A game is only a game when everyone follows the rules. As usual, there are 2 schools of thought for this kind of issues. The nonchalant will probably shake the argument off with the likes of "it's just a game" and "why so serious?", while the dedicated and competitive will want to assert that it is precisely that sort of thinking that forms the group of "sour grapes", or in a more derogatory term, "losers".
How exasperating it must be for a group of professionals, who have "trained" so hard in that field of expert, to have to succumb to mediocre or low-class playing tactics of the unreasonable, unruly, and unscrupulous. Imagine a game which requires certain skills - say, Captain's Ball - is being played between a professional National team, and a group of primary school students. The National team abides by all the rules of the game, but when the primary school kids took the possession of the ball they practically ran with the ball in their hand all the way to their captain and passed the ball to him.
And they scored.
Think about how this applies to so many situations in life. In our daily activities, too often we are pit against people who foul, people who don't follow the rules of the game - and worse, don't feel bad about it - and also the people who try to influence everybody else in the game that the game is silly and not worth everyone's time, encouraging them to "play dirty" too. Why do we invite such people into the game? Or have they just entered uninvited, and attempt to sabotage your game?
Of course, it's easy to say that the rules of the game are set by the people who know the game better, play better at it, more trained, so on and so forth, and that in some way, the rules are more applicable and important to them than to anyone else who are in the game. Then again, who invited you? If you're somehow playing the game, then you jolly well follow the rules of the game. The Captain's Ball example I cited might be a more extreme case of this issue, but when you think about it, it's not too foreign to you, eh? I'm sure there are certain times when you play a game with another group of people who have no idea whatsoever on how the game goes. You try to play fair, you try to play legit, but once the opponent starts with all the illegal play with disregard of the standard rules of the game, and still manages to score (okay assume there is no umpire and the opponent self-righteously claims score), you find yourself on the exasperated side of the story, all fuming mad and burning with a deep sense of injustice, as if the opponent had just committed a crime so heinous you have not even been able to fathom.
More than often in our daily lives this situation makes relationships and interpersonal issues so, so awry, because the rules and boundaries are so undefined that you might somehow argue your way through the right channel to sound convincing or even correct. The two playing teams (or individuals) need not be so unbalanced as in the example; most of the time in real life they are more or less equally or relatively equally challenged. This will then strike out the argument of "Don't be ridiculous. The National team is probably so good that the primary school kids don't even have a chance to touch the ball.", and hence enhance the notion. I'm sure we're not all that competitive all the time as well, and sometimes we allow the game to relax a little so that the main objective of "just having fun" is achieved. But when it's not a "just having fun" game, don't expect us to be so gracious about the cheap tricks and unorthodox playing styles.
So there we have it. Whether or not you want to play fair in a game where you know the rules, or deliberately choose not to do so, always remember that you are not playing a solo game - there are people who are playing the game as well, and most of them are pretty much abiding by the rules as far as possible. Think of how your sour grapes attitude might ruin the game for the rest of them, or how, technically, you're being unfair and unreasonable. Take my word of advice: you will never out-trump another person, or be able to become the most unscrupulous person in the game, because for every cheap tactic you pull, there are many others who can top that and oust you out of the game anyway. And if this was a test of unscrupulousness, and you're expecting to win this game through such tactics, think again. Because if there are no rules, it's not a game. Nobody can win.
And that still makes you a loser.
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