I was having a conversation at a store championship concerning various play vs. put into play scenarios. After reading the rulbook again today p27 and 13 I have to disagree with what they were saying. Which was that there is a difference, the only difference I see after reading the rules of it is that one is free and one you have to pay the cost.

The Investigation

Reaction: after this objective is revealed, name a card. While the objective is undamaged, your opponent cannot play a card with that title.

They say the Falcon and Yoda, you seek Yoda would get around this. I saw it yesterday, I'm not seeing it today with the rules in front of me. But if I am correct that would make it stop objectives...

Which also makes me ask about this interaction.

Mercenary Support

Action: focus this objective to put a bounty hunter or mercenary unit into play from your hand, under a friendly players control. If that unit is still in play at the end of the phase, discard it.

Bossk

Reaction: after you play this unit from your hand, focus it with two focus tokens to capture a target exhausted enemy character unit. Then, if that unit was a wookie, draw two cards.

This one has always seemed fine to me but under what they said it wouldn't work.

I don't think I'll tackle this subject right now as I am at work and don't want to accidentally give you the wrong answer. I'm sure someone will answer it soon enough. Either way I'll check back when I'm home.

Ok, after much searching I have found a random copy of an email from Nate French. It only says that they are different even though the rulebook is very ambiguous about it.

Nate, if you read these, perhaps something in the FAQ would be nice rather than an email you sent to one person that was reposted on a random unofficial forum. Because honestly the rules only say the difference is one is free and the other isn't.

There is an additional difference beyond just the cost: if you play a card you have played the card while if you just put a card into play you have not played the card. For the specifics:

The Investigation - Specifically prohibits playing the card. Other ways of the card entering play (ie Put Into Play) are not affected. Thus if you name "Yoda," then your opponent would not be able to Play Yoda, but could still put Yoda into play via some other means such as the Falcon or Yoda, You Seek Yoda.

Mercenary Support w/ Bossk - Bossk's Reaction is specifically to being Played. Thus, if Bossk is put into play in some other way (including via Mercenary Support) you cannot use his Reaction.

Counter example:

Backstabber has a Reaction to entering play during an engagement. Thus his Reaction does not care how he came to be in play, just that he moved from an out of play location (hand, deck, discard pile) to in play. The obvious way to get the Reaction to trigger is using the Action on Backstabber to play him during an engagement. However, you could also use the Action from Escort Carrier (Action: Focus this unit to put a Fighter unit or a Precision Flying enhancement into play from your hand or discard pile.) to put Backstabber into play from your hand or discard pile, which would not have him enter already participating in the engagement (because that's not what Escort Carrier does) but would still be entering play during an engagement and thus still be able to trigger Backstabber's Reaction.

A few more details to help out:

Definition of Play from the rulebook (pg 13):

Play describes an action where a player pays the resource
cost of a card in hand and transfers it into play (for a unit
card or an enhancement card) or resolves its effects and
then discards it (for an event card). (See “In Play and Out of
Play” on page 27).]

Definition of Put Into Play (pg 27):

Put Into Play
A card that is “put into play” is placed in the play area
designated by the card text at no resource cost and
ignoring any play limitations.

The referenced "In Play and Out of Play" text on pg 27:

In Play and Out of Play
A player’s unit cards, enhancement cards, and the current
objective cards in his play area are considered “in play.”
“Out of play” refers to the cards in a player’s hand, his
facedown decks, his discard pile, his edge stack, his
victory pile, and any cards that are captured.
Card effects only interact with, and can only target,
cards that are in play, unless the effect text specifically
refers to an out-of-play card or area.
A player’s affiliation card is always considered in play,
and cannot be removed from play by any card effect.
A card “enters play” when it moves from its “out of play”
origin to a player’s play area. For example, a card enters
play when it is played from a player’s hand, put into play
from his objective deck, or is placed in a player’s play area
by some card effect.
A card that “leaves play” moves from a player’s play area
to the “out of play” destination indicated by card or rules
text. “Remove” and “Discard” are common terms that
indicate a card must leave play.

So any time a card moves from an out of play area to an in play area it has entered play. There are several different ways to do this in game, which are distinct from each other by virtue of being different things. Different ways for a card to enter play include: playing, putting into play, some other card effect directly placing the card into a play area from an out of play area. All of these count as entering play, but only count as whichever subcategory they are. For instance, put into play counts as entering play but does not count as being played.

Similarly, any time a card moves from an in play area to an out of play area it has left play. There are several different ways to do this in game, which are distinct from each other by virtue of being different things. Different ways for a card to leave play include: destroying, discarding, sacrificing, returning to hand, etc. All of these count as leaving play, but only count as whichever subcategory they are. For instance, sacrificing counts as leaving play but does not count as being destroyed.

I more or less understand the ruling now but I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to gather that without being shown. Then on top of it you have to make sure the person telling you is right. Quite honestly these emails need to be in the FAQ or there needs to be an official rules forum.

This really doesn't need the email included in the FAQ as the entirety of the reasoning is in the core rulebook.

Perhaps we should approach it from a different direction, what makes you think/feel that the rules are ambiguous on a card being put into play counting as playing the card?

They have a section in the FAQ that says a three damage token doesn't count as one token. This is a bit more confusing seeing it looks (to me) like the only reason there is a difference is to show that you don't have to pay full price for a card after paying the cost of the action to put it into play. Are you honestly telling me you never assumed the same thing?

They have a section in the FAQ that says a three damage token doesn't count as one token. This is a bit more confusing seeing it looks (to me) like the only reason there is a difference is to show that you don't have to pay full price for a card after paying the cost of the action to put it into play. Are you honestly telling me you never assumed the same thing?

Yes, I honestly never thought that putting something into play counted as playing it. I don't really see the connection to the section about the 3-damage token though (which was added because there's a card that allows the removal of 1 token, but was designed before they decided to print the 3-damage token).

If we look back at the definition of playing a card on page 13 (Play describes an action where a player pays the resource cost of a card in hand and transfers it into play (for a unit card or an enhancement card) or resolves its effects and then discards it (for an event card).), we can see that putting a card into play does not meet this definition. Thus, putting a card into play is not the same as playing a card.

Both result in the card entering play, true. And one of the main differences is that the card's cost has to be payed to play the card but not to put it into play (but not the only difference). They are similar, but distinct game effects.

(edited for formatting)