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A Game Worth Playing

FromThe Master Game, by Robert S. DeRopp



Table I. Meta-Games and Object Games

GAME

AIM

      Master Game       - awakening
      Religion Game       - salvation
      Science Game       - knowledge
      Art Game       - beauty

      Householder Game       - raise family

      No Game       - no aim

      Hog in Trough       - wealth
      Cock on Dunghill       - fame
      Moloch Game       - glory or victory

Life games reflect life aims. And the games men choose to play indicate not only their type, but also their level of inner development. [DeRopp, a biochemist, used the term game not to denote frivolity but as "a trial of strength or a trial of wits played within a matrix which is defined by rules."]

Following Thomas Szasz (more or less) we can divide life games into object games and meta-games. Object games can be thought of as games played for the attainment of material things, primarily money or the objects which money can buy. Meta-games are played for intangibles such as knowledge or the "salvation of the soul."

In our culture object games predominate. In earlier cultures meta-games predominated.

To the players of meta-games, object games have always seemed shallow and futile, an attitude summarized in the Gospel saying: "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" To the players of object games, meta-games seem fuzzy and ill-defined, involving nebulous concepts like beauty, truth or salvation.



From The Master Game: Pathways to Higher Consciousness by Robert S. de Ropp

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