From

Game
to
Gambit

AGAM ARORA | TOY & GAME DESIGN 13 | NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN

GUIDE : Mr. SHEKHAR BHATACHARYA

The
Abstract :
Cheating in Games is as old as the games have ever existed in the human civilization. As Game design students
we were exposed to themes like Society and Play and Dishonest Behaviors . It was interesting to look
upon games as the reflection of the society and the propagandas that are addressed through games . I was intrigued when I started looking the world through game psychology ; where the world appeared as Poker game ,
the current life struggle as game play , the social order as the rules , the Humans with great ambitions as Players
who would like to win a game irrespective of their circumstances. It was thus not difficult to find notorious act
of cheating akin to the Gambits that are deployed by the clever lot to attain unfair advantage in the real world.
The Colloquium paper thus tries explores Gamesmanship as a behavioural phenomenon and the decision
making by individuals through Gambits in different genres .

The
Background:
The Great Indian Civilization officially dates back to
3300 BC , however different organizations have tried
to establish it even older then the accepted norms
and with every research that takes place , and predates the continuous living Indian civilization. Agriculture brought several changes to the Indian society. The social setup changed from a Nomadic social
order to a civilized world and hence recreational
activities too were re-defined in the new social order and Games played an important part to provide
recreational activities in the ancient era. Many of the
prominent games that are played in the world are the
gift of Indian civilization to the world. There have
been cosmetic changes in these games to adapt the
societies where they spread however the core game
play has always remained the same. These games if
analysed would give us great information about the
social order of the world.
The early man who was predominately a hunter ,
lived in the awe of uncertainty for his life and for his
prey. Irony was , the Hunter was the prey by himself
. This would have perhaps made Hunting as the first
ever game in the History of human race where survival of the fittest would have been the norm. Just
as in a game , where players evolve , improvise on
their skills and modify their strategy , the creatures
of those early times would have evolved to survive in
those harsh times to keep pace of the worlds brutal
game of Hunting.

Though societies evolved and made progressed in the

field of science and technology conquered the planets and has established himself as the most superior
species the Universe would have ever witnessed, but
yet could not master virtue of Uncertainty. The story of evolution states how a human brain developed
to mitigate the uncertainty that existed in the nature
which helped him to conquer the world through his
wit by taking fair / unfair advantages over the competitor species of his time.
The Games too in their simplest forms are derived
from the simplest law of nature the Uncertainty.
Games too have two definite types of rules , a formal
ideal rules of the game , which users are expected
to abide by while playing the game against the real
rules that players tend to play with which have the
tendency to be bent and subverted . The Ideal rules
thus bring uncertainty in the game where as the real
rules bring certainty in the game which depends
upon finding the gap in the existing rules and thus
subverting the rules to ones own advantage. Under
an Ideal scenario , a player would play a game with
a given set of rules and would try to win the game
however this would introduce the Uncertainty in
the entire act of play. The Ambitious nature of man
thus motivates him to overcome uncertainty by thus
bending the rules in his own favour or gaming the
system which in game design is popularly known as
cheating.

What
is
Cheating :
Cheating defined in simple words is the tampering
of rules to gain unfair lead in a competitive scenario.
Cheating thus is an act of dishonest behavior which
challenges the fair code of conduct . Cheating as a
phenomenon is thus meant to attain preference over
existing completion through an unfair criterion. The
code of conduct under question may be explicit or
might be left on individuals morality based upon the
moral conduct as demarcated by the contemporary
society. Cheating has thus evolved as an act which
whose influence can be felt across all the genres that
involves competitive behavior.
Gaming the System is an offshoot of cheating that
derives its soul from the error or the exception in
the rules , the gap that has been thus created which
allows misconduct by the errant to practice actions
that can lead to unfavorable outcomes though yet
approved under the social order. The act of gaming
the system leads to the phenomenon of Gamesmanship.
Gamesmanship is term derived as opposed Sportsmanship. The Term Gamesmanship takes into account where the player is motivated to play a game
with an intense spirit to win where the true spirit of
instant victory supersedes the spirit of enjoying and
mastering a game through sheer practice. The Phenomenon of gamesmanship therefore employs dubious measures though they are not Illegal but pushing the rules to the grey areas of the game to achieve
desired end .The simplest game of Akkad bakad
bambe bo played by the Kids in the Indian subcontinent , where children would intentionally add a
word or shall skip their favourite friend in the game
to avoid getting out of the game is the simplest example of the Gamesmanship as experienced in the
kids.
Gamesmanship,
Motivation factors
and
Gambits deployed :
Unsportmanship : Such players follow rules
, but also violate some unclear rules . These players
have great desire to win. Thus the Gambits deployed
by such individuals are within the premises of the
social system

