Finite & Infinite Games: A Vision of Life in Play and Possibility

FINITE GAMES	INFINITE GAMES
"Played for the purpose of winning. . . ." [3] Only one person "can win a finite game . . ." [6]	Played "for the purpose of continuing the play." [3]
Finite games "have a precise beginning." [4]	"Infinite players cannot say when their game began, nor do they care. They do not care for the reason that their game is not bounded by time." [6]
Finite games have a "definitive end." [3]. "[A] finite game is intended for conclusion. . . ." [16] The end takes place when the "players have agreed who among them is the winner." [3]	In infinite games "the only purpose of the game is to prevent it from coming to an end, to keep everyone in play." [6-7]
Finite games have temporal, spatial, and numerical boundaries. [4-5]	"There are no spatial or numerical boundaries to an infinite game." [7]
"[F]inite games are externally defined. . . ." [7]	"[I]nfinite games are internally defined." [7]
"There is no finite game unless the players freely choose to play it. No one can play who is forced to play." [4] Finite play is limited and the limitations are chosen by the players, however, "no one is under any necessity to play a finite game. Fields of play simply do not impose themselves on us. Therefore, all the limitations of finite play are self-limitations." [12] Finite players often "come to think that whatever they do [in a finite game] they must do." [10-11]. Finite players "somehow veil" the freedom they have "to step off the field of play at any time. . . ." [12]. Carse goes on to point out that this "self-veiling" cannot be avoided. [13]	"It is an invariable principle of all play, finite and infinite, that whoever plays, plays freely." [4] Carse notes that only in this feature are finite and infinite games identical. [6]
"Finite games can be played within an infinite game. . . ." [7]	"[A]n infinite game cannot be played within a finite game." [7]. "Since finite games can be played within an infinite game, infinite players do not eschew the performed roles of finite play." [14]
"[T]he rules [in finite games] may not change in the course of play. . . ." [9] [emphasis in original]	"The rules of an infinite game must change in the course of play." [9] [emphasis in original]
"[T]he rules of a finite game are the contractual terms by which the players can agree who has won. . . ." [9]	"[T]he rules of an infinite game are the contractual terms by which the players agree to continue playing." [9]
"Finite players play within boundaries. . . ." [10]. "[F]inite games cannot have fluid boundaries, for if they do it will be impossible to agree on winners." [37]	"[I]nfinite players play with boundaries." [10]
The staging of finite play is "theatrical." [16-17]. Theatrical games are outcome oriented. [21]	Infinite play is "dramatic." [16-17]. In dramatic games the outcome is uncertain. [21].
Finite players dread surprise. "Surprise causes finite play to end. . . ." [18].	Infinite players welcome surprise. [18]. Surprise is central to the infinite game. "Infinite players . . . continue the play in the expectation of being surprised. If surprise is no longer possible, all play ceases." [22].
Finite players are "trained." [19]	Infinite players are "educated." [19]
Finite play is "contradictory" in that players seek to bring their play to an end. [25-26]	Infinite play is "paradoxical." [25-26] "Infinite players play best when they become least necessary to the continuation of play." [26]
Finite games are played to win. [3, 11]	Infinite games are played to play. [3]

1. "No one can play a game alone."[Carse, at 37]

2. "We are players in search of a world as often as we are world in search of players, and sometimes we are both at once. Some worlds pass quickly into existence, and quickly out of it. Some sustain themselves for longer periods, but no world lasts forever." [Carse, at 91]

3. "Infinite play remains invisible to the finite observer." [Carse, at 95].

4. Infinite Play The Movie is set to change the game.

James P. Carse, Finite & Infinite Games: A Vision of Life in Play and Possibility
(New York: Free Press, 1986)
(numbers in the chart refer to page numbers in Finite & Infinite Games)