Works that refer to Assassination/Unscrupulous Manipulation as "The Game"

[Jragon]

Yeah, I know, incredibly specific. Anyway, I was recently playing Dragon Age and some of its DLC and what I noticed was the recurring theme, both in the Dwarven Noble origin and Leliana’s Song as referring to the art of framing, defaming, assassination, betrayal, and spreading misinformation as “The Game” or being “outgamed” and such. I know I’ve heard such things before, but I’m at a loss for where. It doesn’t necessarily have to be politics, but rather anything evil or unscrupulous referred to as some sort of game or recreational “fun” activity. My only requirement is that it has to be known in some way by the people participating, so Ender’s Game doesn’t count, since the character really does think he’s playing some sort of arcade game. However, something like a story about elder gods messing with a specific human until he kills himself just for kicks as a “game” would be. And of course, something like The Most Dangerous Game counts, despite it not being political.

I just lost the game

[RealityChuck]

Well, in the 19th Century, the rivalry between Russia and England over central Asia was called “The Great Game.”

The word “Game” in “The Most Dangerous Game” has a double meaning – both a game, but also a game animal (i.e., for hunting). The story leans toward an animal – that man is the most dangerous animal to hunt.

Cordwainer Smith’s “The Game of Rat and Dragon” is about pinlighters, who fight threats that attack ships in hyperspace. Though the imagery is that of a card game, what actually happens is far from it.

[Der_Trihs]

@RealityChuck

Well, in the 19th Century, the rivalry between Russia and England over central Asia was called “The Great Game.”

Which is what inspired the usage of the term in Dragon Age as I recall.

David Weber’s In Fury Born uses the phrase “the great game” in a similar sense. The character here engaged in massive fake “pirate attacks” (killing millions) as part of a convoluted scheme to gain political power.

@In Fury Born

James Howell crouched behind his useless console in his vac suit. The laser carbine was alien to him, clumsy-feeling in his grip, but he waited almost calmly, his mind empty. There was no room for hope, and no point in fear. He was going to die, and whether it happened in a few minutes or a few hours—or even in a few months, if he was taken alive—didn’t matter. He’d betrayed all he was sworn to uphold to play the great game; now he’d lost, and his own stupidity had brought all of his people to the same degrading end.

He also uses it in a “manipulate societies and governments” sense in Storm From the Shadows:

She watched Brulé and Ratté working their way smoothly through the well-written and carefully rehearsed script and wondered if the sense of almost godlike power she felt as she watched the entire New Tuscany System dancing to the Alignment’s script was the same sort of thing Albert Detweiler felt? And if so, was it as addictive for him as she realized it could easily become for her? For that matter, if it was, did he care?

I understand what we’re trying to accomplish and why—now, at least, she thought.* I wouldn’t have understood before he and Isabel explained it all to me, but I do now. But knowing only makes the game even more intoxicating. It defines the scope, the scale, in a way nothing else ever has before. But ambitious as it is, it’s still all . . . intellectual for me. The* game* is what’s* real.* I wonder if it’s that way for Albrecht and the others? And if it is, what are they going to do when we’ve finally pulled it off and there are no more games to play?*

[Rachellelogram]

I don’t know how relevant it is since it doesn’t include murder, but I’ve heard people call unscrupulous dating tactics “the game” (by male pickup artists) or “the rules” (catty females).

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

The Rules