The Cheat : Such players secretly break the
core rules of the game. These players too have great
desire to win. The Gambits deployed by such individuals work on bending the social norms as demarcated by the social system.

The Spoil spot : Such player neither follows
the rule nor has any desire to win. A gambit deployed
by such players is help the other players to cheat and
to provide him with undue advantage or merely to
frustrate a dedicated player. The acts of spoil spot are
difficult to trace as he acts like the brain and doesnt
physically breaks the rules , these acts too are therefore within the vicinity of social order.

The
Mythological
Gambit :
The War of Mahabharata is a vivid example where
the war is a game and the established moral code for
warriors is akin to the rules , the warriors in the Mahabharata are akin to the players that posses great
ambitious pursuit and the desire to win at all odds
lead them to break the warrior code.
In the war of Mahabharata, Krishna vows on not to
wield weapons during the war. Understanding that
Pandavas will deal with ethical dilemma of fighting
with their family members that comprised some of
the best warriors of their time. The war would thus
not be easy for the Pandavas . Therefore Krishna ,
cleverly finds a loophole in his own vow so that he
can available for his beloved Pandavas during the
war. Krishna thus accepts to play the role of charioteer for Arjuna where he shall be continuously
available for his guidance and motivation. Again
on the 9th day of the war , Krishna rushes with the
wheel of a fallen chariot against the Bhishma where
Arjuna reminds him of his vow of not to wield weapons where it is cleverly represented that Wheel of
the chariot is not a weapon.
Thus both the acts of Krishna to become a Charioteer or using Chariot wheel as a weapon can be taken as mere references of dishonest behavior and the
Gambits which yet take care of the social order or
the rules of the war.
Krishna predicts that it would be difficult to win the
war as long Bhisma was fighting in the war against
the Pandavas .Krishna again cleverly proposes a
strategy of placing a eunuch in the field to face Bhisma which is against a loophole in the warrior code
of not to attack an eunuch . Krishna further helps
Arjuna to slain Jaydratha before the sunset by using his Sudarshana Chakra by covering the sun and
faking it as sunset which thus finally helped Arjuna
in fulfilling his promise. Krishna was also instrumental in deploying the way strategy which could
be deployed in the Night and asks Bhisma to summon Ghatotkacha , his son from the Rakshasa clan.
This forces Karna to use the weapon on Ghatotkacha
which he had intentionally saved to slay Arjuna.

The Act of Introducing an eunuch or to Introduce

the Rakasha son of Bhima into the war was thus
clearly bending the car code and the acts were thus
implemented only after the advice from Krishna
, both these acts can be thus seen as act of a cheat
where bending the social code is considered approporiate to win the war.
Further Krishna uses deceit when he wants Yudhishtra to utter Ashwathama has been killed in the war
demotivating Drona in the act of war post hearing
the death of his son and for this purpose Bhima kills
an elephant Ashwathama , so that law abiding Yudhistra can speak up the truth which has a shade of deceit in it which can make drone renounce his weapons. Krishna further suggests Kunti to meet Karna to
avoid brothers killing each other . The meeting thus
ends up putting Karna under one sided obligations
but not the Pandavas . Krishna further was instrumental to instigate Arjuna in breaking the war code
and inducing him to shot arrows on Karna when the
wheel of his chariot was stuck in mud. Finally Krishna at last becomes instrumental by making Bhima surpass the rules of Mace war and signals Bhima
to strike Duryodhana at his thighs which were the
only mortal part of his body post the boon provided
by his mother Gandhari.
The acts of demotivating Drona , Putting moral obligations on Karna or Inducing Powerful Bhima to
surpass the rules of the Mace war to kill Duryodhana
are the events that projects Krishna in a negative light
where he emerges as the spoil spot , The Gambits
used motivate the Pandavas to cheat and to provide
them undue advantage and frustrate Drona , Karna
and Duryodhana by unfair play.
Krishna thus emerges as the sole character who feels
that subversion of the established code was necessary to bring a new social order. Mahabharata and
Krishna thus becomes a fine example to understand
Gamesmanship and the different Gambit styles used
by Krishna to establish the new social and more code
for the society , the new Dharma

