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How do you play?

adamswish

16:56 / 18.04.03

Just a simple question, when you play, how do you do it?

Personally I just play to play. For the experience of taking part, the joy of finishing, no matter the position. Having fun basically.

I can't see the point of playing to win. Seems dull and boring to me. If you win then no big thing, you were expecting to and the pain of loss will probably be too much to register with you. There's no joy in any of it for the person who plays to win, just the steadily increasing chance that someday you will be beaten by someone else.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm missing the point, it wouldn't be the first time admittedly. If there is someone out there who plays to win by all means educate me in the error of my ways.

It's a thought that's been on my mind for quite some time and now I want to hear other's opinions on the play to play vs. play to win thing. Plus are there any other ways of playing, and which seems the best to you?

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

17:34 / 18.04.03

i play pool to channel my dead grandfather, who was about the best pool player anyone who knew him will admit to have lost to.

sometimes i play for fun, sometimes to impress women.

generally though i play pool, darts and whatever bar games just to have a good time with my friends though...

that

17:45 / 18.04.03

Bit like art for art's sake?

I only play Playstation games. I don't play to win - I play to succeed, in some sense. I've never fully completed a single game, and that fact does not bother me in the slightest. I don't play multi-player games, so it's not like a social thing. I guess I play to occupy my mind. I hate getting stuck on something, need to be moving forward - so I don't mind using cheat codes and walk-throughs. So even if I completed stuff, it wouldn't be like a real 'win', ya know.

Jack Fear

17:59 / 18.04.03

I play fingerstyle.

Sometimes with a capo.

Olulabelle

21:46 / 18.04.03

I don't play to win, I play because it's fun to (and in true cliché fashion I like the taking part). But I've always been told by other people that this is inherently wrong and if a person isn't playing to win they can't really be giving it their all.

Perhaps the 'playing to win' thing only applies to Sport...

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

23:18 / 18.04.03

as far as non sport playing goes, well, im no good with instruments and im to inherently nice (ick) to play people, well romantically at least, i play my bosses all the time, and that is definately to win...

Tryphena Absent

23:27 / 18.04.03

I'm not a big game player but I still love Guess Who? I definitely play to play because when I play to win I get irate and lose.

Persephone

23:30 / 18.04.03

I play to win, but I don't think it's very nice of me. So usually I don't play, or I play games where everyone wins.

Olulabelle

23:32 / 18.04.03

Oooh, Anna, have you played 'Guess Who' by personality? It's brilliant fun, and very easy actually, although it sounds hard. You ask questions like 'Is she a librarian who likes kinky sex?' It's quite odd that it almost always turns out to be right - the assumptions we all share about people, hmmm?!

The Return Of Rothkoid

03:25 / 19.04.03

I play to rock fuckin' out.

Andrew C*** passing himself of as Haus

03:38 / 19.04.03

Nice question. I always play to win, no matter what, and I get quite too involved sometimes, and forget that I'm even playing!

The sucky thing about playing is thatt there's go to be losers. It gnaws at the back of your mind when you play, if you're a good player that is.

But hell, I'll play hard until I burn away to nothing.

rizla mission

10:33 / 19.04.03

I don't play at all.

Games are for fools.

I just ROCK.

Or failing that, do nothing.

pointless and uncalled for

10:42 / 19.04.03

I'm a geeky RPG eejit. Like many of my pasty-skinned associates, I play to stay alive. I also play because I am alive.

adamswish

16:58 / 19.04.03

Or failing that, do nothing.

Spoken like a true student rizla

Guess what I'm asking is how competitive are you?

For me I'm not and have a story to illustrate this:-

Back in my teens I studied karate and would often go to tournaments to compete. One time I was drawn up against someone a lot younger and smaller than me. Having always been tall (currently 6' 5) I looked down at this kid, I was about 14,15; he was a couple of years younger than me (you were paired by what grade you were rather than weight and size).
In the moments before the fight I thought who is going to get the most out of winning here. Me, who was bigger and most likely, maybe even expected to win; or this kid, who could have the accolade of beating someone bigger than him. There and then I decided to let the kid win (but in not too obvious a manner), and he did.

Some friends have a go at me for this choice I made but I stick by it, and would do it again.

Jack Fear

17:26 / 19.04.03

Well, there's winning, and there's winning.

In the situation outlined above, by losing, you actually won—because you did a good thing for somebody, and it made you feel good.

Seems clear to me. But then, I regularly play board games with a six-year-old; and that's not a gig for someone who's overly competitive.

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