Lisbeth writes of games as spectator sports, and links to this article in BBC News Online. similar mechanisms even existed in the MUD I used to play: Dragon Realms. They had an OOC battle-command, where you could show off/test the strength of your character and your own skill against other players, without influencing the role-play. The results of the battle were announced to all the players in the game, and the characters were restored and returned to the game without having taken any loss in XP or having years added to their lives from the damage they took in this OOC battle. In a way it was a game inside the game.