{"id":121,"date":"2021-08-13T20:15:13","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T00:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iterudio.com\/?p=121"},"modified":"2021-08-13T20:15:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T00:15:13","slug":"what-makes-a-game-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"What makes a game a “game”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Movie<\/strong>
“Free Guy” was “cute” and fun. First thought: they are examining a very old question. Maybe at the root of the movie is that the old “unexamined life is not worth living” thing.

Games<\/strong>
ANYWAY – the movie deals with ‘gaming’ in general so the “secondary thought” becomes just what makes something a “game?”<\/p>\n\n\n

Merriam Webster tells me that the word “game” dates back to the 12th century with roots (eventually) in the Old Norse “gamen” which meant “sport, amusement.”<\/p>\n\n\n

So there is that feeling of a “game” being both a “contest\/competition” but also having a sense of “joy\/fun\/entertainment.”<\/p>\n\n\n

It might sound obvious but IDEALLY “games” should be “fun” for all of the people involved. If one side is “having fun” and the other side isn’t – then (arguably) they aren’t “playing a game” but engaging in some other activity.<\/p>\n\n\n

Competition AND Fun<\/strong>
I’ll point out that the #1 reason young athletes stop participating in “sports” (in general) is because they aren’t having “fun.”<\/p>\n\n\n

The same idea probably applies to “games” in general – i.e. if you aren’t having fun, you will probably stop playing. <\/p>\n\n\n

Which is why we see online games constantly releasing “new content” to keep players interested. However, if the game is no longer “fun” participation will dwindle.<\/p>\n\n\n

Maybe a “game” has to be “competitive” and “fun.” There is a lot of wiggle room in calling something “competitive” – e.g. the game has to be “challenging,” as in not too hard but also not too easy.<\/p>\n\n\n

It is a common “game designer” tactic to make the “lower levels” a tutorial on how to play the game. Then as players master those skills, the level of difficulty rises. In essence EVERY game is a “learning experience” – but usually what you are learning is specific to the game.<\/p>\n\n\n

Final Answer<\/strong>
It is PROBABLY accurate to say that “play” is an indicator of intelligence – i.e. the animals that engage in “playful activity” are illustrating the ability to learn and master activities.

With humans the types of games a person plays PROBABLY tells you something about that person. But that sounds like a two drink discussion for another time …<\/p>\n\n\n

SO what makes a “game” a “game”? A combination of competition (remember it is possible to “compete” against yourself), fun, and the potential for “mastery.”<\/p>\n\n\n

If one of those three elements is missing – you are probably engaged in “non game” activity.<\/p>\n\n\n

Also important to point out is that what is “fun and challenging” for one person may be “boring busywork” for someone else. As I mentioned above – the games we choose to play say something about us as individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n

This was something of a plot hole in “Free Guy” – and is what motivated this post. The movie was entertaining – but “playing a game” implies interaction at some level.

ok, no spoilers BUT If all someone does is “observe” then they aren’t “playing.”

Imagine if someone tried to make an “aquarium game” (it has probably been done – I haven’t checked) – for it to be a “game” the player should have to select fish\/occupants of aquarium, buy food, feed the fish. Maybe have the ability to sell fish and earn money to buy more\/different fish, etc. THAT would be a game.<\/p>\n\n\n

BUT if all you do is WATCH the aquarium with zero interaction – well, you aren’t “playing a game” you are WATCHING.<\/p>\n\n\n

Again, the interaction is essential – and probably illustrates why the video game industry is bigger than the movie industry …<\/p>\n\n\n

Sports<\/strong>
“Games” can also mean “athletic competition” – e.g. the “Olympic Games”, the “Pan American Games”, the “Commonwealth Games.”<\/p>\n\n\n

I “cut the cable” a few years back – so it was surprisingly hard to watch much “live” Olympic coverage. HOWEVER it was also very hard to avoid hearing about the Games.<\/p>\n\n\n

To compete at an “Olympic” level the athletes have to put in a large amount of work – no one “accidently” becomes an Olympic athlete. <\/p>\n\n\n

Just for fun I’ll argue that the most successful<\/strong><\/em> competitors still get “joy” out of playing their chosen sport. It may be cliche to say they play “for the love of the game” – but it is true 99% of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n

I have an informed opinion on “youth sports” in general – but that is another post \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n\n\n


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Movie“Free Guy” was “cute” and fun. First thought: they are examining a very old question. Maybe at the root of the movie is that the old “unexamined life is not worth living” thing. GamesANYWAY – the movie deals with ‘gaming’ in general so the “secondary thought” becomes just what makes something a “game?” Merriam Webster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-gaming","category-movies","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}