Finite and Infinite Games
James P. Carse starts out his Finite and Infinite Games like this:
There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, and infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.
This has some interesting implications. Once there is a winner in a finite game, the game is essentially over. An implied goal of the player in a finite game is thus really to end the game.
Intriguing, no? In one scenario the player participates to end the game and in the other scenario he or she participates to continue playing.
Of course, most people encounter very little in regular life that resembles infinity. What if we replace the term with “really long”, long term, or something like that? I think the concept can be used to provide some interesting view points for various activities in life.
Here is a little history of the game Monopoly:
The history of Monopoly can be traced back to the early 1900s. In 1904, a Quaker woman named Elizabeth (Lizzie) J. Magie Phillips created a game through which she hoped to be able to explain the single tax theory of Henry George. Her game, The Landlord’s Game, was commercially published a few years later. Other interested game players redeveloped the game and some made their own sets. Lizzie herself patented a revised edition of the game in 1924, and similar games were published commercially. By the early 1930s, a board game named Monopoly was created much like the version of Monopoly sold by Parker Brothers and its parent companies throughout the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st. Several people, mostly in the U.S. Midwest and near the U.S. East Coast, contributed to the game’s design and evolution.
The Landlord’s Game was meant to show the enriching of property owners as well as the impoverishing of those handing their money to the landlords. Much like at the end of most monopoly games, one person has won the game, which often means that the other players ended up bankrupt.
Frances Moore Lappé is drawing parallels between the mechanisms of monopoly and western economics in her book Getting a Grip.
A widening gap between rich and poor, essentially an increasingly small number of people controlling an increasingly large percentage of money, seems to me at least an indicator of finite play: Winning at the expense of others losing.
If we choose to do so, we can look at virtually any activity as a game. Then it is worth asking and understanding, why it is that we play? Is it to win (end the game) or just to play (prolong the game and continue playing).
When you get together with friends for a night of boardgames - what is that you enjoy? Winning or just the act of playing? Some of the most rewarding experiences tend to be those that present a challenge, make us think and struggle and eventually let us persevere.
How does that translate to the aforementioned game night? An easy win against players that presented little serious challenge cannot possibly feel all that rewarding. (Well, depending on circumstance of course, e.g. if it was preceded by significant training and preparation and after a series of consistent “losses”. After the first such win, the novelty surely wears off quickly in later similar victories.) The loss of game, when one never saw a chance can be frustrating to the degree of discouragement. The point, where we can have a fun, even rewarding experience lies in between those two extremes: First we want to see that we have a fighting chance. Then we want to have a challenge (appropriate to our knowledge and skill level). It should be a close race, but in the end, of course, we like to come out ahead. If this is true and we play a game that can have fewer winners than players, then the experience will invariably be more rewarding for some than for others.
Do you hike to get to the summit or just to hike?
Do you read a book to know what happens in the end or just to read?
Lots of scenarios and your response to the same question might not always be the same. Thinking about the question is still a useful exercise. The answer may well impact your mindset as well as your actions.