Talk:Hide-and-seek/Archive 1

Dangers
A reader would not seriously expect to read about fatal incidents while playing Hide and Seek as it is not an extreme sport, anybody can be killed doing anything, hide and seek is about one of the safe activities around. Maybe a news link about an unusual incident could go under a Trivia subheading, but even that would be pushing the boundaries of useless crap/bullshit. Grumpyyoungman01 05:59, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
 * The article does not indicate an age level for this game, but it might well overlap the age at which young children hide in asphyxiation-risk interiors (e.g. unused refrigerator, plastic bag) leading to fatalities. Perhaps most of those incidents are in simple "hiding" activities and not necessarily in the course of this multiplayer game. Otherwise, there are suitable content-driven alternatives to a Trivia section heading.-- Deborahjay (talk) 03:28, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Phrases for "... in free"
I grew up in an ultra-conservative farming community, with long lasting traditional values and even in the 1970s, a "quaint" form of English.

The call made by children I grew up with, definitely sounded like "All ye, all ye, oxen free!". If hide and go seek is a form of a shepherd's game (incidently, shep-herd being sheep herd, or a sheep herder), it is not hard to envision a game ending where a oxen gets "free" (home being free.. and since a oxen "won" and managed to achieve freedom, the game is over). As for ox singular, and oxen plural, I do not find it hard to conceive of oxen being taken as singular and plural much as sheep or moose is, expecially with some of the coloquial variants of English that could be found before television/radio.

Anyhow, my point is that "oxen free" survived, for all children know what an oxen is (in farming communities), but not what "All ye" is... as this form of English has expired. Since children taught children this game, not adults, I can see the phrase slowly becoming warped.. after all, there is a complete turn over of children every 5-10 years in this game. Ollie = All ye.


 * Interesting interpretation, above. I grew up in Southern California and played the game in the early 60's.  I have also wondered about the origin of calling, "Ollie Ollie Auction Free, Free, Free" at the end of the game when the person who was "it" gave up trying to find the well hidden players.  This was the signal for those hidden to emerge from hiding, and they were free from being caught.  My personal feeling was that it sounded like German, "Alle, Alle, Auchtung: Frei, Frei, Frei", which loosely translated, would be "Everyone, attention:  you are free to come out of hiding".  Could this have been what the Allies called to German citizens who were in hiding at the close of World War II?  I have no references... only imagination.  Whatever it was we were saying had to be warped from something.  Bolt51 17:58, 17 October 2007 (UTC)Bolt51


 * As a child we call "Olle Olee Ocean Free". I later learned from the "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles Shulz that the call was "All Ye, All Ye, Outs in Free". Considering its usage, the seems the most logical.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Engineer-teacher (talk • contribs) 02:16, 9 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I could swear 'ollie ollie income-free' was a pun, making fun of bankruptcy/unemployment. 02:19, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

40 40 in
"In a more active variant, hide and seek can be combined with the game of tag. Instead of "it" simply spotting players, he or she has to tag them instead to get them out. Hiders can make a dash for 'Home Base', which is usually a landmark where whoever is "it" counts off. Touching the base area makes a hider safe, and the aim of the game is to touch base without being tagged. "It" continues to search for hiders and if he/she finds none than he is it again in the next game. If however, he finds and tags someone before they are able to touch base, he calls out in a loud and repeated fashion "All ye all ye outs in free" or "all ye, all ye, in come free" which means a new it has been tagged and all the other hiders are safe to return to base."

in Northampton (and probably other places in england) we would call this 40 40 in. when you touched base you would shout "40 40 in"

Ms.henrick (talk) 13:20, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

normal varient
Seems completely wrong to me and according to online threads, many others too. Surely the default version of hide and seek involves only hiding and seeking, none of this tag/40-40 hybrid stuff?  Tu rk ey ph an t 22:53, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

The Hide-and-Seek champion of the world is
bin Laden. There's no question about it, so why don't we put this onto the article? --66.139.123.128 (talk) 04:56, 7 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Serious reliable third-party sources do not describe him as such. (Also, Seal Team 6 ended any currency to that claim.) - Dravecky (talk) 06:45, 7 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Lord Lucan has ben hiding longer and still not found... 83.100.250.35 (talk) 20:18, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

House Hide and Seek
"For safety reasons, this variant (often known as House Hide and Seek) is rarely attempted indoors" - what safety reasons, and why would this preclude it from being attempted indoors? --McGeddon (talk) 15:41, 7 August 2008 (UTC)


