It's tempting to over analyze the term game. The point of TFA, and my comment, was not to portray dating as a Machiavellian rule driven process. The point of TF

It's tempting to over analyze the term game. The point of TFA, and my comment, was not to portray dating as a Machiavellian rule driven process. The point of TFA and this comment is that we can understand perfectly normal and beautiful and organic human messiness in interpersonal relationships with game like analogies. That's the point of the term Game Theory. In Game theory, one does not necessarily consciously act as though playing a game, it just so happens that their organic choices are often understood using game analogies. That's why the field is valuable. It wouldn't be a valuable model if everyone could wake up tomorrow and opt out.