We live in a society of rules. From birth until death we are taught to DO this and NOT DO that. It can really be a drag. Our rules define what we see and just as often what we do not see. It is said that following the rules is suppose to lead to a good life, so what happens when a person cheats? The ancient Greek philosopher Thales was one of the first westerners to study rules. He said that they could be studied and understood. Using an early version of the scientific method, he and his colleges set out to explain the worlds mysteries. Along the way they created a Greek lifestyle that was a marvel of moderation and reason; Western educators have been passing it along to unsuspecting grammar school children ever since. Unfortunately there was always a flaw in Thale's message, sometimes the rules don't work. Education and many wargames are solidly based on the rules that are "known." The illusion exists that we understand what is going on. Science may not have all the answers in yet, but any day now the elixer of life will be on the market. This is obviously not true. Sometimes the rules of life are not fair. Certainly some people are still inspired to be creative working within Thales' rules but more and more our rules are actually limiting creativity. Children are locked into an illusion of complete knowledge at a very young age. For some people it is a great way of life. For others it is a good way to learn how to stagnate. What follows is a lesson in cheating in free thought. Cheating a Tic Tac Toe. THE ETERNAL DRAW Children with as little as three years of age can play the simple game of Tic Tac Toe. Everyone knows the rules. One starts the game by drawing a three by three grid of squares. There are two players: one who uses the symbol X, and another who uses an 0. Each turn the players trade off marking their symbols in the empty squares of the grid. The one who can get three of his symbols in a row wins, and draws a line across the line of three. Young children learn this game easily. Through trial and error they discover different strategies on how to go about winning. With a little more work they can even win while following the rules. Once the rules are mastered, children become frustrated in playing people who do not yet know how to play. "You're cheating! You didn't do that right!" is heard from every child sooner or later. At that point, Thales might say that the child has learned the lesson of the game. There are "right" ways to do things, and if you do not follow those ways you are "wrong". Once a child learns the difference between the "right" and "wrong" moves of the game, he discovers that Tic Tac Toe has a slight problem. A match between two players who have mastered the rules, and who are conscious, will result in a draw every time. The rules are too simple. There is no strategy that can not be blocked. Host children quickly become bored with Tic Tac Toe. They realize they can't win. So rather than stick around, most kids move on to more challenging games. The rules have taught another vital lesson. If no one can win then the game must be boring, and no fun. it is time to move on to greener pastures. Leave that old stuff behind and find a real game. And so we do; until we reach a game that we can't just not play. This being the game of life that all adults have to play. Life is a lot like Tic Tac Toe. It is an eternal draw that keeps up until one messes up and loses. It is often boring and the rules are completely unfair. At least that is what it looks like to a person who has learned the lessons of Thales. So, if the rules aren't fair, why play? Why not just throw the game board up into the air? That sounds like fun, doesn't it? The game ends with a shower of playing pieces. But along with the pieces is the board. When it clunks a person on the head, one learns the meaning of pain. Life seems to be full of similar pains for those who habitually "chuck it." A more elegant solution to life is to simply change the rules. In wargames we generally call this cheating! Consider the following examples... The circles win! Why, because the purpose of the game is to get three symbols in a row. The circles win again! They have three symbols in a row. But this time they did this by putting down two circles after the other player put down one X! "You're cheating!" says the frustrated opponent. "You go first this time!" Circle wins! There are three symbols in a row that the circle player put down on the first turn of the game. Circle wins! The rules say that victory is shown by drawing a line through three squares. "If you get to cheat, then so can I!" says the other player, who is on the verge of violence. But Circle still wins! The object of the game is to have as few symbols on the board as possible! (It is best to duck after his victory since the other player is likely to take a swing). Quickly, the game has boiled down into a complicated pattern of escalating cheating. The player who holds to the old rules too hard will always be the loser. The game ends when one player decides that it is no longer fun (hopefully without a fight). But if the game goes on then players may soon find that they are laying by a new set of rules even in their cheating. In either event the eternal draw is broken, and the players world view is challenged. What is the lesson of cheating at Tic Tac Toe? The answer tally depends on the person. Thales was right,there are rules. What Thales missed is that the rules of life are constantly changing. "But that's not fair! You're just making it up as you go along!" is a common sentiment from those who are unable to let go of old rules. Such people learn that life is unfair, and that the pain of "chucking it" might be easier than being frustrated. Those who stay with it though, open themselves up to a whole new lesson. The rules about winning and losing slip away as the realities of the game come into focus. The game is all about interacting. The rules are irrelevant, except in that they instruct the players what to say next. It would appear as though Tic Tac Toe can teach a basic lesson about life, and game making. if only one can look beyond the rules. I wonder what lessons could there be in other childrens games? Checkers for instance... GAME: CHECKERS Checkers is a game played the world over. It teaches lessons, just like Tic Tac Toe. The difference between the two games is that checkers does not inevitably boil down to a draw. Children often find this to be one of checker's greatest advantages. Along the way it also teaches a few more lessons out rules. Checkers is a game of skill. Some people are better able to "see" the patterns of movement needed to win. People good at this skill learn that they are "Smart." People who are bad at this learn that they are "dumb." In both cases the players are learning something from the game that may be dead wrong. When one finds a "rule" like being "dumb" to the game, then losing becomes self fulfilling prophecy. Now imagine an end game of Checkers in which both sides have only one piece left. It is possible for a beginner to accidentally be manuevered into defeat, but after this has happened once this scenario becomes just as much a draw as Tic Tac Toe. As with Tic Tac Toe players can engage in a game of cheating esculation but in this set up there is also the possibility for another very subtle lesson. Think about how this game could be played out if the two players decided to play only by the rules... The game could go on for hours. Theoretically it could last forever, but one can be certain that that would NEVER happen if human players were involved. The game would continue until one of two things happened. 