Games People Play

CHAPTER FIVE 
Games 
1 DEFINITION 
A GAME is an ongoing series of complementary ulterior transactions progressing to a well-defined, 
predictable outcome. Descriptively it is a recurring set of transactions, often repetitious, 
superficially plausible, with a concealed motivation; or, more colloquially, a series of moves with a 
snare, or "gimmick." Games are clearly differentiated from procedures, rituals, and pastimes by two 
chief characteristics: (I) their ulterior quality and (2) the payoff. Procedures may be successful, 
rituals effective, and pastimes profitable, but all of them are by definition candid; they may involve 
contest, but not conflict, and the ending may be sensational, but it is not dramatic. Every game, on 
the other hand, is basically dishonest, and the outcome has a dramatic, as distinct from merely 
exciting, quality. 
It remains to distinguish games from the one remaining type of social action which so far has not 
been discussed. An operation is a simple transaction or set of transactions undertaken for a specific, 
stated purpose. If someone frankly asks for reassurance and gets it, that is an operation. If someone 
asks for reassurance, and after it is given turns it in some way to the disadvantage of the giver, that 
is a game. Superficially, then, a game looks like a set of operations, but after the payoff it becomes 
apparent that these operations were really maneuvers; not honest requests but moves in the game. 
In the "insurance game," for example, no matter what the agent appears to be doing in conversation, 
if he is a hard player he is really looking for or working on a prospect. What he is after, if he is 
worth his salt, is to "make a killing." The same applies to "the real estate game," "the panama 
game" and similar occupations- Hence at a social gathering, while a salesman is engaged in 
pastimes, particularly variants of "Balance Sheet," his congenial participation may conceal a series 
19

---

of skillful maneuvers designed to elicit the kind of information he is professionally interested in. 
There are dozens of trade journals devoted to improving commercial maneuvers, and which give 
accounts of outstanding players and games (interesting operators who make unusually big deals). 
Transactionally speaking, these are merely variants of Sports Illustrated, Chess World, and other 
sports magazines. 
As far as angular transactions are concerned—games which are consciously planned with 
professional precision under Adult control to yield the maximum gains—the big "con games" 
which flourished in the early 1900's are hard to surpass for detailed practical planning and 
psychological virtuosity. 
What we are concerned with here, however, are the unconscious games played by innocent people 
engaged in duplex transactions of which they are not fully aware, and which form the most 
important aspect of social life all over the world. Because of their dynamic qualities, games are 
easy to distinguish from mere static attitudes, which arise from taking a position. 
The use of the word "game" should not be misleading. As explained in the introduction, it does not 
necessarily imply fun or even enjoyment. Many salesmen do not consider their work fun, as Arthur 
Miller made clear in his play, The Death- of a Salesman. And there may be no lack of seriousness. 
Football games nowadays are taken very seriously, but no more so than such transactional games as 
"Alcoholic" or "Third-Degree Rapo". 
The same applies to the word "play," as anyone who has "played" hard poker or "played" the stock 
market over a long period can testify. The possible seriousness of games and play, and the possibly 
serious results, are well known to anthropologists. The most complex game that ever existed, that 
of "Courtier" as described so well by Stendhal in The Charterhouse of Parma, was deadly serious. 
The grimmest of all, of course, is "War."