Faking results in games or refusing to take the game seriously might sound like the negation of playful experience, it can however also be understood as a way of creating a particular form of the ludic experience. It is the context of play that makes an action of playing a playful activity or an act of breaking the rules. Different forms of cheating have to be differentiated: “Bona fide cheating” and “true cheating” [Salen and Zimmermann, 2004], Interpassivity [Pfaller, 2008] [Zizek, 2007] or the introduction of software agents and other modes of delegated play.
The author suggests that there are multiple systems of reference of playful experience. By switching from one system of reference to another, the player, the spoilsport and the cardsharp are able to establish playfulness in a chosen context and thereby add to the range of possible playful experiences.