Instrumental play

Magnus Carlsen (left) and Fabiano Caruana at the World Chess Championship 2018. Chess tends towards instrumental play.

In game studies, instrumental play is a form of play that seeks to be as good at a game as possible. The behaviors that compose instrumental play are different from what one would typically consider to be 'play' – it is highly focused, goal-oriented, and dedicated.

Playing a multiplayer game comes with various social expectations. The rules of a game and the roles players take are socially-defined, and they are allowed to function only by the players collectively acknowledging their validity, and acting how they are expected. Power gamers form communities of practice which agree on the 'correct' way to play a particular game – both the broad objectives which determine whether a player has achieved success, and the details as to the best way to achieve these objectives. Their strategies are formed through thorough analysis of the game's mechanics, and refined through collective sharing and criticism of their body of knowledge.