The Player and the Played

I have often wondered why people play games. The games that I am talking about are “head” games, not board or computer games. A lot of these games, have a player and the played. Sometimes the “played” didn’t even know that they were playing a game and they get hurt. I am going to break this down into three parts: the player, the played and the game.

The Player: The player is the person who orchestrates the game. They set it up. They pick who their target is and which game they are playing. The game may depend on the setting, popular ones are work, romance, home, and friendship. The player always knows that they are playing a game. They concoct the rules and how long the game will last. What do they get out of it, you might ask. They get power, love, a promotion, information, and control (over their target and the game).