The only game I get truly ruthless about is Scrabble. But even then I try to put the game above winning (most of the time).

having fun is winning

Missing option?

I play to have fun. But it's just more fun if people play to win. (Depending quite a bit on game, company and setting though)

And a bit of ribbing of the loser is ok, no hard feelings either way.

Depends on the 'game' ;)

depends on the game and who I'm playing with.

But right now it's cards against humanity (family edition) with my friends and family.

Of course... playing hard and winning is fun....

Depends on the game. Which game are we talking about?

very much depends on the game. I’ve played games where there is no fun in losing. Eg. competitive team games. Losing just doesn’t feel good in any way. So you play to win those games. Winning is the fun. But there are other games that are just fun to play, win or lose. So, depends on what you mean by “play”. If it’s playing a game, mostly to win; if it’s a play activity, mostly to have fun.

playing to win is what is fun. It bothers me when people bend the rules because "it is just a game." The rules are the game.

extremely context dependent! Competitive games are structured interaction--I like to play to win if others are playing to win; I like to play for fun if others are playing for fun.

i think these are two unrelated parameters. i do both, some people do neither. some only one.

It depends on which game, and with whom.

I play to win but not at the expense of having fun.

somewhere between to have fun and winning, but only if winning is part of having fun socially. So more on the side of fun.
@evan

ultimately I play to have fun, but some games kind of rely on players trying to win, or else the game dynamic/balance doesn't really work. So with those cases I usually try to win just to keep it fun for everyone, but I don't mind losing.

Tangent: If you make losing funny even for the person who loses, then losing loses its sting.

I prefer playing to maximize fun. Sometimes that means paying to win, but more often it means trying new strategies or even just "shooting from the hip". People who only play to win are generally less fun to play with. It starts making it feel like work.

@jameswynn Depends on who I am playing. Most of the time it’s just for fun. I have a close friend who we love to play games but we are both competitive. We get into serious fights over semantics. But never to the point of sacrificing our friendship. We love each other but when we play games it’s all bets are off lol.

I play mostly to have fun. Even in a competitive setting, the fun part is the challenge. If you lose, you can always learn something, eventually leading to a win. The process is the fun part.

Depends on the game. I play pool and ping pong to win. Most card games, especially games like Cards Against Humanity or Exploding Kittens are fun to play, and I can appreciate and laugh at losing.

And as a side note, we caught my wife cheating at Yahtzee once and we will never let her live it down. 😂

To have fun, but playing *and* winning is usually a bit more fun than playing and losing..

Playing to win -is- fun (doesn’t mean I always win! But I know I gave it a proper shot)

play what!

I play to have fun and to be competitive. Winning is great. Losing sucks, so if I already know I'm going to lose early on, I get frustrated. But mostly to have fun while staying in the race.

I've always believed that not making your best effort to win is a condescending insult.

I was briefly in therapy as a child (for ADD) and the therapist played chess with me but clearly let me win. I was furious, and as I recall I refused to continue shortly after that, because I didn't feel they respected me.

What I've been working on is reducing:
- perfectionism
- agonizing over moves
- complaining when I seem to be behind (this pisses people off if I later win)

Play to learn sounds like more fun : -) (eg duolingo) and play to exercise (eg toboganning)

This is a complicated question for a #Heaven17 fan.

Heaven 17 / Play To Win
https://youtu.be/UTOMZjkPKEY#TOTP

I'm 100 days into a The Long Dark interloper run. That is... not a game you win.

not gonna lie I definitely didn't expect to be in such a tiny minority playing to win

I have long considered joining a reality TV show just so that when they interview me after things got REALLY TENSE I could just smile and shrug and say "I'm just here to make friends!!"

So, I'm somewhat to have fun. I think if the structure of the game has a win condition, it's most fun to pursue it. If you're playing the game, be in the game.

But I also have played so many games that it's more important to me to cultivate a culture of play in my family and friends than it is to score an ego boost on any particular night. If I can get people to play games with me, it feels like a win.

It's certainly *nice* to win, but it's not the reason that I play games in the first place, and it's not a problem when I don't win.

I play because I want to have fun or relax - and I find (for me at least) that spending all my effort on trying as hard as possible to perform perfectly and always win would take away from my enjoyment and make it more stressful.

I dont have less fun if i dont win but iam definitively playing to win.
Wow so many liers ... i never seen anybody playing monopoly been like nah its ok you can be on land rent free, just here to have fun.

certain members of my family get very huffy if they lose, so I've got used to not trying too hard.

Even with single player games, winning can be a real anticlimax.