When one asks 'What is a Computer/video Game?' the answer is simple. By it's very nature it is a game played using a computer with a 'video' (Latin for moving picture) element attacked to it. The 'Computer' implies, there is some sort of a visual component to the fun of the game itself.
At the time of one of our Critical Games Studies classes earlier this year, our lecturer Eddie Duggan, went through with the definitions of Computer games, Play and Games, with us down to their base definitions. He started with diverting our attention to a piece of text by the author Johann Huizinga, who write 'Homo Ludens' ( which was first published in 1938). Homo Ludens, by definition means "Playing Man" is a double entendre on Homo Sapiens, meaning "Knowing Man".
Huizinga says "Play is a free activity standing quite consciously outside ordinary life as being not serious, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly". I will say though, I do agree with this, as it's very easy to surround yourself in a game, not just in the story level of things, but the game play mechanics aspect itself. This has happened to me on many occasions as I you just drown out everything in the background and you forget everything that happened before and all that matters is the game itself.
Moving more in depth, and getting deeper into the thick of things, Salen and Zimmerman (Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, 2004) observe "A game is a system in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, hat results in a quantifiable outcome".
One methods of classifying games is by genre, Newman (Videogames, 2003) cites Howard's and Beren's 2001 typology (Rough Guide to Videogaming, 2001") , this lists seven categories:
- Strategy and Simulation
- Action and Adventure
- Driving and Racing
- Role-Playing
- Sports and Beat Em' Ups
- Platform and Puzzle
- First Person Shooter
On the other hand, genres can become repetitive, they are able to be added to, altered dramatically to produce some new classification, I won't go into the long list as it will take eons... Newman also refers to the terms "Ludus" and "Paidea". Ludus is defined as a game which is constrained more by rules and has a clearer outcome, i.e: Winning. Paidea is defined as a game you player for pleasure, ie: The Sims, Sim City, Sandbox, etc...
Ludus
- Backgammon
- Battleships
- Connect 4
- Drafts
- Chess
Paidea
- EVE: Online
- Everquest
- Grand Theft Auto
- Sims City
- The Sims
What is so interesting about this list is the out come of it, my first thoughts for games that are "Ludus" are all board games, but why is that? If one digs deeper into the classes of a game, one may have encountered such as Ilinx & Mimicry, Agon Alea, that Caillois (2001) adapted from Huizinga.
Ilinx: Style of the moment, Vertigo, Parkour.
Agon: Competitive play, it's in the struggle to win.
Mimicry: Simulation, make believe-believe, role-play
Alea: Randomness/Chance, such as the way Tetris plays out.
Some genres have combined these elements, Newman observed the card game Poker had combined Alea and Agon, as does Tetris. Make of this what you will, when one thinks about the means of a definition of a game and it's play, I think it's possible that this is certainly it.
Markus Montola makes some interesting comments on the idea of games being "outside 'ordinary' life", and the "magic circle" concept: essentially, there is no "magic", gaming is ordinary; and gaming isn’t "separate" from the real world, but is part of it and can have consequences in it. See Montola, _et al_ (2009), _Pervasive Games: Theory and Design_ pp. 7-14.
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