What Is a Game? - How This Question Limits Our Medium - Extra Credits

What makes something a game? Ultimately, the answer is too complex to be used as a neat and tidy, gatekeeping classification between genres or types of players.

Play "Loneliness: here:

Want some book recommendations about Game Design? Check out Brenda Romero's excellent list!

(Original air date: November 26, 2013)
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♪ Intro Music: "Penguin Cap" by CarboHydroM

♪ Outro Music: "Over and Out" by Diggi Dis

[johnroy]

*gets an exam*



*Answers every question with "mu"*

[timothymclean]

It's a shame that English doesn't have a word for "mu". Being able to easily express that concept would make answering impossible questions so much easier.

[Jake_Eyes]

Great. Now every time someone asks me a stupid question, they're also going to ask why I'm imitating a cow.

[indiejacob]

The amount of cats in this video was relatively high. Good job.

[IamSpacedad]

War is a game played with living pieces...kind of disturbing to think about.

Then again, so is sports.

[wakuwakuwaiwai]

if "games" are "whatever you want, " and Extra Credits is a show about "games, " then next week I want an episode about...instant noodles.

[thexinventor]

Watches a video about why we shouldn't try to define games.
Scrolls down to see people trying to define games.

[LudicGamer]

What is a game?
A miserable little pile of secrets.

[PokemonTrainerJames]

Mu is now my smart-ass way to answer everything I don't feel like answering.

[tibschris]

I drew a picture. It requires you to walk over to see it, so there is an element of invovement. Are you saying that nobody has the right to tell me that I didn't make a game?

Definitions are important. Just because a specific definition is hard to pin down doesn't mean you have to abandon it.

[GdR]

I really like a sort of definition of a game from Reality is Broken, by Jane McGonigal
"When you strip away the genre differences and the technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation"

[BraeSouthern]

I seem to follow TB's philosophy, where the definition of a game is important because it informs the consumer of what they are going to get into. Games inherently being interactive experiences that have a losing state, while virtual installations are interactive experiences that allow for a story to be told without the player having to focus on mechanics and such while still being able to interact with the work. It's better for categorizing and preventing of misunderstandings, makes us more informed of what we're getting into. Does that stunt virtual installations? No. Like games, virtual installations should be regarded on their own merits, from artwork to voice acting to narrative. Anyone who uses "that's not a game" as an insult is an idiot because virtual installations such as The Stanley Parable have shown just how valuable this new medium is. It's part of the evolution of art, and lumping this medium with a vaguely similar medium stunts that evolution.

[gixG]

Words have definitions for a reason.  Just because you don't like it, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be used and/or isn't appropriate.  "Game" has a very clear definition.  Minecraft isn't a game by definition but "sandbox" is very appropriate due to its lack of clear goals yet "play" is involved.  Just because something isn't a game, it doesn't mean we can't appreciate it either.  If you want to make a new category, by all means... but "is this a game?" is still a valid question... don't simply avoid it because "ehhh...  it's too vague!"  It isn't!  Pokemon is a game, Tamagotchies aren't.

[PillowTalk]

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet." - William Shakespear

[milesbeler]

The comments section in Extra Credits' videos are terrifying. It's like the normal YouTube battlefield, but now everyone typically knows what the hell they're talking about...

[q]

Trying to ask "What is a game?" is like asking "What is a movie?" or "What is a novel?" It's pretty freaking obvious! Why are you asking stupid questions?

[HeyItzMeDawg]

Being afraid of less traditional experiences is not what motivates people to declare one thing a game and the other not a game.

Clear communication is the motivation.  When I say I played a video game last night, I want that to actually mean a particular thing to people.  And when others say that same thing to me, I want a concrete understanding of what they're talking about that I can rely on to draw conclusions without asking them to constantly clarify and expand on what they mean.

When a study notes that the majority of gamers are female (and buried in the fine print, it says that they're including in the definition of "gamer" those who are only playing phone games for 15 minutes a day at most as long as they do it with some regularity), we don't want someone to read that and then demand more female leads in AAA titles.  They're talking about two different audiences with different motivations.  Do we call someone a runner just because they jog occasionally?  An engineer because they built a bottle rocket in shop class?  A gamer because they fiddle with cartoon birds on their phone a few minutes a day?  There's no reason to do so because it does nothing but confuse the reader or the listener.   There should be different words used for clearly distinct things when the distinction needs (or ought) to be emphasized.

A word that is so broadly applicable as to defy a concrete meaning or definition, or any reasonable bound to its use, is useless for communication and does nothing but confuse and mystify.

The choice the industry is faced with is to either refine the definition of game and come up with a new word for the broader category, or to make the definition of game broad and fill in the details with new words.  I think a game is more than just interactive art, which is why I'd call loneliness an interactive experience and the latest Call of Duty a game.

[SpineShower]

Id say a game is an interactive experience in a safe environment.

I also liked Huizinga's definition of play:
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. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner.

[CautiousJonny]

As soon as I saw the title, I thought, "A miserable little pile of secrets/bugs!"

[Jckfrbn]

What is a game? A miserable question of loneliness. But enough talk… lets play!