But when you get down to the personal scale—where it matters from a practical, rather than academic, point of view—there's a world of difference. In terms of dynamics, the threats are the same: the cops, the corps, the competition. In personal terms they wear different and unfamiliar faces. In the shadows sometimes the only way to win the game—whatever it happens to be at the moment—is to cheat. That's much harder when you don't know all the rules, and when to bend or break them.