Game - Wikipedia Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 Definitions Toggle Definitions subsection 1.1 Ludwig Wittgenstein 1.2 Bernard Suits 1.3 Roger Caillois 1.4 Other definitions 2 History 3 Gameplay elements and classification Toggle Gameplay elements and classification subsection 3.1 Tools 3.2 Rules and aims 3.3 Skill, strategy, and chance 4 Types Toggle Types subsection 4.1 Sports 4.2 Tabletop games 4.2.1 Board games 4.2.2 Card games 4.2.3 Dice games 4.3 Video games 4.4 Role-playing games 5 Games and society Toggle Games and society subsection 5.1 Psychology of play 5.2 Games as education 5.3 Game theory 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading Toggle the table of contents Game 156 languages Afrikaans Alemannisch አማርኛ Aragonés العربية مصرى অসমীয়া Asturianu Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Башҡортса Žemaitėška Bikol Central Беларуская (тарашкевіца) Беларуская Betawi Български भोजपुरी বাংলা བོད་ཡིག Brezhoneg Bosanski Català Нохчийн ᏣᎳᎩ کوردی Corsu Čeština Чӑвашла Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Esperanto Español Eesti Euskara Estremeñu فارسی Suomi Võro Føroyskt Français Arpetan Furlan Frysk Gaeilge 贛語 Kriyòl gwiyannen Gàidhlig Galego Avañe'ẽ Wayuunaiki Gaelg Hausa עברית हिन्दी Fiji Hindi Hrvatski Hornjoserbsce Magyar Հայերեն Interlingua Bahasa Indonesia Ido Íslenska Medžuslovjansky 日本語 Patois Jawa ქართული Qaraqalpaqsha Tyap Қазақша ಕನ್ನಡ 한국어 Къарачай-малкъар Kurdî Кыргызча Latina Ladino Lingua Franca Nova Limburgs Lombard Lingála ລາວ Lietuvių Latviešu Basa Banyumasan Malagasy Македонски മലയാളം Монгол मराठी Bahasa Melayu Mirandés Plattdüütsch Nederlands Norsk nynorsk Norsk bokmål Nouormand Occitan Livvinkarjala ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Picard Polski Piemontèis پنجابی پښتو Português Runa Simi Rumantsch Română Русский Русиньскый संस्कृतम् Саха тыла Sicilianu Scots سنڌي Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски සිංහල Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Shqip Српски / srpski Seeltersk Sunda Svenska Kiswahili தமிழ் తెలుగు Тоҷикӣ ไทย Tagalog Tolışi Türkçe Xitsonga Татарча / tatarça Українська اردو Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча Vèneto Vepsän kel’ Tiếng Việt Walon Winaray 吴语 მარგალური ייִדיש 文言 閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gí 粵語 中文 IsiZulu Edit links Article Talk English Read View source View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read View source View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Switch to legacy parser Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Abstract Wikipedia Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wikiquote Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Structured form of play For other uses, see Game (disambiguation). Ancient Egyptian senet game board inscribed for Amenhotep III with separate sliding drawer. Created between 1390 and 1353 BC; made of glazed faience, dimensions: 5.5 × 7.7 × 21 cm. Held in the Brooklyn Museum, (New York City). A game is an activity defined by a challenge and a set of rules,[1] typically done for enjoyment, competition, or development. Games may be played informally or in professional competitive settings before audiences. Popular formats include board games, card games, video games, and sports, distinguished from unstructured play by having rules.[2] Scholars have long debated the essence of games, with no single definition achieving universal acceptance.[3] Games are a universal feature of human culture. The Royal Game of Ur and Senet are among the oldest known games, dating back to at least 2600 BCE.[4] Throughout history, games have served as tools for entertainment, teaching, ritual, and socialization.[5] In the modern era, the global video game industry has grown to surpass both film and music in annual revenue, reflecting how central games have become to contemporary life.[6] Philosophically, games have attracted attention as a test case for the nature of rules and meaning.[7] Psychologists link play to cognitive development in children and to the intense, satisfying concentration called flow in adults.[8] Game theory uses the structure of games to model decision making in fields such as economics and evolutionary biology.[9] Definitions Look up game in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein is well known in the history of philosophy for having addressed the definition of the word game. In his Philosophical Investigations,[10] Wittgenstein argued that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. From this, Wittgenstein concluded that people apply the term game to a range of disparate human activities that bear to one another only what one might call family resemblances. Bernard Suits Bernard Suits offers this definition of games in Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia (1978). "To play a game is to engage in activity directed towards bringing about a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by rules, where the rules prohibit more efficient in favour of less efficient means, and where such rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity." He calls players' state of mind lusory attitude, accepting unnecessary obstacles in order to play.