Competitive Games

[regisman]

A couple of recent conversations, games, and LJ entries have led me to think a bit about the way I play games. Basically, I always play to win. I'd rather have a game be intense, difficult, stressful, and time-consuming, with all players working hard to beat the others than be laid-back and amusing. That's not to say that the latter doesn't have

Comments

[squirrelloid]

Thats pretty close to my philosophy for gaming, although i can be more devious about it. Often i will make it look like i'm not trying that hard to win, or not capable of winning when i am (thus saving myself from the 'screw the person who's winning' reaction). But i'm still playing to win.

The only game i can think of that i wouldnt play this way is Shent, assuming it existed... sadly, Tad Williams never explains how its played, so i can only imagine.

[squirrelloid]

addendum: i dont play itrgames or rpgs (table top) 'to win' in a canonical sense... or i should say i have a different definition of winning for games such as those.

[derakon]

I play to amuse myself. This usually means that I play to win, but sometimes I do things purely because they're funny (like picking random cards in Apples to Apples and then trying to justify them, or casting really silly spells, or...). I won't do something if I think it's a jackass thing to do, but otherwise I'm playing to have fun, which may or may not coincide with playing to win.

[dclayh]

This is exactly why I've stopped playing Illuminati with you, and started lobbying for other games: when I'm laughing every 10 seconds from the inherent amusingnesss of the game, it's impossible for me to seriously plan a strategy and focus on trying to win. I just can't take games with substantial inherent silliness seriously enough to form any kind of real will to win.

[iainuki]

I'm reasonably cutthroat about my games, unless for some reason I'm feeling apathetic. I actually like certain non-competitive games better than I like competitive friends . . . I don't like making my friends feel bad (and contrariwise, I don't like geting annoyed when I lose). It's better against strangers.

[silverhawk]

Hmm... warn people. I honestly don't think I could play like that. The point of a game is to have fun, and I've never gotten good enough at any of them to be able to have fun while losing utterly.