Might be a bit of a strange topic, but one that came up recently for me.
Got Civilization 5 a while ago on a sale, started playing a couple of days ago and enjoying the hell out of it.
I got Democracy 3 when it came out as well, that one is pretty nice too.
Now, my approach to these two games is very different. In Civ 5, I try to win and don't care much about the ethical nature of how I do it. Right now, I 'm playing as Venice and am basically doing a Rothschild and financing multiple other nations to wage war against each other while I profit. Previous game I raped them on the seas with Polynesia.
In Democracy 3, though, I really try to implement my own political and religious views into running that country. I tried to make the US an atheist and socialist utopia, got assassinated by nuns 3 years into my presidency. Was pretty bummed about that
So anyway, do you use your views in these kinds of games (grand strategy and political strategy) and sorta reverse roleplay it, or do you just do whatever it takes to win, or a combination of both?