name and idea for a "supposedly" simple card game, while rinsing the UNO card game inside out, like a spin dry that is turned up way too high.)

Some people buff and say "It's only a game" while for others, games are truly a reflection of their life. Just go to any casino for evidence of the latter.

Games can cause rifts in all sorts of relationships.

Have you ever played Scrabble with a true wordsmith, of who comes up with words out of thin air, and you kind of question your sanity, and therefore wonder as to whether or not such word/s are actually in a modern dictionary? And your opponent is (obviously or probably) a generation ahead of you? Or a board game with your mother as a child growing up, and coincidentally you are wearing a top that says "I am a good sport" when your mother thinks you aren't, because you were either obnoxious, or actually challenging the rules of the game?

Then again, Merle Robbins created the original UNO card game in response to resolving an argument with her son Ray over the rules of Crazy Eights, and Ray was (apparently) a teacher. Furthermore, yours truly recalls entering a competition in the last year of Primary School (Junior School in the US), and I happened to have won a voucher at a games store; and therefore decided to buy a pack of UNO cards using said voucher. At school a few days later, my pile of UNO cards got mixed up with someone else's, and lo and behold I fell short while they were being sorted out. That caused a rift in that friendship, and also brought on an even crankier mother back at home.

As they say, "see, I told you so." Las Vegas is not for the faint hearted. Again, for some, it is only a game, while for others, games are (once again) a mirror of your life at such point in time.

If you have ever played Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101; initially that "stupid" game is not "just a game." The latter game quickly tells you as to whether or not you are in the rat race (living from pay check to pay check, like a hamster spinning its own wheels) or on the fast track, out of the rat race. Yours truly has been in both positions with the above, and of course that "game" was only "stupid" while going around in circles for hours on end; and therefore not knowing why at the time of course. No different to how your body knows the rules of self care, and how it always keeps score after scoffing some chocolate at a 4pm slump. Every. Single. Frickin. Time.

A trend on social media platforms (oh that bloody pandemic of I-wish-I-could-say-yesteryear) is the "no friends" trend, which is considered an Epidemic according to WHO (and no, I am not referring to the relevant music band of the same name, although I wish I was). To this day, there are ample videos on social media platforms where people of diverse backgrounds and genders are vlogging about life with no friends, and how some are actually "happier" or "lonelier" and even "more or less depressed" without them. The World Health Organisation (WHO again) has purported that the no friends trend is part of the loneliness and mental health epidemic. According to Big Think, a total of 21% of Americans have no friends. That is unreal, and not ideal, seeming as though we are social creatures.

Trending comments from users on social media prove these points:

“So Uno had come out with a new game, and the name of the new game is called No Mercy, and they were not kidding around when they made it no mercy.”

“I’m going to jail that day. When the judge asked me why, I’m gonna blame Uno.”

“Regular Uno damn near broke up my family. Imagine Uno No Mercy.”

Therefore, on the back of an abundance of information and facts, I naturally share a few reservations about the new UNO Show 'Em No Mercy card game, based on some brutal rules. There are 168 cards in this version of UNO, rather than the standard 112. You could be close to saying that magic word, and then all of a sudden, a soon-to-be-frenemy makes you draw 25, and therefore (with more than 25 cards as a whole) you are automatically out of the game in that scenario. If draw 16 was bad enough (if in a larger group, and four players before you had a draw four card each, and hence decided to use them); this one is brutal, including the discard all option.

And you can skip every entire player. Show no mercy indeed.

This is what a recent news article said about the discard all option:

"Discard All is another new card, where all players must look in their hand and discard all cards that match the Discard All card’s colour."

I mean, UNO is a great idea, and games (like food, events, and other like minded interests) bring people together, and they do enhance friendships and social connections in curbing loneliness. Then again, that is lucky if you have any real life friends left after the pandemic. Not being biased or one sided at all; yet why launch a more brutal version in a cost of living crisis and loneliness pandemic combined? I mean, this is a time where we need our friends and family more than ever. Why rock the boat? Never before in history has yours truly, and many other people I know have suddenly lost a fair few friends out of nowhere between 2020, and even in early 2023. Some of those friendships were long lasting, and with time, making new friends should be easy; yet it is harder than walking through a bed of hot coals barefoot right now. Hands up, who prefers two real, reliable, and soulmate like friends (that can also include family) rather than 5000 social media friends?

For further evidence that the no friends trend is so real; one of my readers here on Vocal Media commented the following on an article I wrote about Mental Health, of which was (thankfully) well received:

"I also appreciate the recognition that not everyone has friends, and the recognition of the distinction of real friends–these are things that I feel like are NEVER talked about."

The motto of this game from my family (sister in particular): "A quick game is a good game."

She is dead on the money, and always said this about UNO. Although UNO did not destroy the healthy bond with my (foster) family; on the other hand, it did with a few of my friendships, apart from the card mix up described earlier on in this piece.

Final verdict: Caveat Emptor America (with the land down under to soon follow suit, as well as the rest of the world) with this card game. If you choose to buy this version of UNO; do so, and please play with fun and care. I now rest my case. I want to keep my two close real life friendships (apart from being my own best friend), and the healthy relationships with my foster/adoptive family firmly in tact please. Thanks.