1. Not the game. The game may be unfair, but it is unfair for everybody. it is not the fault of the game that humans are infinitely fallible creatures who will seek to take advantage of its loopholes at every opportunity. Every person has a choice whether to engage in ethical behavior or not. One can take the easy way out, but there are no free passes for doing so.

2. If certain people have advantages, it still does not give them the right to abuse them. As a society, we have responsibilities to each other, to lift each other up rather than tear each other down. At heart, we are all capable of good, but too often we choose to see things in a zero-sum, win-lose dichotomy where the only thing that matters is getting ahead, and blaming the system is a convenient out. Using the system as an excuse is like saying the system allows us to buy guns, therefore you can’t be held responsible for murdering someone.

3. Your anger at a certain person for cheating or otherwise engaging in unscrupulous or immoral behavior is totally justified. Do not take it lying down, and don’t let them make excuses, you are worth far more than that.

4. Inversion of the popular idiom “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”.
People always tell me to hate the game, but the game didn’t wrong me, the game didn’t force people to do anything but exercise their own ethical judgement. Therefore, I reserve my right to hate the player.
by Alex-2598 February 26, 2021
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Don't blame the person for finding out a way to beat the system , blame the system for being beatable
Person 1: WAIT, WHAT!? HE'S NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT! IT'S NOT FAIR!
Person 2:Well it doesn't say you can't do that.
Person 1:But it's not fair
Person 2: Don't hate the player, hate the game
by 6Nice. October 3, 2020
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Another way of saying don't blame me; this is how the system works.
Don't hate the player hate the game ... Or society made me do it, or the system is flawed and I've figured out how to work it, or everyone else is cheating too, or I hope I don't go to prison.
by halmonkey May 2, 2013
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Ex 1:
If the game is forced on the individuals required to "play" it... Such as war or an area in conflict etc. Using tactics to win or survive may not always be fair or morally right. In this instance, hating the player is useless and the quotes logic seems to ring true. This also covers situations where the rules say you can do certain things, the rules are followed and the other players just don't like that you are able or competent at taking advantage of and succeeding at the game.
However...
Ex 2:
If the game is not forced, there is no situation requiring life threatening survival choices or there was not agreement to start a game with certain parameters .. This saying is used to absolve someone of the act of wrong doing to another by convincing either or both the perpetrator and victim that there was no other choice. Fairness, rules , laws and social norms seem to get lumped into this version of the definition and it's implied that the victim is wrong for holding the perpetrator responsible for their actions. More specifically, calling life a game and using this quote to avoid responsibility for being unfair, deceitful or cheating on purpose and existing outside laws, rules and social norms.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Ex 1:
We were at war, I did what I had to do. Don't hate me, hate that our country had to go to war.

Ex 2:
We work in an office with no cameras and loose rules on handling theft. Don't hold me responsible for stealing your things, hate the office for letting me get away with it.
by Autolysis May 7, 2015
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Something a cunt says to justify cunty behavior.
John: "I fucked your girl."
Dill: "What the Fuck?"
John: "Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game."
by Santa's Brother January 21, 2018
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If someone (the player) is good at something (the game), don't hate them for it, hate the thing they are good at, because you arent good at or even in the game.

The word player used in this sentence can be confused with the sexual definition of a player.
Person beaten in basketball: "get the fuck out of here with that bullshit"

Winner: "don't hate the player hate the game"
by The Mother Fuckin' King November 2, 2016
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Originating from lyrics in Ice-T's song "Don't Hate the Playa", it was taken as a motto by the Pick-Up/Seduction community as a way of saying "don't hate the guy who's using seduction technics, hate the system that made him do it".

It is both a justification and critic of the men-women social (and some would say biological) dynamics, that entices men (and sometimes women) learning and using highly elaborate methods, sometimes seen as manipulation or social engineering technics, for the main purpose of seducing a women (or man).

It is often justified as a mean to one's end by the argument that "women are wired either biologically or socially such a way that, you HAVE to follow or use particular steps or methods, either naturally or by learning them, in order to seduce a women". Some people going further argument that "women have no choice in the way their brain and emotion are biologically wired, meaning they have no choice in the way they respond to men and seduction, so men have sometimes no choice but to apply these seductions methods of which the practice is called The Game".
- "Man you really played hard to get with this girl"
- "Well don't hate the player, hate the game"
by Augure July 20, 2015
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