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.

I did not just ask for the definition and walk away. As I could, I discussed the definition so that I could better understand what the respondents were talking about. This allowed me to focus the language used by the respondents to seven terms, which each respondent included in their definition. Because of the discussion and my attempts to understand their thinking process, I did not have to change or warp the definitions to fit these terms.

However one in eight respondents said something along the lines of "Game is nigh impossible to define. There are counter examples to any given definition, and you know one when you see it." While much of my previous post was similar in original concept, I don't particularly like this, because it shies away from our intent. While it may not be possible to cover all games with a single sentence, we can still attempt to identify the common traits of games.

As mentioned above, without prompting, many of the respondents used the same terminology, while others had the same intent with their words. Of the seven terms, four of them were used in about half of the definitions and there was only one where none of the terms were used. By this common consensus, most respondents agree that a game must have at least one of the following: rules, goals, entertainment or interaction, and many respondents think that two or more of those parts are a definitive part of a game.

The other terms, less popular (apparent in about one in five to ten respondents) are success/failure, a test of skill and a narrative.

But this is just a presentation of the data. At some point, when I don't have quite the headache I do now, I'll analyze and comment on the data, rather than just putting it out there. In the meantime, I would love to hear everyone else's definition of game, so that I can continue to try to figure out what a game actually is.