Take a good look at the image and guess what I’m about to talk about here.

(No, the Japanese bento meal I had earlier had nothing to do with the choice of colors or shapes in this illustration.)

If the geniuses in you haven’t figured it out already, I am talking about the party game called Spin The Bottle.

Spin The Bottle is usually played with a bottle.

The bottle is usually spun.

Players sit in a circle but do not spin.

The bottle is spun by a player, and the spinning player player who spins the bottle will have to kiss the player who the bottle is pointing at. This player then has to spin the bottle.

WHOA, DID YOU SAY THAT THERE WAS KISSING?

Now, on to less exciting matters. Statistics.

Ideally, everyone should sit in a perfect circle, perfectly spaced apart, to give everyone the same random chance of getting pointed at by the bottle. The further away from the circle, the lesser your sector is. Hence, those sitting in the corners of a room are less likely to be infected with cooties!

I am a self-proclaimed champion of fairness and justice, and I believe that everyone should have a fair chance. I plead all of you who organize parties and play such games to ensure the perfectness of the circle.

Spin Doctors

Then, there is also another lesser-known way of turning the chances to/against your favor; spinning the bottle such that it would stop off the center of the circle.

The black lines cut off sectors, and as you can see, there is a 50% chance that the four players to the top of the graphic will be pointed at. Players who spin may intentionally spin it such to/against his/her favor.

I thus ask gamemasters to ensure that the bottle is spun on the center, and stays in the center. Punishment to players who intend to put a spin on things would be, perhaps, to get kissed by the gamemaster. Ideally, the gamemaster should have bad breath, braces and be unattractive. All the more incentive for the gamemaster to spot spin doctors and corner huggers!