While the dérive is sometimes confused with the purposeless amble, the stroll, the questing journey, it is not simply any of these (though each could themselves be contained within the derive).  There are something like rules –guidelines, at least.  The dérive, as laid out by Debord in “Theory of the Dérive” is is game-like in structure – although it is unlike a game in that it rules are not easily stated: “written descriptions can be no more than passwords to this great game”.  One learns to play by playing, it is through this play that one learns the rules of a game that are always changing.