To better understand what constitutes a game, it’s helpful to explore related concepts such as play and pretend. While these concepts are not specific elements of a game, they play a crucial role in shaping our understanding of what makes an activity engaging and enjoyable.
Play
The Oxford English Dictionary defines play as:
- Play: to engage in an activity for enjoyment or amusement.
You might notice that this definition is quite familiar. That is because the Oxford English Dictionary defines a game in a very similar manner
- Game: an activity that provides amusement or fun.
These closely related definitions underscore the similarity between play and games. While both involve activities for enjoyment, there is a key distinction: play refers to engaging in an activity for fun (i.e. enjoyment, amusement), which links to entertainment. In contrast, a game is a structured form of play that includes specific elements like goals, rules, and outcomes. This distinction is important because not all play qualifies as a game. Understanding this difference helps clarify why some activities that are enjoyable and interactive might not meet the criteria to be classified as a game.
Pretend
The concept of pretend is reflected in-game definitions mentioning a subset of reality or artificial conflict, in short, pretend can be defined as:
- Pretend: creating and engaging with a fictional reality through its rules.
Pretending is fundamental to many games, where participants immerse themselves in an imagined world by agreeing to operate within a set of fictional constraints. While pretending itself is not a game element, it complements the structured nature of games by adding a layer of imagination and creativity, enhancing the overall gaming experience.
Types of Play Activities
To fully understand what defines a game, it’s essential to distinguish it from other types of activities such as stories, toys, and puzzles. This exploration helps us identify the fundamental characteristics that set games apart. While these activities share some similarities with games, such as having rules or providing engaging experiences, they each present distinct aspects that differentiate them. Understanding these differences will not only reinforce our definition of games but also illuminate the unique elements that contribute to the richness of the gaming experience.
Chris Crawford, a widely cited game designer and author of Chris Crawford on Game Design and The Art of Computer Game Design, provides valuable insights into these distinctions. Although his books focus primarily on computer game design, Crawford’s comparisons are relevant to all types of games, not just digital ones. By examining how games differ from stories, toys, and puzzles, Crawford helps clarify what makes games unique and offers a broader perspective on game design.
Stories
Crawford describes stories as linear narratives with predetermined outcomes experienced passively. Although Crawford does not explicitly address this, stories also allow for creative expression from both the writer and the reader. The writer crafts the narrative, while the reader uses their imagination to interpret and experience the story. Reader engagement is further developed through passive challenges presented by the experiences of the protagonists, even though there is a fixed and predetermined outcome.
Toys
According to Crawford, toys are designed for creative expression through interaction but do not involve specific goals and have no real outcomes. Unlike games, toys do not present structured challenges; instead, their engagement is purely interactive. For example, playing with building blocks allows children to create various structures, fostering creativity and imaginative play and creativity without a predefined goal or outcome.
Puzzles
Puzzles, as Crawford notes, involve specific challenges that require problem-solving and strategy, engaging players intellectually. Puzzles generally offer a definitive outcome only when solved; if not solved, there is no resolution or progress. This clear-cut resolution contrasts with the ongoing, dynamic interaction found in games, which often includes uncertain outcomes and evolving challenges. The fixed nature of puzzles limits creative expression, as the problem-solving approach is generally uniform and does not evolve. Players receive feedback only upon solving the puzzle, which restricts their ability to explore various strategies and creative solutions. This lack of flexibility underscores how games, with their dynamic nature, provide a richer, more interactive experience.
Games
Crawford identifies the combination of interaction and structured challenges as a defining feature of games. Jacob Habgood and Mark Overmars, in The Game Maker’s Apprentice, build on Crawford’s perspective by defining games as interactive challenges. While this definition emphasizes interaction and structured challenges, it does not fully address the interplay between elements of stories, toys, and puzzles that Crawford highlights. Moreover, it overlooks how games facilitate significant creative expression by allowing players to apply different strategies and explore multiple approaches, which leads to uncertain outcomes.
Effective game design, according to Crawford, integrates aspects of stories, toys, and puzzles to create a more engaging experience. Therefore, games can be seen as comprising interaction, structured challenges, and creativity, which lead to uncertain outcomes. This combination sets games apart from other types of activities and significantly enhances the overall gaming experience.
Creative Interactive Challenges
While stories, toys, and puzzles each offer distinct forms of engagement—stories through passive challenges and creative expression, toys through interactive creativity, and puzzles through structured problem-solving—games uniquely blend these elements. Building on Habgood and Overmars’ concept of “interactive challenges,” a more comprehensive definition of games is creative interactive challenges . This expanded definition not only encompasses the interactive and challenging aspects of games but also acknowledges the significant role of creativity. By integrating creative expression, interaction, and structured challenges, games distinguish themselves from puzzles, stories, and toys, offering a multifaceted and enriched gaming experience.