People who enjoy deception: what kinds of things do they like to do?

October 13, 2009 7:55 AM

For a person who enjoys deception, what are some games, sports, hobbies, or pastimes that they would be especially drawn to?

This is for a fiction project. My character is an anti-hero whose central trait is enjoyment of deception. He works in a marketing field in which deception is a key to success. (Legal, mostly.) In his personal life he is flagrantly unfaithful to his SO, in large part because he enjoys the deception that is inherent in it. I want to flesh him out a bit more, so I'm throwing it to the hive mind: what are some other pastimes, hobbies, sports, games, etc. in which a key element is deception -- and/or where an ability to deceive is key to success? Thanks in advance.

posted by charris5005 to human relations (26 comments total)

Poker sounds obvious.
posted by the_ancient_mariner at 7:56 AM on October 13

The board game Diplomacy, for sure.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:58 AM on October 13 [4 favorites]

Competitive debate? I got a real kick out of telling bald-faced lies on the forensics team in college. It's fun to see how much you can get away with, but since it's still basically a game (albeit a serious, exhausting one sometimes) there are no real-world consequences.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:07 AM on October 13

Mafia, and the otherwise cooperative board games Battlestar Galactica and Shadows over Camelot have these elements, as do these other board games with the traitor and backstabbing tags.
posted by Partial Law at 8:08 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

Yeah, being deceptive is pretty much the key to poker, to the point that some people base their whole table personality on pretending to be a different sort of person than they really are. There are many other board games/card games that involve the same sorts of mind games and deception, but poker tends to take it to the next level.

Performing magic is also based on deception, although it doesn't necessarily have the same kind of psychological as a game like poker.

The most deceptive part of a sport I can think of is pitching in baseball, because a lot of it is about playing a mind game with the batter about what the next pitch will be, and mechanically a lot of the movements of a pitcher are centered around making all pitches (and even pickoff throws) look the same.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:10 AM on October 13

Magic/illusion, especially applied to pranks.
posted by plinth at 8:10 AM on October 13

Also, I'm not sure if this would make for interesting fiction, but I bet a character like that would love the "art" of reality TV shows like Survivor and Big Brother.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:11 AM on October 13

A little tangential, but maybe paintball or laser tag, because you could betray your team members or work out "deals" and such.
posted by hellogoodbye at 8:13 AM on October 13

Chess.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:27 AM on October 13

Diplomacy sounds like the perfect game your sociopathic character.
posted by mkultra at 8:30 AM on October 13

Poker and magic are pretty good - I'd look into life stories of con-men for a bit of inspiration. But from the sound of it, I think you might be better off going for something less obvious - he's NOT a con-man but a marketer... in other words, he has a clean public image while being deceptive (rather than a straight thief or anything like that). I'd give him a benign hobby that fits his lifestyle, like tennis, but where he's constantly trying to cheat on points and faults, etc. Another good one might be billiards - he could go to bars and hustle for money, or even hustle co-workers during after work drinks.
posted by lubujackson at 8:35 AM on October 13

acting

writing fiction
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:56 AM on October 13

Well... I'd think that someone who decieves constantly would have friends who were very apathetic about playing with him... to the tune of Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football... Nobody would want to play - they're going to see an uncomfortably glee adult hell bent on making the game as miserable as possible for everyone else...

...Is he the kind of guy that lies while playing clue?
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:58 AM on October 13

You will find a bounty of goodness in the world of board gaming!

The keyword you want is Negoiation games. Werewolf/Mafia, Coachride to Devils Castle, Bohnanza, Dipolmacy, I'm the Boss, Modern Art. There are TONS of games like these, all with different spins.

You can search by mechanic on boardgamegeek.com

A fellow I game with wrote up this Geeklist that is quite comprehensive on touching alot of great games:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/44911
posted by JonnyRotten at 8:59 AM on October 13

This isn't really a formal "game," but sneaking into trade shows and crashing cocktail parties/ formal events just to see if you can get away with it can be quite a fun pastime. Urban exploration and good old fashioned criminal trespass are good for kicks, too. Have him make a habit of going anywhere he's not supposed to, just to look around...You'd be surprised just how far you can get in DC with a generic ID lanyard hanging around your neck, heh.

Chess, epee or sabre fencing (also known as "physical chess"), birdwatching, fox hunting, computer hacking, social engineering/pretexting, comprehensively googlestalking people and then dropping veiled gems in the middle of normal conversation = good times!
posted by aquafortis at 9:12 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

Online dating.
Ok, that was a little tongue-in-cheek, but with a grain of truth. What I'm essentially getting at is misrepresenting things on the internet to feed the ego. Whether ebay, wikipedia, trolling forums, browsing porn sites with other people's computers. Stuff like that.

An example that comes to mind with ebay is playing a different kind of game that ties into the marketing career. Essentially the goal is take a piece of junk (the more worthless it is, the more "points" to be gained), and describe it with as much detail and accuracy as possible (the more detail, the more "points"), with the goal to sell it at the most outrageous price possible (the higher the price the more "points"). Essentially the game is how can you sell junk as if its first class merchandise with out lying (but still maximizing the deceipt).
posted by forforf at 9:17 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

Stalking and harassing with panache, i.e. fake accounts to get access to their social network, talking the receptionist into giving you their cell phone number, cancelling their doctors' appointments or job interviews

And, of course, internet scams for money and/or sympathy
posted by kathrineg at 9:19 AM on October 13

It might be more interesting to give him a hobby that's about being honest and cooperative, something he does to prove to himself that he's in control and can master both sides of social interaction.
posted by malevolent at 9:28 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

Street wars? Blogging? Or actually... playing games with eye contact - holding longer than he feels, shorter than he feels, and experimenting to see others' reactions. Similarly, playing games with body language - reading all the books on it and, as sport, seeing how his use of body language in the books affects other people.

Someone who likes to deceive may see other people as games. Hence, no need to play games as such like poker, because there, there may not be real stakes (unless of course there's cash to be played). I'd think someone who really enjoys deceit might like "playing games" in real situations, ignoring the fact that real feelings of real people are on the line.

Maybe he likes learning new languages and integrating with new cultures in order to see how others' body languages change depending on their cultural roots, so he can more accurately mimic those people -- both in terms of mimicking a cultural stereotype of sorts, and in terms of mimicking the people themselves in new contexts.
posted by lorrer at 10:16 AM on October 13

Stratego!
posted by klangklangston at 10:20 AM on October 13

Oh, sorry to post in this thread so much, but the thought just occurred to me that he might be a "pick-up artist," somebody more interested in the "conquest" of seducing women than the women themselves. Plenty of sleazy dishonest guys with this hobby. He could also have side interests in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, and other ways of manipulating unsuspecting people for fun and profit.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:38 AM on October 13

Seconding Street Wars. Could also give an excuse for some cool assassination type scenes in the story.

I'd also offer up poker...that's all about deception.
posted by Elminster24 at 10:51 AM on October 13

He could apply for jobs for fun.

Go to Vegas and try to get lots of perks as a faux high-roller.

Get into movie premieres or exclusive nightclubs.

And yes, a certain creepy-seduction-dude thing would be in order.
posted by kathrineg at 11:13 AM on October 13

Scotland Yard, as Mr. X.
posted by Herschel at 11:37 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

Diplomacy is Henry Kissinger's favorite game. Do you really need to know more?
posted by Ndwright at 3:55 PM on October 13

Playing golf with important people, making bets, cheating, not getting caught.
posted by iviken at 8:26 AM on October 15