Play to Win
Play to Win refers to a mindset or a set of player behaviours, wherein players within a game set objectives and aim to successfully meet those objectives before the game is over. Often this includes the goal of achieving victory over all other players.
It can be, but is not always, accompanied by play cultures of pride and competitiveness in the skills used within the game; where players are encouraged to compete with their best skills and give their best effort to the goal. In such play cultures it can sometimes be seen as anti-social or dishonest to not try your best at meeting the objectives.
Within roleplaying it is often defined as an antithesis of Play to lose. It also contrasts against other approaches to games such as "Play to Find Out", and "Play to Lift"[1].
Within LARP, some games - especially battlegames and some Megagames - rely on play to win mentalities as a primary conflict and source of play. This can be used to shape their ongoing game and lore narratives, by telling the stories of who won or lost a battle and how that changed the world. But the same attitude does not work in every larp, and there are some groups who can even see play to win behaviour as anti-social, particularly if a game or larp is not designed to be won. This variety in attitudes and cultures around play to win is mirrored by the same range of attitudes in the rest of society, where it is a much-studied phenomenon[2].
Example games
See also
References
- ↑ Susanne Vedjemo (2018), 'Play to Lift, Not Just Lose'. Retrieved 7th February 2026.
- ↑ Friedman, Hilary Levey, 2013, Playing to win : raising children in a competitive culture, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 9780520276765. Archived from the original on August 31, 2021, retrieved 10 March 2013.