Success Quote by Reiner Knizia

Knizia’s line is a quiet manifesto disguised as sportsmanship, and it lands because it comes from a game designer who has spent decades watching players chase victory the way a compass needle chases north. The first clause is almost tautological: of course the goal is to win. That’s the engine. But then he snaps the frame from outcome to orientation: what matters isn’t the trophy, it’s the act of having a trophy to pursue.

The subtext is less “be a good loser” than “respect the design.” A well-made game turns winning into a useful fiction: a clear objective that gives structure to decisions, tension to tradeoffs, and meaning to risk. Remove the goal, and play dissolves into aimless motion. Obsess over the win, and play collapses into optimization, rules-lawyering, or whatever strategy best exploits the system’s seams. Knizia is arguing for a middle stance that protects the magic circle: pursue victory sincerely, but don’t treat the final score as the only real thing.

Context matters here. Knizia’s most celebrated designs are tight, probabilistic, interaction-heavy systems where enjoyment comes from reading opponents, managing uncertainty, and navigating constraints. In that world, “the goal” is a design tool that forces creativity under pressure. Winning is just one person’s receipt. The goal is the reason everyone stayed at the table.