individualism as a novelty. Soccer and ice hockey have for 
them, therefore, an exotic and Utopian quality of promise that 
they do not convey to the West. This is the quality that we 
tend to call “snob value,” and we  might derive some similar 
“value” from owning race horses, polo ponies, or twelve-metre 
yachts.

     Games, therefore, can provide many varieties of 
satisfaction. Here we are looking at their role as media of 
communication in society as a whole. Thus, poker is a game 
that has often been cited as the expression of all the complex 
attitudes and unspoken values of a competitive society. It calls 
for shrewdness, aggression, trickery, and unflattering 
appraisals of character. It is said women cannot play poker well 
because it stimulates their curiosity, and curiosity is fatal in 
poker. Poker is intensely individualist, allowing no place for