ROP readings

The authors talk about the three types of rules:

Operational: Rules of Play

Constituative: Rules that exist below the surface (logical and mathematical)

Implicit: Unwritten rules (etiquette, good sportsmanship, etc.)

In Stephen Sniderman's article titled "Unwritten Rules", he makes interesting analogies about games and the "real world". He talks about the unwritten (implicit) rules that underlie the written rules that tend to be dependent on culture. Probably the biggest unstatable rule that is universal is being a good sport and having good etiquette. This would be a good example of one of his statements, which is "the most powerful rules, the ones least likely to be violated, are those that are not stated explicitly, those that people have to infer or intuit. To state a rule is to invite players to break it, but to leave a rule unstated is to make its violation almost literally "unthinkable.

In conclusion, he makes the case that games serve one very important social function, which is as abstractions of "real-world" situations. The article is here.