What is a Game?

What is a Game?

In the second week we learned about what a game is and what makes a game a game. 

what is a game?

A game is something that can be played by either one player or multiple. 

A game has rules and regulations. 

A game can be played either digitally, physically or mentally. 

Games have Objectives that the player aims to complete. 

Games have boundaries whether this is physically like level or conceptual like time or rules. 

Why do people play games? 

People play games for many different reasons depending on the game that they are playing of course. For example, someone could play a brain training game to challenge themselves at memory games and to improve their mental skill. Another example could be someone playing a Racing Game, some people play racing games for the challenge and others play them for the action and satisfactory of winning.

What is a Player?

The player of a game is someone who is actively controlling what happens to their character, for example if i was playing Mario kart and i was playing as Mario i would have control over Mario's car steering him in the correct direction and also trying to hit other players.

A player makes Decisions and are invested in the game unlike NPC's (Non- Player Characters) that are controlled by the computer or games console.  

Ludology & Narratology 

Ludology is the study of games and gaming, especially video games. it focuses on the action and events in a game instead of the narrative, theme or conventions.

Ludology is the study of design of games and how they work. The mechanics, gameplay and how the game is balanced. 

Narratology is the study of game narrative, theme and its conventions. Its the study of the theory behind games and how the audience of a game/film react. Tzvetan Todorov believed that there were 5 main sections to a story:

1. Equilibrium ; at the start of the story there is a calm, a peace with no interruptions.

2. Disruption ; something disrupts the calm and breaks the equilibrium. 

3. Recognition; this is when the realization that a disruption has happened.
4. Solution ; the characters come up with a solution to the problem.
5. New Equilibrium ; peace is restored and a new calm comes about.
These 5 Stages can be rearranged into any order as long as there is a beginning and an end. it does not matter in which order the beginning and end are either.