[1] A review of the book summarizes Carse's argument: "There are at least two kinds of games: finite and infinite.

Finite games are those instrumental activities - from sports to politics to wars - in which the participants obey rules, recognize boundaries and announce winners and losers.

Finite games are theatrical, necessitating an audience; infinite ones are dramatic, involving participants...".

He describes human pursuits as either dramatic (enacted in the present) or theatrical (performed according to a script of some kind).

[7][8] Theology professor John F. Haught, writing in The Washington Times magazine noted the connection between Carse's book and the works of Søren Kierkegaard, Henri Bergson, René Descartes.