Games and Activities

Be for this week I would have never given a second thought when asked the question, is this a game? For instance if I had been shown Endora’s Dream I would have surely answered yes, this is a game. However, after this week my answer has changed, now I would answer, no. After this week I have concluded that a game is a voluntary activity governed by rules in which the player must make important decisions to complete a certain objective or objectives. This objective does not have to be finite, for instance the objective could be to keep to ball in the air for as long as possible. This is not a goal that can truly be achieved, but it is an objective none the less

Games are, however, not disjointed from reality like Huizinga and Caillois’s definitions suggest. In Football, for example, if a player is injured it will have repercussions out side the game. However to claim that it is not a game is preposterous. To do this would be limiting games only to the virtual realm, and excluding many activities, like cards and sports, entirely.

However, there is a question more important than “what is a game?” Although all the readings throughout the week thoroughly define games and their boundaries they all fail to answer the simple follow up question. If this is not a game, then what is it?

I will use Endora’s dream as an example, as it seems least like a game out of the 6 we were assigned to play. Parlett would say it’s not a game because it has no end, and barely any means because of it. Crawford would denounce it for the total lack of conflict. Even Costikyan (who’s definition I found to be kind of vague) wouldn’t call it a game as it has no resources or important decisions.

So, then what is Endora’s Dream. It’s clearly not an educational tool or training program. Maybe it’s probably not an art program. It could be a simulation, but if that’s the case then what is it simulating? Weird plastic surgery? No, Endora’s Dream is activity. An activity is basically anything that is not a game, but could become one. I’ll use one of Kim’s examples, doing the dishes.

By its self doing the dishes is nothing it’s just a random activity that one may or may not enjoy. However, if one were to set an objective like, get all the dishes clean and put away in less than 7 minutes. Now this activity has rules; all dishes must be clean, it has decisions; what should I wash first, and it has an objective; done in 7 minutes. Thus doing the dishes has suddenly become a game. This can be done in reverse as well; if the player simply decides to ignore the objective then it is no longer a game.

So in the end a game is whatever the player wants it to be. It could be a preconstructed world where the rules and objectives are all preset, or it could be a simple activity like doing the dishes to which some one has applied rules and objectives. It could even be a preconstructed game in which the player simply creates their own objective. Thus when asked if Endora’s Dream is a game my answer would really be, it can be if you want it to.