From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishplay the gameplay the gamea) to do things in the way you are expected to do them or in a way that is usual in a particular situation If you want a promotion, you’ve got to play the game. b) FAIR British English to behave in a fair and honest way → play
Examples from the Corpus
play the game• Diillon won't get promoted if he's not willing to play the game.• Last year three hundred and sixty pupils were injured from three thousand schools who regularly play the game.• Most manufacturers have played the game.• Until that point we were really just playing the game.• We assume to start with that the weighted patterns provide a rough guide to playing the game.• He thought he was playing the game again.• Just like playing the game itself, it seems.• I know how to play the game myself.• While online, the user could play the game, which would be stored in short-term memory. 