1. One player, due to fatigue, makes a mistake and is captured, or 2. one player DECIDES to move into a position to be captured. Cheating at Tic Tac Toe shows how system shifts can quickly escalate to a point where the game ends in angry recriminations. Most people are not able to handle rapid system shifts. Consequently few people want to play games with well known cheaters. What few people realize though is that when a player chooses to move into a position to be captured when playing the game straight, he can be making the same kind of rules shift that happens in Tic Tac Toe. If a player DECIDES to move into a position to be captured, he is in effect changing the rules of victory. Winning may become who gets jumped first rather than vice versa. People who have difficulty understanding system shifts feel like they are winning when their opponent moves in position to be killed. He may even consider it "stupid" to make such a move. He most certainly will not be pleased when he the other person tells him that he has lost. Changing the rules does not show up on the outside. It is far from obvious whither a person wants to be jumped to win, or wants to be jumped as a sign of defeat. After facing a few system shifts a player may be a little leery about jumping when the opportunity arises. Victory becomes a vague topic. It is possible to be in an end game in which the real challenge becomes deciding what set of rules are being used. It is possible that the rules might be changed after every turn. The cat, of a game of cat and mouse, could be a mouse or a cat it is impossible to tell. Eventually though, one player decides to make the jump which ends the game. The game is now clearly more about moving little men around, than "winning". Miniatures wargames are fun for the same reason. win or lose, the "cheating" is done internally, which makes the game a guessing match. Checkers allows for a much more subtle interplay of system shifts amongst the players. Yet they are the same type of rules changes that happen in Tic Tac Toe. Once a person becomes willing to leave behind old rules, and the comfortable order they bring, he can begin to "cheat." Admittedly in playing checkers this may not be all that important. But when the "rules" of the game teach that a person is "stupid" due to making a "wrong" move, then playing by the "rules" makes no sense. It is no longer a game for children. It has become a game about life. LIFE GAMES, AND CREATIVITY We learn rules well, sometimes too well. Some people learn that they can not win. others learn how to not talk about their problems. Some even learn how to ignore how their actions effect others. It does not take long for rules like these to make a person's life hell. Unfortunately people are not well trained in how to handle system shifts. Change makes life uncomfortable. When someone adds to this stress a little creative "cheating", everyone is forced to reevaluate the game. People hate to do this. Creativity hurts, that is why it is so discouraged. The rules we live by are in a constant state of flux. They are not simple like a game of Tic Tac Toe. Rather they are like the "cheaters" guessing game in the checkers end game. A person's rules are internalized, not obvious on the outside. If the rules are fair then a person can have a good life by following them. Often this is not the case. "Unfair" Internal rules slowly begin to effect every facet of a persons life. Consequently an end game of chess reveals more about a persons need to lose and fear of winning than it does their "Intelligence." Western culture encourages us to try to understand the world. Much has been learned since Thales first described the scientific method, but along with the good came a lot that is harmful. We are taught the "rules" only to discover that the "rules" don't work. We are taught to narrow our thinking to meet these rules, and to believe that we know everything. In fact we know little. Physics does not explain why we have two eyes rather than three. Criminology does not explain why a murderer decides to do his crime. At best these are illusions which tell us a little about what is out there. Wargame rules try to mimic life. Often times our efforts at making "rules" recreate the same errors our fore fathers made rather than making a truer picture of the world. Life is not a game that one wins. Not only do we not get out of it alive, but it is often "unfair" along the way. Fortunately, this does not determine the quality of a persons life. Yet certain rules can make it impossible for a person to "win." Rigid thinking can keep a person in this belief for a long time. The regular rules do not work, the person is powerless. It is only the rare person who realizes that powerlessness itself creates a way out. If a person can chose to lose. The game is over, and the player has won. PARADOX, AND CREATIVITY A wise Greek once said "This statement is a lie." Was he telling the truth? Think about it. If a. tree falls In the woods and none of the witnesses survive to tell did it make any noise? When a bully descends on his victim and the victim declines to fight but instead laughs, who is the winner? These statements are meant to tweak the imagination. They wake up the uninterested and Inspire a debate. The ancient Greeks called it sophistry and condemned it as bad science. But if a person is stuck in a "unfair" set of life rules then "cheating" to cause a change might be just the answer. Such is the power of paradox. THE FINAL WORD This is a strange article. Its title says that it is about cheating. In fact it is about creativity. Game making can be a creative activity, and when it is it can be a weird as this article. Cheating is the equivalent of asking new questions. It can also be like giving a new answer to an old question. There are no rules about how to do this. But there are some actions that seem to make creativity more likely to happen. Thinking about paradox is one of those actions. Another is taking risks, and writing down weird ideas that most people will not understand. The simple fact is, that it is unimportant for the greater society to understand creativity - it's internal - just like cheating at tic tac toe. Back to Experimental Games Group # 16 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1991 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com