What's in a Game? From: "Peter Rzechorzek" <tribenet@netspace.net.au> Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2003 06:31:53 +0000 Here is something different. Let's set the tone. "What is a game?" Wittgenstein asked this question. He concludes that the idea of a game cannot be captured in definitional terms, like all "bachelors" can be understood by understanding what it means to be an unmarried male. That is, there are no criteria that cover all and only those activities that we want to call games. Card games are different to Board games, which are different to Computer games, which are different to On-Line games etc. Some of these games have aspects in common, like having an opponent. But Solitaire is a game without an opponent (unless you take a Nietzschean position and say that your main opponent is yourself). Wittgenstein prefers the idea that games relate to each other as the faces of family members relate to each other. I have some features of my father's face, but not all of them, my brother has some different features to both of us, and some in common, and so on. We share some characteristics and not others, but we are all part of the one family. Wittgensten aside it seems to me that central to all games is the idea that you have fun. So here is the question for today. What is "fun"? Some great games have you feeling anxious, tense, angry and jealous all the way through. Is this fun? Must you be laughing, smiling or relaxed to have fun? Is fun simply being engaged with whatever you are doing? I am engaged when I do my Tax Return, and this is clearly not fun, or is it? Time to stop, enough fun for today! Referenced By Up