What Is a Game?

A game can be a competitive activity requiring skill or chance on the part of two or more people playing according to rules, an activity in which participation is voluntary and elicits a positive emotional response from the players, an activity that provides an escape from the quotidian, or even simply something that makes you laugh. In addition, games may be classified by the materials required for play or the style of play (e.g., marbles, chess pieces, Monopoly tokens, or jacks and checkers).

These definitions are often used by scholars who want to create an accessible, useful definition that can be widely accepted. However, they tend to be flawed because they rarely take into consideration what previous work has defined as a game. They also fail to consider what is unique about a specific game and how that game can be distinguished from other activities, entertainment, or creative expression.

Regardless of the definition that is ultimately chosen, one thing that all scholars agree on is that games are an important social phenomenon that require study. They need to be defined in order to understand how they function and what the potential of a game is for future application and innovation.

This is particularly true of video games, where a successful title can be a game changer and a failure to make an impact can spell the end for an entire studio. This is why it’s so important for developers to have a firm grasp on what defines a game so they can develop something that will be successful in the long run.

One of the reasons it’s so hard to define what a video game is is that there are so many different types of games out there. Each of these games has its own special appeal factors that make it unique from other titles and attracts different audiences. However, defining these appeal factors can be difficult, especially for new studios and students developing their first game.

It is not unusual for a new developer to try and define what a game is by examining the successes of other titles in the industry. This can be a fool’s errand because there are so many variables that affect whether a game will be successful, including the level of success enjoyed by the competition, the marketing campaign behind the release, and the ability to translate player feedback into features in the final product. Trying to base a definition on these factors alone is likely to lead to confusion and disagreement about what exactly makes a game a game.