I also think many of those introductions are lacking in coherence.
so many games say "it's not about winning" and then immediately provide extremely clear win/loss parameters for play. Sometimes I think it's because people believe that players are inherently Gamist and have to be appeased in some way. This uneasy waffling or endless qualifying shows up most often in fantasy games whose authors would
like play to be about something else, but just can't quite believe that players would agree.
From the introduction to RuneQuest, second edition (The Chaosium, 1978, 1979, 1980; specific author for this text unknown; game authors are Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James):
The title of the game, RuneQuest, describes its goal. The player creates one or more characters, known as adventurers, and playes them in various scenarios, designed by a Referee. The Adventurer has the use of combat, magic, and other skills, and treasure. The Referee has the use of assorted monsters, traps, and his own wicked imagination to keep the Adventurer from his goal within the rules of the game. A surviving Adventurer gains experience in fighting, magic, and other skills, as well as money to purchase further training.
Now all that's pretty Gamist stuff of a late 1970s vintage, right? Get this, which follows immediately:
The adventurer progresses in this way until he is so proficient that he comes to the attention of the High Priests, sages, and gods. At this point he has the option to join a Rune Cult. Joining such a cult gives him many advantages, not the least of which is aid from the god of the cult.
Acquiring a Rune by joining such a cult is the goal of the game, for only in gathering a Rune may a character take the next step, up into the ranks of Hero, and perhaps Superhero.
All right, that bit about joining cults still seems kind of Gamist, right? About getting more effective and so on? Great ... except that the GM controls the High Priests and sages. Why would he, whose job was
just stated to be to "keep the Adventurer from his goal," have them recognize the Adventurer in the first place? Either they do, and the GM must abandon the stated goal, or they don't, and that whole paragraph becomes gibberish.
Bear in mind as well that "Hero" and "Superhero" are never defined, and indeed never again mentioned anywhere in the rulebook. See what I mean about waffly and uncertain text? Such text is the
default explanation for role-playing, with very few exceptions, until the publication of Vampire in 1991. Even since, though, it's still the standard for fantasy games.
In a game in which the players' have a "job" or task or quest to complete, via the play of their PCs, then it seems that achieving that goal is a win. Not all RPGs are like this, but many are. And it's certainly not unheard of in D&D play!