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.

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.

What is a Game? Part One: People are Games

Many people believe that before discussion about games begins, you need to have a definition of what a game is. While I agree that it is important to have a solid foundation before progressing, and it is vital that there is an understanding of what is being discussed, I disagree on the need for a definition.