Transactional Analysis Theory - Game and its Definition

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Game and its Definition

Game is defined as an ongoing series of ulterior complementary transactions having a switch and a cross-up leading to a predictable outcome called payoff. People engage in games unawarely. Game is a unit of social action. It is one of six ways in which people structure time to avoid boredom. 

Game is an unhealthy interactional dynamic. People participate in it unawarely. This dynamic has six essential components. They are the Con, the Gimmick, the Response, the Switch, the Cross-up and the Payoff. The dynamic is represented by Formula G. It is shown in figure 53.

Figure 53

Game starts with a conversation triggered by a statement, an action, an activity or behavior of another person.
Con: Con is a statement that has hidden content. It is taken from 'the  confidence or trust of another person' that was enlisted to further the extortionist's activity'.  

Gimmick: Gimmick is a vulnerability in the other participant that gets the person hooked on to the statement, query, remark, behaviour, activity or action of the first party.

Response: Response is the name for the conversations in which the parties participate till the switch is pulled by one of them. Other forms of these conversations are arguments, questioning the purpose, defending one's position or view and the like. These are responses.

Switch: Switch is a crossed transaction. One of the parties shifts the course of conversation and role. The other party is taken by surprise, as a consequence. Often times the switch marks a shift from a subject of objective interest, to a quality of the other person or questioning the other person's competence and the like. This is not done deliberately or on purpose as a planned act.  It happens because the Frame of Reference is challenged.

Cross-up: Cross-up is the name for the state of confusion. The outcome is unexpected for both parties. Both parties are left nonplussed. There is a lull. Both parties explore, even search to find out what went wrong. In a way to say this was not the intention; where have I or we landed. As yet nothing takes place. Both the parties maintain a heavy silence. Soon thereafter the parties start blaming the other, labelling the other, justifying oneself, making plans for next time round. These may be expressed, conveyed or worked out in their own mind. They then move away from each other.

Payoff: Payoff is a psychological payoff. During the time spent in cross-up and thereafter both parties pick-up their favourite racket feelings. Some of these feelings are those of hurt, pain, insult, ineptitude, worthlessness, helplessness, inadequacy, embarrassment, put-down, experience of being used, and the like, or showing the door, justifying in the mind, generating and finding a reason for harbouring dislike, anger, hate, resentment or feeling grandiose. Payoffs also help to justify one's opinion and views about the other. 'The word payoff is coined from payments that extortionists extracted illicitly from others'.

The game dynamic results in a period of lull in cordiality between the parties. They try to avoid each other, avoid talking or interacting with each other. They wait for the topic to die its natural death. It is only after lapse of some time that one more round of game dynamic occurs between the parties. 

Outcomes of games become topics of gossip if the game is mild. They result in hurt and broken relationships. In this case the parties avoid discussion in social circles. Attempts by others to iron out differences usually prove unproductive. In the extreme games result in bodily, mental, emotional or psychochological hurt. They are then called tissue games. 

Games happen among people in close relationships. These are between married partners, family members, close friends, neighbours, in clubs, social organisations and such like others. Games manifest as a compulsion to repeat even though the players wish that what happens again and again is best avoided. Berne says games are segments of larger, more complex sets of transactions called script. Games may be of a few transactions lasting only a few minutes or may last days or even years. Each round of game play yields a harvest of payoff in the nature of favoured racket feelings. 

Fanita English says in her TAJ artical of July, 1975 that Games happen because racketeers end racketeering in an emotional hype which results in some hormonal change. This in tern triggers a shift in ego states resulting in onset of Game. 

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