{Playing the Game}[12th December 1987]

[Redbook4:213-216][19871212:2250]{Playing the Game}[12th December 1987]

19871212.2250

I've never been a games-player: I've always found games boring, or unpleasant, or both. That goes for business games as well as sports: board games as well as role-playing. (There were one or two exceptions: rugby, very briefly, at [primary-level boarding school]; hard-court hockey at [secondary-level school boarding] House; Monopoly.)*

I don't know why I don't enjoy games. It is tempting to think that it may be because all games involve an element of artifice, a “let's pretend” element necessary for the acceptance of local (i.e. game) roles etc.. But a writer of fiction (and these journals)** is hardly in a position to reject sub-creations***.

I think it may be because all [sic] games are**** about winning for its own sake – an essentially pointless activity. It is possible, of course, to reduce the importance of winning and increase that of playing. Although I'm not desperately keen on Charades, I don't mind acting (when I can get over my shyness). Charades is a competition (just): acting isn't.

*[& Scrabble?]

**[NB!]

***[ref. JRR Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”, &c.]

****{(or tend to become)}

– see below. <891003>

[continues]

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