Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility

by James P. Carse

Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life, the games we play in business and politics, in the bedroom and on the battlefield — games with winners and losers, a beginning and an end. Infinite games are the more mysterious — and ultimately more rewarding. They are unscripted and unpredictable; they are the source of true freedom. -- from the back cover of the 1986 edition.