| This ethnography describes how players at two midwestern gymnasiums use norms to increase their fun without coaches or referees. Therefore, for these players, the problem of order is a practical one. For players to play in competitive games, they must play on equal teams, but if they play equals, then they have a fifty percent chance of losing, and losers enjoy less playing time because winners can play in the next game, while losers must wait until others waiting before them have played before they play again. Thus, players have incentives to play with the best teammates. However, if the best players join one team, they will maximize their chances of playing as long as possible in uncompetitive games. Instead, the players solve their problem of order involving playing time and game quality by creating and manipulating wealth-maximizing norms.;These norms affect how they join, play, and exit games. However, adherence to the norms and the norms themselves vary according to the number of courts and players. As courts grow scarcer and players more numerous, games become less amiable. So, in addition to generalizing about how players use norms, this work also analyzes actual conversations involving norms. |
