The way I was taught to play Uno, the reverse card changes the direction of play.if you’re taking turns clockwise, it changes it to counterclockwise.
However, I often hear people say “uno reverse card” in the context of saying “whatever you just tried to do to me, I’m turning it around on you”. That seems to me to imply that in the game, the reverse card turns things around on the other player. Like if they play a +2, you can play the reverse card and make them pick up 2. Is that the way some people play?
Is this one of those “house rules” situations where some people make up rules different from the official ones? Like the famous Monopoly rule where people put a pot of money in the middle that you win when you land on free parking, even though the official rules say nothing happens on free parking
The free parking rule gave a reason for the space and a bit of financial padding to the game. I’m pretty sure there were a few more extra enhancements back when I played it as a kid, just to add to the game. As long as everyone agrees to the changes. We used to mess with chess variations in high school, learned very quickly that some games get really screwed up if you bend rules or add things too much.