[11] Roger Caillois French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men)(1961),[12] defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics: fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character separate: it is circumscribed in time and place uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable non-productive: participation does not accomplish anything useful governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality Other definitions "A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal." (Greg Costikyan)[13] According to this definition, some "games" that do not involve choices, such as Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and War are not technically games any more than a slot machine is. "A game is a form of play with goals and structure." (Kevin J. Maroney)[14] "A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome." (Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman)[15] "A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context." (Clark C. Abt)[16] "At its most elementary level then we can define game as an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is an opposition between forces, confined by a procedure and rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome." (Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith)[17] "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." (Jane McGonigal)[18] History Royal Game of Ur The history of games goes back millennia. The Royal Game of Ur, from ancient Mesopotamia in roughly 2600 BCE, is among the oldest known board games.[4] A cuneiform tablet from the 2nd century BCE contained its rules, representing the earliest recorded game design.[19] Senet, a board game played in ancient Egypt, was important enough to be portrayed in tomb artwork with fragments of the board found from approximately 3100 BCE.[20] A game board inscribed for Amenhotep III (c. 1390 – c. 1353 BCE) survives intact.[21] Both were race games and precursors to backgammon. Senet had religious significance with the board representing the pathway through the netherworld.[22] A game of Go in progress In East Asia, the board game Go has written accounts as early as the Spring and Autumn period.[23] Go's strategic complexity resisted computation until deep learning advances in AlphaGo.[24] Other ancient games include mancala, a count-and-capture game with Neolithic versions found in Jordan from approximately 6900 BCE.[25] Chess traces back to the Gupta Empire of India around the 6th century CE[26] with chaturanga a likely ancestor.[27] It spread through Persia as chatrang,[28] and entered Europe via the Moorish Spain,[29] approaching its modern form by the 15th century.[30] Playing cards may date to Tang dynasty China (618–907 CE),[31] reaching Europe via the Mamluk Sultanate in the 14th century.[32] With mass production, standardized regional decks eventually evolved.[33] Pachisi, played in the Mughal court, served as the basis for Parcheesi and Ludo.[34] The Aztecs in Central America played a race game called patolli.[35] In the 20th century, developments included the rise of mass-market tabletop games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, and Trivial Pursuit[36] and the emergence of video games.[37] Pong, the first commercially successful arcade video game appeared in 1972.[38] In the 21st century, the global video game industry had grown to surpass film and music in annual revenue.[6] Gameplay elements and classification Main articles: Outline of games § Game elements, Game classification, and List of game genres Games can be characterized by "what the player does".[39] This is often referred to as gameplay. Major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules that define the overall context of game. Tools A selection of pieces from different games. From top: Chess pawns, marbles, Monopoly tokens, dominoes, Monopoly hotels, jacks and checkers pieces. Games are often classified by the components required to play them. Common categories include tabletop games (using boards, cards, tokens, dice, or other items),[40] card games (using a standard deck or game-specific cards),[41] dice games, video games (using electronic hardware),[42] and games with no equipment like hide-and-seek.[43] Game tokens are the means used to manage resources and achieve goals. Pieces in a board game, cards in a card game, and characters in a role-playing game are tokens.[44] The ball has been a popular game piece for millennia,[45] resulting in a worldwide popularity of ball games such as rugby, basketball, soccer (football), cricket, tennis, and volleyball. Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region. Playing cards in Europe had decks with suits that varied from country to country before standardization.[46] Other games, such as chess, may be traced primarily through the development and evolution of their game pieces. Rules and aims Game structures include boundaries, rules, goals, and scoring systems.[47] Game rules specify how actions are allowed to work.[48] The rules of a game may be distinguished from its aims.[49][50] For most competitive games, the ultimate aim is winning: in this sense, checkmate is the aim of chess.[51] Common win conditions are being the first to amass a certain quota of points or tokens (as in Settlers of Catan), having the greatest number of tokens at the end of the game (as in Monopoly), or some relationship of one's game tokens to those of one's opponent (as in chess's checkmate). Intermedi…