 * The way I played it, the goal was for the hiders to return to the base. You could either attempt to return when "it" was occupied elsewhere, or if found, run and hope to beat "it" back. If everyone managed to beat "it" back, he or she remained it for the next round. Such racing back to base in the confined of a house could be dangerous, although I seem to remember playing it indoors, perhaps with some modification. And the "Ollie Ollie oxen free" was only used if "it" decided he was stumped and couldn't find one or more of the hiders. Wschart (talk) 00:33, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

hide and "GO" seek?
I'm having a disagreement with my fam right now about whether its hide and seek or hide and go seek... I say its both, but I can't find any proof. Anybody know the origin of the names, or an authority on this??Stayhomegal (talk) 03:03, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Unreferenced
Almost the entirety of this article is unsourced. All these variants constitute original research. Without sources most of this content should be deleted which leads to the question what's left? What is left should probably be merged into the tag article. SQGibbon (talk) 00:20, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I removed all the original research and wrote up the most basic rules along with a source. The reference I found is from a US Naval research paper which is kind of odd but it was the first reliable source that came up during an Internet search.  I'm sure there are better sources for the basic game and maybe even for variants on the game.  At least for now the article is  has a source. SQGibbon (talk) 22:18, 2 December 2011 (UTC)
 * yea the reference for the first paragraph is just the image on the rightStayhomegal (talk) 03:04, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

Reference
How can you require a reference when the game is a childhood oral tradition played differently by where you grew up? In my childhood, we counted to one hundred but in fives in a rhythm, "five, ten, fifteen, twenty etc." until you reached one hundred. You would end, "ready or not, here I come." Eschoryii (talk) 01:44, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

Ready or not, hear I come
I'm a bit surprised that this article doesn't mention the most common phrase from Hide and Seek. Is "ready or not, hear I come" some sort of regional variant or something?

Also, there is no description of the flow of play, which is in my memory: 1) The person who is it closes their eyes and begins counting to a predetermined number(usually 100)out loud. 2) Meanwhile everyone else hides. 3) After reaching the predetermined number, the person who is it shouts loudly "ready or not, hear I come", and begins looking for other players 5) Other players are then free to try to make it home, while the person who is it tries to find and tag a player. 6) When a player makes it home safely they shout "Home freeze" 7) When the player who is it successfully tags someone, or gives up, they shout "olliollioxemfreed". This signals the end of the round. 8) In the following round, the player who was tagged is it. If no one is tagged, the same player must be it again.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.157.174.145 (talk) 16:38, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
 * for 6) we would say "home free". Eschoryii (talk) 01:53, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

Title and Rules
I think the title should be "HIDE AND GO SEEK" but someone says no. The facts are that this is a children's game with an oral history. It's name and rules change by location. I think "Hide and Seek" could also be in the title but for the added note to delete 'go' from the title is just wrong. Read the history of this article and anyone can see the vast variation. The article would be true and accurate to show all the various names and rules. The last person to edit should not be the standard.Eschoryii (talk) 11:36, 2 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Here is England, I have only ever heard it called "hide-and-seek". Normally I'd check what the article's references call it – but there aren't any. Maproom (talk) 12:24, 2 October 2019 (UTC)
 * , the references had all been removed in a large delete by a vandal yesterday. I've restored the article., the references support "hide and seek" as the most common name, but the article gives the alternate name which is also a redirect to the article. The addition of "not hide and go seek" was added by the vandal. StarryGrandma (talk) 17:49, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

Ohio??
I am so baffled by this sentence that I don't even feel confident about changing or removing it: 'In Ohio, a hider must yell "free" when he touches base or he can still be tagged out.' I definitely grew up playing this version (though not exclusively) in New England. Is there any reason to think this variant is specific to Ohio? It looks like this sentence has been in the article since at least 2017 so maybe I'm the weird one for questioning it? Thanks, hide-and-seekers! Pontmercy (talk) 02:05, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Shouldn’t there be a section “in popular culture”, or something similar?
If you click the link for “Hide and Seek (disambiguation)” there are many movies, books, television shows, and music based on this game. Although it is a bit confusing because some of them have the name “hide and seek”, but are not actually based on the game. And what made me think of this is the movie called “Ready or Not (2019 film)”, which is definitely based on the game, even though it has a different name.

Subs99 (talk) 05:41, 23 April 2022 (UTC)