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.

A game isn't just play, it is interaction. Reading, or watching TV is observational. Playing is action. A game is more than that. With a game, you're interact with the pieces. Your actions affect other agents (which we'll get to next time). For example, when you're playing with a toy, you can move it around, you can make it act, but it doesn't act back. The toy doesn't give you any information about what you can do, about what options are now available to you. While moving an action figure around does change what your options are (because it is in a different place) unless the system of play can tell you what the new choices and limitations are, you are simply acting, not interacting. When you move your character in a board game, your surroundings change, and what you are able to do changes. Sometimes the game might reward you with an extra action, or a card with an ability. You take an action, and receive an action in turn.

This action may be from another player, or from the game itself, but you don't simply take repeated actions without response. Rules lead to interaction, as they explain what the consequences of particular actions are. While some actions may not have consequences, and some rules might not be strictly about interaction, without that structure of action-reaction, games aren't games, they're just action without consequence- play.

So games aren't separate from other entertainment simply by play. In fact, play doesn't lead to gameness, but the action part of playing is definitely vital to a game, as much as the results of that action.