Growing up my only brother was five years younger than me. I was thinking about this fact earlier today while senselessly orbiting a beacon in Eve Online - and pondering the impact it had early on in our gaming lives. In order to create an environment in which I could play games with my brother, especially board games, I often had to interpret the rules in a way he'd understand. Often I would abandon the written rules altogether and create new, more exciting, and easily understood rules. It wasn't like my brother was an idiot or anything, but he was five years younger than me. When I was ten, he was five.
I haven't previously considered the impact this early creative solution finding has had on my larger gaming life. Even later on when I started playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends, my creative problem solving and rather lose interpretation of the rules tended to make me a popular Dungeon Master. I could read and study the rules as written and pretty much immediately see the flaws, the cracks, and the ways in which they could be made better - or at least "more fun". In the case of DnD this led to a rather large attempt later on in life to create an original fantasy based role playing game with another group of friends. And while that attempt actually turned out great, it never went anywhere for a wide variety of reasons. Sadly. And, because it was created amongst a group, there was nothing I could do about it.
My early years foray into DnD is worthy of another post, but that'll have to wait until another day. The reason I put Axis and Allies up there in the header image is another point I'd like to make. There is nothing wrong with the game, it has lasted a long time and survived the test of time. So full credit. But it was a bit daunting for a 12 and 7 year old to fathom. So I did what I always did, but this time with a twist. I ended up creating a completely new game out of it. I don't remember what I called it, but essentially it was more like command and conquer than it was axis and allies. We played that game a lot and we never once played an actual axis and allies campaign.
As I got older I started running into other people who did not appreciate this approach. Rule followers abound. But I learned that almost every game has a few elements that tend to muck up the works, make things drag, or turn out to be rather counter to the stated purpose of the game itself. This was always frustrating. And it remains so to this day.
I suspect, at the heart of it, this is what ultimately drew me to piracy in Eve Online. And while Eve requires us all to "play within the rules" it in no way expects us to always "follow the rules" - and I have always appreciated that aspect of it.