As to the first part of the "game", not thinking about the game, in my first college psychology class in 1957, Dr. N.H. Pronko picked a girl from the class and promised her 'a new dress' if, whenever he said the word 'pebble', she would not think of 'crocodile'.
   All it does is show a basic fact about psychology & memory. (See...I have remembered the details for 52 years now.) Those who teach HOW to remember use devices like that to learn long lists of unconnected words.

Some of the other 'games' are hardly general knowledge in a generation, but are rather 'in' routines for specific little groups.