Skilled players always make a point of knowing what they are doing, i.e. they have an objective. They co-operate – particularly at lower-levels or at higher ones when they must face some particularly stiff challenge – in order to gain their ends. Superior players will not fight everything they meet, for they realise that wit is as good a weapon as the sword or the spell. When weakened by wounds, or nearly out of spells and vital equipment, a clever party will seek to leave the dungeons in order to rearm themselves. (He who runs away lives to fight another day.) When faced with a difficult situation, skilled players will not attempt endless variations on the same theme; when they find the method of problem solving fails to work, they begin to devise other solutions. Finally, good players will refrain from pointless arguments and needless harassment of the Dungeon Master when such bog the play of the game down into useless talking. Mistakes are possible, but they are better righted through reason and logic, usually at the finish of play for the day.
AD&D Player’s Handbook (page 8), Gary Gygax