I’m talking in the context of the “capitalist rules”. If you say the aforementioned sentence, you remove the responsibility of the player by dismissing the fact that the winner makes the rules.
PS: Doesn’t work for every context: if the player aims to change the rules because he doesn’t like them, he might see winning as a way to change them. “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” I guess…
Yeah that’s been the critique since the phrase was popular. That and the fact that they chose to play the game.
No, the phrase saying “Don’t hate the player; hate the game” refers to games that people are embedded in, not games they chose to play.
It automatically assumes people are “embedded” in it, and that it is impossible to not participate. It is not as neutral a saying as you seem to think.