"A game is a series of interesting choices" -Sid Meier
My short breakdown of this definition is that it actually describes the role that the game presents to the player. It leaves out some very important parts to what a game is, such as the context and motivation for making those choices-- what actually makes them interesting. While elegant and concise, his definition may be an oversimplification.
An argument that others have made about this definition is the use of the word choice isolating games to a fairly specific type of game. There may be something to be argued in the semantics of choice, but generally, games are full of all kinds of choices, and the word itself is the broad term that encompasses problems, decisions, calculations, incomparable choices, etc. I actually think this very clever word use, but I do not think it includes all of what a game is or can be.
I am trying to crank out a few posts quickly because I have a HUGE backlog of ideas I want to cover. Hopefully the ideas are still making sense.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Defining Game
I am going to try keeping this simple. With a concept as abstract as
Game, defining can get out of hand quickly with the various ways in
which Game is used. To be simple, I will save refuting others'
definitions for future posts.
The best definition I have come up with is:
A game is rules for the purpose of interactive entertainment.
To unpack this a little, I will explain my word choice. By stating that a game is rules, I am isolating it from Play. Though I have a separate concept of how Play relates to Game than other theorists, I will focus on games requiring enough structure to facilitate coherent rules. "For the purpose of" is to qualify what rules will be used to isolate Game from other rule systems. I have an issue with the implication of this phrase that supposes that the original purpose for the rules was entertainment, but this may exclude some games unintentionally. I will try to revise this definition to better its inclusion. For now, I have to qualify it. Interactive is somewhat straightforward, but it is included to eliminate things such magic, which is based on rules, is for entertainment, but aside from minor audience participation, is not interactive. In the use of the word, interactivity involves direct action of the player. Finally, Entertainment is a term that is understood to be subjective subjective, but I use it because its face value to most people is the meaning I am aiming for.
That is my working definition for what a game is. It may not be the most useful way of determining the fringe cases, as many others have tried to do, but it can eliminate large areas of what is not a game. I feel that terms like Game (large, abstract and subjective) cannot adequately encompass everything that anyone could consider, but I aimed for something useful and identifiable.
More to come on other definitions, sports, objects used in games and more.
The best definition I have come up with is:
A game is rules for the purpose of interactive entertainment.
To unpack this a little, I will explain my word choice. By stating that a game is rules, I am isolating it from Play. Though I have a separate concept of how Play relates to Game than other theorists, I will focus on games requiring enough structure to facilitate coherent rules. "For the purpose of" is to qualify what rules will be used to isolate Game from other rule systems. I have an issue with the implication of this phrase that supposes that the original purpose for the rules was entertainment, but this may exclude some games unintentionally. I will try to revise this definition to better its inclusion. For now, I have to qualify it. Interactive is somewhat straightforward, but it is included to eliminate things such magic, which is based on rules, is for entertainment, but aside from minor audience participation, is not interactive. In the use of the word, interactivity involves direct action of the player. Finally, Entertainment is a term that is understood to be subjective subjective, but I use it because its face value to most people is the meaning I am aiming for.
That is my working definition for what a game is. It may not be the most useful way of determining the fringe cases, as many others have tried to do, but it can eliminate large areas of what is not a game. I feel that terms like Game (large, abstract and subjective) cannot adequately encompass everything that anyone could consider, but I aimed for something useful and identifiable.
More to come on other definitions, sports, objects used in games and more.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Hello. This is Poonshwaa, and I am here to talk about games. Not in the typical style seen at various gaming or sports sites, but here I am going to attempt to talk about games in a highly theoretical way. More specifically I will be talking about rules. Games are something that are everywhere, but we do not have a solid vocabulary with which to describe them. I hope to work towards a useful vocabulary that will work across everything that we call games, including field games, board games, video games, etc.
Posts to come will hopefully be a full analysis of how the rules of Football are structured, how the rules of playing cards and dice are established and utilized in games and a basic structure and definition for games.
Hope this is useful.
Posts to come will hopefully be a full analysis of how the rules of Football are structured, how the rules of playing cards and dice are established and utilized in games and a basic structure and definition for games.
Hope this is useful.
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