Games People Play: And How to Change Them…

“Games” can be very widely defined, and we engage in them all. For this paper, I will be considering at least four kinds of games: first, the purely delightful children’s (and adult) games, from board games to video games to competitive sports, that we play for pleasure. Second, the emotional games in the sense of Eric Berne (see below), i.e. the far less pleasurable psychological patterns that we seem to create and follow in our interactions with others, especially in situations of stress. Third, closely related to this, the games described and prescribed by game theory to analyze human behavior in conflict. And finally, my own more playful exploration of the games of negotiation and the effect these have on negotiation process and results