Playing to win?

[vdatewaterloo]

Recently, I've been giving some thought to the David Sirlin article series, 'Playing To Win'.  Sirlin makes a number of points in the articles- I'll summarize them here, for ease of discussion (heh, as though anyone reads this thing...). The links to the full articles- including the third, which makes the same point I make- are included at the

Comments

[chemical_lover]

Okay I've read your entire summary, but not the articles yet. I'll respond to your question and then read then when I get the chance, since I'm at work I'm not sure when that will be. Actually I may be called away shortly if one of my group members ever arrives, so this may loose some flow

interesting

[anonymous]

I almost always "play to learn". I find once I have mastered a certain strategy it becomes uninteresting. I still try to play my best at whatever new thing I'm testing out though.
I also find context plays an important role in how I play a game (any kind of game). With a casual group of players I will back off a bit. That doesn't mean intentionally sabotaging my play, it usually just means not exerting as much effort to be perfect. As you mentioned, this is an ideal situation to test new ideas. If I'm playing with competitive people I will make sure to play as well as possible. I find this is kind of an etiquette thing. If people are only playing for fun you kind of ruin their game if you act too cut throat. On the other hand, if people are being particularly competitive there are few things you can do that are more inconsiderate (I think) than throwing off the overall game by not playing to win, or atleast to master something new.
-Grace