Understanding Games: Fiction, Rules, and Genre -- part of the chronology and history of games in 20th and 21st Century. Part of English 115F: The Worlds of Wordcraft
1. Understanding Games: Fiction, Rules, and Genre
Cursory History of Electronic Gaming in 20th – 21st Centuries
Matthew Jett Hall – worldsofwordcraft.wordpress.com
2. Explore the idea of a “game”
Contemplate games as both fiction and rules
Set forth some basic vocabulary and
categories to assure a common language
during our discourse
Journey through a time line of facts related to
gaming
3. Entertainment?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary
▪ “Amusement,
▪ delight,
▪ fun,
▪ mirth,
▪ Sport”
17 entries exist for the word “game” in the
OED
4. “The main argument
of this book, that
video games are rules
and fiction”
Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and
Fictional Worlds by Jesper Juul
5. “It is a basic paradox of games that while the
rules themselves are generally definite,
unambiguous, and easy to use, the
enjoyment of a game depends on these
easy-to-use rules presenting challenges that
cannot be easily overcome. Playing a game is
an activity of improving skills in order to
overcome these challenges, and playing a
game is therefore fundamentally a learning
experience.” (Juul, p.5)
6. “Fiction plays a different role in different
games and game genres, and while some
players may be thrilled by the fiction of a
game, others may dismiss it as unimportant
decoration of the game rules.” (Juul, p.6)
7. “… two basic ways in which
games are structured and
provide challenges for players:
that of emergence (a number
of simple rules combining to
form interesting variations)
and that of progression
(separate challenges presented
serially).” (p.6)
Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional
Worlds by Jesper Juul
8. “Emergence is the primordial game structure,
where a game is specified as a small number
of rules that combine and yield large
numbers of game variations for which the
players must design strategies to handle.”
(Juul, p.5)
9. “In progression games, the player has to
perform a predefined set of actions in order
to complete the game. One feature of the
progression game is that it yields strong
control to the game designer: since the
designer controls the sequence of events,
progression games are also where we find
most games with storytelling ambitions.”
(Juul, p.5)
10. The next section presents categories
Ask yourself two sets of questions
Set A: Rules or Fiction?
▪ Does the category illustrate games as fiction?
▪ Does the category illustrate games as rules?
Set B: Progression or Emergence?
▪ Does the category illustrate progression?
▪ Does the category illustrate emeregence?
11. Arcade
Adventure
Board
Console
First Person Shooter (FPS)
MMORPG
PC
Real Time Strategy (RTS)
Role Playing
Simulation
Sports
12. “a (mechanical or
electronic) game of a
type orig.
popularized in
amusement
arcades.”
Pac-Man
Pinball
13. “Designating a role-playing or computer game in which the
participant plays a fantasy role in an episodic adventure story.”
(OED)
Zork
Myst
14. Games played on a
physical board where
players take turns.
Chess
Monopoly
15. “an electronic
device (usually
requiring
connection to a
television) on which
computer games
may be loaded and
played. “ (OED)
Dead or Alive
Dance Dance
Revolution
16. “Designating a
computer game in
which the player's
view of the action is
as though through
the eyes of the
protagonist.” (OED)
Doom
Return to Castle
Wolfenstein
17. Massively
Multiplayer On-Line
Role Playing Game
Lord of the Rings On-Line
Dark Age of Camelot
18. Any video game
played on a
personal
computer.
Civilization
King’s Quest
19. Video game that takes
place in real time and
general involves
resource
management,
territory
management, and unit
placement.
Sim City
Age of Empires
20. Players act out the role of
characters. Closely
approximates free form
drama, and generally
involve a group of players
together in a room or
around a table.
Dungeons & Dragons
d20 modern
21. “The technique of imitating
the behaviour of some
situation or process
(whether economic, military,
mechanical, etc.) by means
of a suitably analogous
situation or apparatus, esp.
for the purpose of study or
personnel training.” (OED)
Flight Simulator
M1A1 Tank Simulator
22. Video game that
simulates the play of
traditional sports
FIFA Soccer
Madden
23. Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms
Wikipedia
Video Games: www.mobygames.com
Zork: www.infocomm.com
Atari: www.atari.com
Movies: http://imdb.com