Some GAB with a Dash of PB&J

A couple of weeks back a friend posted on Facebook about Gamers Against Bigotry (GAB). Rather than paraphrasing their mission statement, I have it here for you in glowing technicolor:

As a gamer, I realize I contribute to an incredibly diverse social network of gamers around the world, and that my actions have the ability to impact others. In effort to make a positive impact, and to create a community that is welcoming to all, I pledge to not use bigoted language while gaming, online and otherwise. Bigoted language includes, but is not limited to, slurs based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation and disability.

What is a Game? Part Eight: Putting it all Together

When I started this blog, I thought that I would just toss out what my definition of what a game is in one of my first posts, deny the need to even have a definition and move on to talking about how I make games and showing off my innate design talent. Here I am, about a month later working on Part 8 of my definition.

What is a Game? Part Seven: The End Zone

I feel like I'm getting close to the end of my exploration of what constitutes a game. I know that I'm nowhere near done examining and refining my definition, but I believe that I am getting close to a block of text, that, when holistically analyzed might bear resemblance to the definition and explanation of the components of a game. So far, I've listed four components that I feel are vital to a game: rules, entertainment, interactivity and agents. A game also needs a ending, or a goal.

Designing Frontline - Part One: The Concept

So, I'm not quite done with trying to define game, but I wanted to start on another side project of mine. This side project is a strategy game tentatively titled Frontline. I had started my notes on the game, and realized that if I wanted to share the design process, and my thoughts on the design, I might as well start by making my notes publicly available. It has been my experience in doing something similar before that I don't always explain my choices, and instead just make changes to the rules and structure, without showing my thought process.

What is a Game? Part Six: Agents of Games

Now, my next statement isn't going to be particularly surprising. An important part of any game is players. But more than that, a game needs agents. There is a slight difference between player and agent. Agents don't necessarily need to have sentience. What a player is should be obvious. Agents, on the other hand, are a bit harder to pin down.

What is a Game? Part Five: Doing It

What separates games from other forms of entertainment? To put it simply, you play them. With a book, you read it, with a TV show, or movie, you just watch and listen. While that distinction is obvious, the separation from simple play and a game is slightly harder to nail down.

What is a Game? Part Four: For Recreational Use

In retrospect, I probably should have talked about entertainment and interactivity first, move on to goals and rules, then end with agents and agency. However, I can't go back now and fix it, so I'm stuck with moving on from that beginning.

What is a Game? Part Three: Why Rules?

I'm continuing from my previous post (Define Game) and I'm going to delve a bit deeper into my analysis.

The most repeated part of the definitions I got was rules. A bit more than half of the survey group included somewhere in their definition a need for rules. Now, I'm going to combine "Why rules?" with "What are rules?" because, when talking about one, you begin to talk about the other.

What is a Game? Part Two: Define "Game"

Last time I was here, I philosophized on the nature of games. Since then, I've gone ahead and asked a couple dozen people for their definitions on games. I asked people who are game designers, game journalists, gamers, non-gamers, people who have a dislike for games and everyone in between.