Gamist Philosophy says that the proper way to design and play role-playing games is as a game. That is, the right things to be worrying about are balance, fun, and (for some gamists) ways to win or lose.

One of the last holdouts of gamist philosophy among live-action fans is the MIT Assassins' Guild. The Guild claims to involve itself not in LARPs, but rather in "real-time real-space games."

Gamists tend to look on Simulationists as over-concerned with historical accuracy, and on Dramatists as ignoring the rules in favor of angst and melodrama. White Wolf's Mind's Eye Theatre series gets a particularly bad rap.