This claim is contradicted by most commercial board games, almost all video games, and generally all rule-based games that include a fictional element.Ĭheating can be described as willfully breaking the rules of a game. Rather, they are ruled or make-believe." (1961, 8-9). It is unclear to what extent Caillois' categories ultimately include or exclude each other, and some of the general claims made about their possible combination are at odds with most contemporary games: Caillois claims that ". Additionally, Caillois describes games as being placed on a scale from ludus (rule-based) to paidea (free-form). Caillois' classificationĬaillois (1961) posits four categories of games: Agon (contest), alea (chance), ilinx (vertigo), and mimicry (make-believe). See Rouse 2001 chapter 23, Rollings & Adams 2003 chapter 8. In game design, the tweaking of different units, actions, and properties so that they match, as to provide a game with no dominant strategies, insuring interesting choices. Story or fiction that provides a background for a game, rather than being part of the gameplay. Attachment is the prerequisite for the joy of winning and the sadness of losing. The player's experience of emotional attachment to the outcome of a game. This is when the designers are designing a game that’s more fun to observe than to actually live in." (Schubert 2004) "‘Ant-farming’ is when you design with a gods-eye view in mind - it’s when you throw around concepts which are ‘interesting’ or ‘provide fascinating social dynamics’ or ‘would really feel like a virtual world’ - but fail the basic ‘ fun’ test. In Caillois' classification of games, alea refers to games of chance (Caillois 1961). In Caillois' classification of games, agon describes games of contest (Caillois 1961). Games and computers have historically demonstrated an affinity, whereby traditional games have found a new home on computers, and where the computer allows new game forms to appear. In game design, the method of designing a game with a specific player experience in mind. Emergence can be seen as providing experiences that are similar to the ones a designed puzzle can give. The aesthetic index primarily describes the enjoyment of a puzzle. "The aesthetic index of a puzzle, as it may be called, seems to be inversely proportional to the complexity of its solution or to the obviousness of the pattern, trap, or trick it hides." (Danesi 2002, 227.) Many traditional non-electronic games are abstract, but very few video games are abstract. If there is any term that you would like to see listed in the dictionary, please contact me.Īn abstract game has rules, but no fictional world. The sign indicates an issue that is elaborated in Half-Real. The dictionary is not intended to be encyclopedic, but takes its starting point from the issues discussed in the book. A list of works cited can be found at the bottom of the page. With the dictionary, I hope to provide a resource for students, researchers, teachers, and game players looking for terminological clarifications and pointers to further reading. This dictionary of video game theory is a companion to my book, Half-Real.
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