What is a game?

A game is anything that occupies our time and stimulates our mind.

It need not be between more than one person but it most certainly can be.

Often, games where only one person plays are not as prestigious as those, like tennis or chess, where interpersonal competition is involved.

Throwing wadded up paper in a basket is as much a game as is chess, though the former will not necessarily require the mental aptitude of the latter.

Some people see life as a game and others see games or a game as their lives.

Chess and Go masters spend lifetimes learning techniques and methods of play.

Some who control armies see the whole of war as a game and have even labled exercises around these instances as such "wargames".

Computer games, video games, games of chance, gambling, drinking games, and games children play in the schoolyards are all types or modes of the same basic concept of an activity meant to pass time enjoyably.

Some people think games are a waste of time.

But, perhaps accumulating wealth and material goods is only a game.

Maybe being a seeker of enlightenment through poverty is no more than a game of karmic point accumulation.

Whatever one thinks of games, they are everywhere and most people spend a decent portion of their lives playing one form of game or another.

Politics is a game played in societies for self-gain in terms of power or money or both.

Politics can be played in smaller circumstances, such as in religions or schools or universities.

The general misconception is that some games are beneficial while others are wastes of time.

Online games where one plays as an alter-ego person are seen as wastes of time by large segments of the population.

But, those same people may not see chessmasters, olympic atheletes, or poker wizards as the same type of game players.

Why? Is it because there is a greater reward? Because there is more skill or prestige in playing?

Is it because the competetion is more fierce or perhaps more public?