Week 1

Read the following from Playing to Win:
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/prologue.html
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/beginners-guide.html
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/getting-started.html
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/intermediates-guide.html

What is your opinion on how the concept of "playing to win" fits in with the notion that you should have fun while playing games? Do you think it's compatible? Have you encountered a "scrub" at any time in your life? (Scrub mentality is not just limited to games!)

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I believe playing to win and having fun can go hand in hand. Sirlin's makes this point well with his debate analogy. To have a good debate, you don't want to just say random sentences back and forth (the gamer's equivalent to button mashing). You also don't want to just say the same things over and over at each other (the gamer's equivalent to a shallow game). You also don't want to say one thing and end the debate (the gamer's equivalent to an imbalanced game). You also don't want to be so much better at debate that no one can refute you (the gamer's equivalent to playing without competition). Like Sirlin said, a great game is like a great debate. Both players use their intellectual, psychological, and experiential resources to exchange "statements" with their opponents in an elegant manner. Therefore I think a very competitive round of game could potentially offer even more than a non-competitive round of a game. That is not to say, of course, that fun can ONLY be had in competition.

I have encountered scrubs in my life, in various disciplines. One standout characteristic of scrubs is that they make judgments assuming that they alone are the authority on something and that whatever rules they make up are the true rules. For example, I was reading the course evaluations for a Biology course, and lots of students were complaining that the course required too much memorization. This is a classic example of scrub mentality because these students are calling "cheap" on memorization, when memorization is a core component of Biology classes. Memorization is sort of like a "rule," and students who complain about it are scrubs for calling the rule cheap just because it doesn't conform to their make-believe rules.