The Filipino Game is a game about crab mentality

Oh, yes, you read that right. There’s a game called The Filipino Game and it’s all about pulling down crabs that are climbing up the screen. The game starts with a pretty clever phrase, “If I can’t have it, neither can you.” and only has one instruction: “Drag everyone down!”

If you want to light the #PinoyPride torch then go ahead, but you won’t be using it against a “racist foreigner” this time, as this game is made by a fellow Filipino, Bari Silvestre of Keybol Games. After all, who else but a Pinoy would know the dire effects of Pinoy crab mentality?

Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with crab mentality, it’s about how human society is compared to crabs trying to escape from a basket. Instead of working together to escape, the crabs at the bottom drag the crabs that are climbing out of the basket, which prevents anyone at all from escaping.

Humans tend to do everything in their power to drag down those who are succeeding or doing better than themselves sometimes out of jealousy or to achieve their own goals. It’s also a trait that is quite common in Filipino society.

Knowing that Filpinos are easily offended when people point out their weaknesses or negative traits, I would like to commend Bari Silvestre for having the courage to create this game and even share it with the public. I’m still not sure if the game will garner enough hate for Pinoys to start a petition for the game’s name change, but if they do, I think my colleague made a clever suggestion: Alimango’s Creed where “alimango” is the Filipino word for “crab”.

The game is also available here.