Dallas transformed what was seen as a dangerous game into a routine afternoon.

"You should not see this as a game the president is playing to influence international opinion," he said.

Ivan showed little interest in the money he stole, instead seeing it as a game.

But law-enforcement officials do not see it as a game.

"We have run into people who see it as a game out there."

Oakland, however, saw it as a game of missed opportunities.

The first decades of the berserker war they were forced to see as a game being lost for life.

"Sometimes it's funny, if you see it as indeed a game," she said.