At first, the Giant's game is an unwinnable game designed to teach the recruits how to think through different scenarios, even if the endgame is always failure. However, as Ender's Game goes on, it becomes obvious that some outside force is manipulating the game specifically for Ender's benefit. Events that were never programmed occur in reaction to Ender's unconventional play style, and he finally discovers that the Buggers were inside the computer system, telepathically changing the rules of the game. After he destroys their homeworld, killing all the living Buggers, he finds a real-life representation of the dead Giant on one of their colony worlds, and realizes that they manipulated the game to lead him to their last surviving Queen egg. In the end, the Giant's game represents both the human will, the push to survive at all costs, and the sympathy of an alien race that knew it was doomed to die and so set up a possible resurrection.