Merits of good and/or great gaming people

Looked around for some usseful stuff to post and reflect on in the matter of things RP related. I came across this item when reading it off from another blog. I backtracked it back to the actual forum item where it came from. Its located here.

Now, technically speaking, this is about good/great groups, not good/great players. But really, it all comes down to the players (if one counts the GM as a specialized player), so this got me thinking about the differences between good players and great players... Those bits of extra effort great players put into gaming that contribute to the overall experience.

Then I thought that listing some of the differences between the two could be a fun mental exercise. So that's what I'm doing here.

Note that this isn't about bad players; those are easy to spot, and there are all kinds of articles delineating the differences between bad and good players. Nor is this really about GMs, since there's likewise plenty of articles/threads enumerating the different species of GM that roam the world of gaming. I'm specifically looking at good vs. great players.

In addition to the above, this is what I've come up with so far, after about 30 minutes of off-and-on musing:

A good player will think about what his character would do before he acts.

A great player will think ways to make his character realistically take actions that benefit the game.

A good player will seek out opportunities to get his character involved in things.

A great player will seek out opportunities to have his character help others get involved.

A good player will avoid doing things that makes the GM's job more difficult.

A great player will look for ways to make the GM's job easier.

A good player will make an effort to learn the rules.

A great player will remember that the rules must sometimes be broken for purposes of flavour or story.

A good player will seek out ways to build his character's story.

A great player will know when to let his character’s story end.

A good player understands that winning means having fun.

A great player understands that winning doesn’t mean much unless everybody wins.

The above mentioned list pretty proves some things which players should aspire or improve as time progresses from lessons learned in the many campaigns and game systems experienced. I know that enough from experience. Feel free to ponder on these things. I'll have more stuff to put on here when I have time. Ciao.