The
Economical
Gambits :

The
Political
Gambit :

Perverse Incentives are similar examples of gaming

the system where the incentive policies have resulted
in undesirable outcomes as against the expectations
of the incentive planners. For example Under the
French imperialism , a policy of providing financial
incentive to people on submitting each rat tail to
eradicate rats from the region rather resulted in Rat
Farming. The Act of Endangered species in US posses legal control over the land holdings where endangered species of animals and plants can be spotted. This rather saw the deliberate cutting of valuable
trees and killing of endangered animal species by the
land owners from the sheer threat of not being able
to cultivate their land being discovered as the habitat
of endangered species.

Culture of Fear is a similar phenomenon of dishonest behavior of inciting fear in common masses to
achieve political goal. Such a practice is often used
by the politicians and leaders to reunite masses in
their favor and projecting themselves as the leader
in such projected fearful situations. The Prominent
stories of Blood Libel have been used against Jews
to prosecute Jews since Christianity established its
roots in Europe. The Blood libels accuse Jews of kidnapping and murdering young Christian children
and using their blood for the baking of matzos. The
similar fear culture was exploited by Hitler during
the II nd world war two and inciting mass prosecutions against Jews and projecting himself as the leader of German masses. United States of America and
Europe too have justified numerous policies against
minorities exploiting the Culture of fear in the aftermaths of collapse of world trade centre.

The Principle of Moral hazards in economics further talks about high risk that an individual would
take in a certain situation when a different party
shall bear the impact of the risk in the negative aftermaths of the event. The partition of India under the
Imperial British regime and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy
by Union Carbide India limited are such cases where
the aftermaths of these events have been burdened
by the common masses and not by the risk takers.
The unpopular US subprime crisis too have been
the results of the moral hazards.
The Biblical Parable of The Good Samaritan as
mentioned in the New Testament is again one such
philosophy which questions on the noble cause of
charity. The Philosophy brings forward an ideology
of eradicating charity due to the selfish nature of Human beings. Under a given condition of Charity the
receiver shall act either utilize the charity to get better off his current situation or under the assurance
is likely to rely on the charity as his tool for survival.
The Ideology was again bring into use by the economist James M. Buchanan where such an ideology
promotes fair competition under capitalism where
people work for their own upliftment and thus contributing to the nations wealth against the core state
ideologies of communism and socialism where the
subsidies and states policies are considered equivalent to charity

A Filibuster is a parliamentary procedure where debate over a proposed piece of legislation is extended,
allowing one or more members to delay or entirely
prevent a vote on the proposal. It is sometimes referred to as talking out a bill or talking a bill to death
.In the parliamentary procedure of Filibuster , where
a sly member would extend his speech for hours to
avoid other members to prevent voting on a certain
bill which is considered mandatory. The word is derived from Dutch word vrijbuiter which is akin to
privateer , a similar term is also described in English as Freebooter. The first such act of filibuster is
known to have been practiced by the Roman senator
Cato who prolonged his speech till nightfall to block
Julius Caesars petition of In absentia before the
senate. In Europe where such acts were yet popular ,
no wonder British had learnt some bitter lessons till
the time they arrived in India as colonial power and
hence therefore kept the right of closure of such debates at the discretion of the speaker. Such power till
date is considered as the discretionary power of the
Speaker in Lok Sabha.

The
Cultural
Gambit :

The
Corporate
Gambit :

Bribery is an act of receiving ones favor through a

gift , the gift can thus take any form ;Money or other inducement. Bribery is thus a term used in legal
procedures as a crime where a person serving a legal duty is influenced to provide unfair advantage by
neglecting his duty. The limited resource available
leads to a fierce competition and in Economics bribery is considered merely as rent and not misconduct.
Due to thin line that lies between bribery and a gift ,
it therefore becomes difficult to regard it as Misconduct .

