The title of The Player Of Games has a clever double-meaning. The obvious interpretation is that it refers to the protagonist Gurgeh, and indeed, the title is a translation of a sobriquet he uses as one of his names. However, it can also be interpreted as referring to The Culture/Special Circumstances. They cleverly set things up so that they could use Gurgeh as a pawn in their "game" to take down the Empire of Azad. This kind of double-meaning is echoed in Use of Weapons, which refers both to the Heroic Sociopath protagonist's ruthless military genius, but also to how the Culture uses him as a weapon to accomplish less than ethical plans.- Jordan.
