Talk:Badger game

Badger Game
The badger game described in your definition if much older than the 19th century. The story of Abram and Sarai, before they were Abraham and Sarah, and their journey through Egypt and the bout with the Pharoah, and their later adventures with King Abimilech, shows the badger game at its best, with God himself as the enforcer. See Genesis, Chapters 12 and 20. Herb Smith67.66.94.132 16:17, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Why is the section about the drinking game even on the same page as this? Shouldn't it be a different topic instead?

Correct me if I am wrong, but in ROME, Lucius Vorenus' Daughter was not involved in a badger game, rather she was seduced. Memneo had one of his men shower her with little toys, which in turn earned her love, and then they used her to discover the location of the gold. No con occured except the normal using of a person for the betterment of oneself. She volonteered the information, it was never coerced from her. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.121.213.59 (talk) 21:38, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

A 1958 PERRY MASON episode had a gender-bender Badger Game (called such by a young, hip Della Street). The "brother" seduced a lonely, wealthy, unhappily married young woman for purposes of blackmail with the help of his live-in "sister" (really his wife).

DALLAS 2012 features a Badger Game. I won't reveal spoilers.

Alexander Hamilton claimed he only gave Reynolds money, not information.

In the canonical version of the Pentateuch, Abraham's claimed motivation is physical survival. But this probably is a sanitizing of an earlier "Badger Game" version in which two deities (Pharaoh & G-d) compete. Jakob3 (talk) 16:17, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I wonder if there are RSes that discuss the badger game in particular, or discuss it as a type of sextortion WhisperToMe (talk) 17:41, 3 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Although both the badger game and sextortion may be considered forms of extortion and involve sexual activity, they are perpetrated in different ways and for fundamentally different purposes.  For this reason, merging the two articles would not eliminate duplication or significant overlap.
 * The badger game is a form of blackmail that employs deception and trickery to extort money or something else of value from the mark. Sex is not the object of the game, but a means of making someone vulnerable to blackmail.  As there are other means of making someone vulnerable to blackmail, such as violating taboos against gambling or drinking, sex is not required to play the badger game, and non-sexual versions of the con exist.
 * In contrast, sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation that uses non-physical coercion to extort sexual favors.  In other words, the purpose for which someone engages in sextortion is to obtain sexual favors – sex is the object of the extortion, not just the means by which it is accomplished.   Thus, sextortion always involves some form of sexual activity; if no sexual activity is involved, it is not sextortion.
 * Although both the badger game and sextortion rely on non-physical forms of coercion, the badger game is defined by the trickery that makes the victim vulnerable to coercion.  In contrast, neither category of sextortion is dependent on trickery to exercise coercive power over the victim.  The type of sextortion that involves abuse of power is a straightforward  and corrupt transaction:   a sexual favor in exchange for something that lies within the perpetrator’s authority to grant or withhold.   The power imbalance between perpetrator and victim gives the perpetrator coercive power.  While the type of sextortion that involves sexual blackmail resembles the badger game insofar as both are forms of blackmail, the sexual material used to coerce the victim is not obtained in the same way.  The badger game is an elaborate con, perhaps involving an accomplice, designed to lure the mark into a compromising position.  Sextortion doesn’t require such trickery to obtain sexual material and can be perpetrated, for example, by hacking into the victim’s computer.  More importantly, the purpose of the blackmail is different:  the badger game uses compromising sexual material to extort money or something else of value; sextortion uses compromising sexual material to extort additional sexual favors.

--Gracejames (talk) 22:24, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Description seems wrong
The current description says "In its simplest form, a Badger game proceeds thus: X, a man married to Y, engages in an extramarital affair with W (another woman). During a tryst, Z (another man) discovers them in the act. Z, posing as Y's husband or brother, demands money from X to keep the affair secret. Unknown to X, W and Z are conspiring together against X."

As written here, X is the husband of Y. Then Z claims to be Y's husband or brother... this doesn't seem to make any sense. Z is extorting X by claiming to be either X (!) or X's brother-in-law, which is slightly more reasonable but only because it's a very low bar. Should it say Z is posing as W's husband or brother?