Policy based evidence making is a dishonest practice utilized by corporates where a research project is
commissioned that can conclude the findings in favor of a policy that has already been secretly planned
and has been prepared to be implemented in the future. The ideology of the practice is to find evidences that can create a platform for the already planned
policy to seek public acceptance .

Gifts to people in authority have been seen across

cultures since the ancient times where gifts were offered to the King , the temple Priests to pacify the
Gods to receive their blessings and to maintain harmonious relationships. It would be therefore not
wrong to say Bribery has been woven in the social
fabric and it would be difficult to examine it with
great difficulty keeping in mind the social and cultural customs of the concerned society.

The
Legal
Gambit :
SLAPP , Strategic lawsuit against public participation is a dishonest legal practice which aims at censoring and silencing the critics by imposing them
with the expenses of legal defense until they give up
their criticism in the respective case. Normally the
Plaintiff in SLAPP cases are not expected to win the
legal suite but at aim inducing the defendant from
the criticism by bearing the cost of the lawsuit due to
the fear of loss of prestige and goodwill is often considered as a legal threat but has yet existed as lawsuit
to facilitate justice to those who would otherwise
will not be able to afford justice due to high fee incurred in the legal procedures.

A similar dishonest practice of Kiss up kick down

which is against the ideal theory of Organizational behavior of collective responsibility where the
core essence of Problem solving is overshadowed by
searching for the Scope goat , In such a scenario employees in the middle management practice a dubious policy of kissing up the higher management
and making them the credit bearer of the good fortunes of the organization but shall Kick down the
lower subordinates in case of any potent failure in the
organization .This strategy is deployed by the middle
management to keep good terms with higher management , keeping themselves safe from anything
that wrong that happens in the organization but at
the same time keeping a check on their lower subordinates to practice the same culture so that the credit are attributed to them and there is always a scope
goat for companies failures.
Toxic Leadership is a dishonest practice where the
leader who would simply like to play the leader role
but shall cease to abide by the leader -follower moral code by leaving the clan and his followers in the
worse scenarios , when the clan and his followers encounter a threat. The term is considered has emerged
as one of the significant phrases in the Post Subprime
crisis world and has its association with management practices in the leadership traits. This leadership style often promotes the culture of Fear in the
organization.

The
Conclusion :
The virtual world of Games and the real world of Gambits have much in common. Understanding the real
world of Gambits through games has been an old phenomenon. Attempts have been made to connect the dots
between the real world of Gambits and the virtual world of games to simplify complex phenomenon of Gamesmanship and cheating styles that exist in the contemporary world.

The
Bibliography :

1.
2.
3.

The Books
Rules of Play by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen
Culture of Fear by Garry Glassner
Science of fear by Daniel Gardener

4.
5.

The Video references

Business Sutra 3 Dharma Sankat at CNBC awaz
TEDx talk Our buggy moral code by Dan Ariely

6.

Article
Rules do not make Ram by Devdut Patnaik

Websites
7.
www.softpanorama.org
8. www.quora.com/which-are-the-best-filibusters-in-history

Blogs
9. https://truthabouthinduism.wordpress.com
10. https://tportis.wordpress.com

Acknowledgement:
The Paper would not have been possible without the continued support of Mr. Mihir Bholey ,my Guide Mr.
Shekhar Bhattacharya , and Mr. Sajith Gopinath Coordinator Toy & Game Design at National Institute of
Design
I would further like to thank Mr. Sudarshan Khanna , Educationist and Play design expert , Mr. Jai Sharda
Financial Expert and Economist and Mr. Sunny Waghela - Hacking Guru , Techdefence who helped me pick
up valuable pointers of Gamesmanship and subversion behaviour from across the Genres and establish the
connection between Games and Gambits.
I would also like to thank my seniors , batch mates and friends for their curiosity and patience and helping me
look across genres and helping me arrive at logical conclusions after every discussion which helped me edit the
text of this paper to a meaningful result.