For TRON to be enjoyable -- both the old and the new film -- a certain suspension of disbelief must be necessary.

Games in the old film never made sense at all because none of the arcade games in 1982 were networked the way our XBOXs and other home gaming devices can be networked now. The light bike scene with Sark defeating the hapless blue program in the beginning of the original film being a good example. How does Sark go from defeating that program on one of Flynn's own arcade games, to suddenly being back in the ENCOM environment chatting with the MCP?

As to how or why the games are necessary for Clu's world, who knows? They literally seem like gladiatorial contests for the amusement of Clu -- as Caesar -- and the other programs -- as citizens of Digital Rome. It seemed to me that many or even most of the programs in TL had become jaded and/or angry with users, and that perhaps this overall cynicism had slowly led them to enjoy bloodsport like the disc wars.

In the original film, disc fighting, light bike battles, and so forth, were all done without big audiences, so they seemed to serve even less of an explainable function.

Somehow none of this has ever bothered me much, on an emotional-response level. Both movies so thoroughly entertain me and hit all my fun cookies, I simply don't care.

(grin)

The inference is that the games serve the same purpose as in the first, to eradicate unwanted programs. I think this is what's going on when they are sizing up the programs transported on the recognizer. The rest get repurposed. The only difference is that Clu has let the citizens enjoy the fun much like in Ancient Rome, possibly because the people have become so jaded that they actually take pleasure in it.abortion pills online http://www.kvicksundscupen.se/template/default.aspx?abortion-questions cytotec abortion

Yeah, the impression I always got from Tron 1 is that the games helped the MCP determine if the program's software/programming was strong enough to keep around.

Sark complains "tired of these accounting creampuffs you keep sending me" in the context of being sent some military programs when his says "Nice".. Then later we see some programs are being added to the MCP. To become part of his overall programming.

In Legacy we get the impression that no one is getting through the disc wars because Tron is unbeatable. Makes you wonder if some of the disc wars don't end with program vs rinzler.

Also, in the lightcycle sequence it seems rather common place for programs to lose.

The black guard seem really powerful.

Yet, are the black guard the result of "rectifier"?

Were these programs once gladiators in the games that won and are now turned red?

At first I though the "rectifier....games" sequence, where we see the sentry making a decision about loose software, was saying that "rectify" was weak software that needed repurposing and that strong software were sent to the "games" to be tested against the best warriors to become the black guard.

Upon a second viewing I thought maybe this could be the opposite.... "rectify" was the strong software and "games" was the weak software that was being sent to play to get derezzed..

Either way... both explanations work for me. It is fun deliberating the possibilities though.

After the second viewing, I agree with your second take: the weak or not usable programs go to Games, the useful or otherwise valuable programs were designated as Rectify. Presumably all of the programs collected in the cache bins on the solar sailer at the end of the movie were designated as RECTIFY prior to transport.

GAMES seemed like a fate almost worse than death, hence the one program's gibbering fear and eventual suicide.

I noted that the light bike programs racing alongside Sam had virtually no hope of winning. "We got no chance, User!"

Just like in Roman times in the Colosseum.

Roman:
If someone from another country it was at war with or a criminal was captured, they could either join their army or be put in the Gladiatorial Games. The games were a form of entertainment and execution.

Tron:
If a rouge program (or in the original, a "Religious Nut" {{taken from the guard toward the beginning}}) were put in the games. In TL, they could be rectified if they would be useful. And the programs in the crowd (and CLU) found the games pretty entertaining.