Monday, September 7, 1998:

What would be the player's goal in a game?

Good question.

Here are a few that I can think of off the top of my head: Spend some time with the other players.

How many Bridge games are just an excuse for the players to sit around and chit chat having a good time?

Learn how to pronounce "s" without hissing or lisping.

Strange as this may appear on the surface, I played the game Sorry for hours and hours when I was in elementary school. I was in speech therapy to learn how to pronounce 'S' without lisping. So rather than sit around saying words over and over again we played a game with lots of 'S' sounds in the game.

Teach your child simple counting skills.

An adult playing a simple game such as snakes and ladders with a small child may be simply trying to teach said child his or her numbers and the art of counting.

Beat the socks off your older brother.

Maybe you are tried of what a big mouth poor sport your older brother is and since you are better at the game then he is you relish the thought of grinding him into the dirt over a friendly game of chineese checkers.

Unravel the mathematical mysteries of Game Theory.

Yep, there are university graduate departments devoted to the study of game theory. Every now and then they may even play a game or two in an effort to understand what is happening on a mathematical level.

These examples should give you a few ideas of what might be meant by the question: "What would be the player's goal in a game?"

Now then. Gather answers to this question yourself. What possible goals for a player can you discover, recall, makeup or weedle out of friends and family?