What A Game Is

'Play' and 'game'. In English there is some difference between the two words although some variants of the same word. Play is a wide activity, only part of which is made up of games. Games can be seen as containing Play. It is a crucial component but a 'subset' of games.

Game History (David Partlett)

There are Formal and Informal games. Formal games have two components: Ends and Means.

Ends is the Objective. Means is the Rules.

John Huizinga

Play as:
-Outside Ordinary life.

-Not serious.

-Utterly absorbing.

-Not associated with material gain.

-Creates social groups that separates themselves from the outside world.

Roger Cailois

Play as:

-Free - Not obligatory.

-Separate - Limits of own time and space.

-Uncertain - Course or not determined by the player.

-Make-Believe - Accompanied by awareness of second reality.

-Unproductive - Creates neither goods or wealth.

-Governed by rules - Conventions that suspend ordinary law.

Bernard Suits

-Activity

-Voluntary

-Specific state of affairs

-Rules

-Inefficiency - The Lusory Attitude.

-Acceptance of rules.

The Lusory Attitude

A psychological attitude required of a player entering into a play of a game. To adopt a lusory attitude is to accept the arbitrary rules of a game in order to facilitate the resulting experience of play

Chris Crawford

-Representation - Closed formal system that represents subset of reality.

-Interaction - Cause and effect. Allows the audience to generate causes and observe effects.

-Conflict - Arises naturally from interaction. Pursuit of goal creates obstacles to stop easy achievement.

-Safety -Conflict implies danger. Provides psychological conflict whilst excluding physical realisations.

Greg Costikyan

-Art - Games as culture.

-Decision making players - Game requires active participation.

-Resource management - Player decisions hinge on manipulating resources.

-Game tokens - The means by which the players enact their decisions.

-Goals - A game has an objective.

Elliot Avedon & Brian Sutton

-Exercise of control systems - Games require some form of physical or intellectual activity.

- Voluntary - Freely entered.

- Contest between powers -Embodies conflict.

K.Salen & E. Zimmerman

-System - Formal, Experiential or cultural

-Players - Something one or more participants play.

-Artificial - Maintain a boundary from "Real-life".

-Conflict - Contest of powers

-Rules - Crucial part.

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[1] Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2005), 147.

[2] ibid