In case you missed it, like I did, read James Wallis’s COPE post entitled “Gaming the System #1,” which is a short master class on what you need to know about winning games.
That is all for today. Leave a quick comment if you must, but then stop surfing and get back to work.
It’s absolutely true. In my Electoral Systems class during my Political Science undergrad, we played a game that was meant to simulate the shifting loyalties of voters, and the smart players almost immediately managed to occupy “centrist” positions on big issues, since the issues were meaningless and they weren’t trying to score any ideological points, just win the game. People who staked out ideological ground tended to suffer, because they weren’t gaming the system.
Of course, in an RPG environment, this same sort of behaviour is often decried as “minmaxing”, and detracting from the play experience. To approach an RPG as something you can (or should) win can not only cause trouble for certain game types, but can also cause tension in the group.