Alfred Wallace: The Importance of Losing

When I lived in Austin, I think I was a popular person at game nights for two reasons.  First, I was the Guy with the Games—perennially the guinea pig who was willing to plunk down for the latest shiny object at the store.  (I had others helping me shoulder the load for this solemn duty, of course, but I certainly did my part.) The other reason: I tended to lose.  A lot.  What’s more, I brought a measure of dedication to the task.  I’d lose anytime, anywhere—morning, noon, and night; in stores, in houses, in malls—I’d lose games underwater if that’s what it took.

I was lousy.

It’s an interesting question why I kept playing games—never mind buying them—when I displayed such ineptitude.  Sometimes I felt acute embarrassment, as though these were all tests of my intelligence, and I was failing.  Usually, though, I kept coming back for more punishment—as we all did.  Sometimes I’d get better, suddenly.  I don’t know how many games of Web of Power I lost before I finally won one—it seemed like hundreds—but then my winning percentage started its upswing, and I’ve been playing it well ever since.

If you think about it, to be a gamer means accepting loss—or the possibility of loss—on a regular basis.  In a five-player game, there are typically four losers (in the technical sense, of course), and one winner.  In a typical game night, most players will lose more games than they win.  It’s amazing how playing games like this can transcend competition—as Reiner Knizia once put it (cited here, in another interesting look at losing), “The goal is to win, but the goal is important, not the winning.â€?

A much longer discussion of this is in Johan Huizinga’s book Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture.  It’s old, it’s kind of dated, and it won’t help you win a single game in your life, but I recommend it anyway.  Huizinga’s thesis is that “play,â€? kind of broadly defined, is vital to culture and our individual lives.  Play involves freedom and being outside “real lifeâ€?—as Huizinga put it, play is “a stepping out of ‘real’ life into a temporary sphere of activity with a disposition all its own.â€?  It has certain rules, certain boundaries of what proper behavior consists of, and when it begins and ends.  Huizinga describes an aspect of play many gamers can relate to: “Into an imperfect world and into the confusion of life it brings a temporary, a limited perfection.â€?  Cheating and being a “spoil-sportâ€? in some way threaten the game, and play, itself.

Huizinga describes winning—and losing—during play as being quite different from competition back in the real world.  It’s not about power or domination—it’s often not really about anything tangible, but it’s still not quite winning for its own sake.  A winner of a game “has won esteem, obtained honour; and this honour and esteem at once accrue to the benefit of the group to which the victor belongs.â€?  Winning (and play) has a lot to do with celebrating and establishing the community of players—that there is a winner ennobles the game, and thus ennobles the players.

This may be a mild effect for, say, Settlers of Catan but as play gets larger, more complicated, and involving many more people it begins to take on a certain cultural life of its own—it becomes ritual, a particularly highbrow form of play.  It’s a complicated link, and I hereby encourage everyone to Read The Whole Thing.  (Read The Glass Bead Game while you’re at it—a good literary examination of how the creative process (embodied in the titular game), as a form of play, becomes a regulated game, and finally a ritual.)

I think this also tends to explain the disdain we usually hold for the “sore loser.â€?  (And the shame that we—or at least I—feel when we act like one.) Taking the game (and losing) “too seriouslyâ€? means not accepting that the game exists in a sphere outside of real life, and also means not recognizing that the play is, indeed, the thing.

Coming back to the original subject, I think part of why I kept coming back despite losing far, far more often than I won was (well, “is�) because I liked the community of gamers—established by playing games, and being a “good gamer� was a greater reward than winning the games themselves.

One last thing from Homo Ludens--actually it’s a quote from Plato’s The Laws Huizinga used, that I quite liked:

“Every man and woman should . . . play the noblest games and be of another mind from what they are at present. . . . For they deem war a serious thing, though in war there is neither play nor culture worthy of the name, which are the things we deem most serious.  Hence all must live in peace as well as they possibly can.  What, then, is the right way of living?  Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win the contest.â€?

Plato: Gamer.  Gotta love it.

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In recent years, I’ve been winning rather more games than I used to.  I think I’m just getting used to games, and seeing more patterns than I was before.  Heck, recently I’ve won three chess games in a row—and I’d won maybe once or twice, out of Lord-knows-how-many games, before in my life.  I even won my first game of online Amun-Re the other day; I’d won several times in the offline realm, but never online.

I’m going to try for two in a row.  I’m starting a game on Amun-Re for anyone who’s slogged all the way through this turgid column, as a little reward.  It’s on Spielbyweb.  The name of the game is “Friday Night Lights,â€? and the password is bgn.  Hope to see you there!

Oh, and one more thing.  I may be dropping by something kind of like a con in the near future.  You probably haven’t heard of it, but it’s kind of neat.  MetaGames, the biggest game store in Springfield MO, is hosting a charity benefit event on Saturday, September 23.  It’s all-boardgames, from what I understand, and there’ll be plenty of prizes and whatnot.  They’ve gotten a ton of support from some game companies, so it should be lots of fun.  There’s a ticket to get in, and all proceeds are going to DARE (a drug-awareness group).  I’ll be arriving in the evening, probably, as I’ll be on a school event most of the day…don’t think it wasn’t a tough decision, though.

© 2006 Alfred Wallace

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Comments:

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Great article-a pleasure to read. Now I’d like to get my hands on some of the books you’ve mentioned. Posted by Jeff Allers on Sep 8, 2006 at 05:48 AM | #

Alfred - Very good article! I certainly enjoy winning, but I’m with you - the pleasure of the community of gamers is what makes games fun for me. That being said… if I lose due to my own stupidity, that annoys me! :) Conversely, if I lose by virtue of another player’s excellent play I don’t mind at all.  I very much enjoy seeing clever play, even if I lose because of it. - Rick Posted by Rick Thornquist on Sep 8, 2006 at 12:06 PM | #

You’re a winner in my book, but your losing ways continue in the headlines of your articles, Alfred.  Or should I say, ALFED??? Posted by Larry Levy on Sep 8, 2006 at 07:10 PM | #

Ahh, gosh darn it...Let’s see if I can fix that. (Anyone out there wondering if those were generated automatically?  There’s your answer!) Posted by Alfred Wallace on Sep 8, 2006 at 09:40 PM | #

Hooray, fixed! Also: Not sure how many more people will be reading this, but I decided to start up a second Amun-Re game. NAME:  Friday Night Lights II PASSWORD: bgn Posted by Alfred Wallace on Sep 8, 2006 at 09:42 PM | #

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