What is a Game?

A game is anything that we usually do for entertainment. If this is done for fun, then it’s different from working. Numerous games are games, and therefore there are lots of professions associated with it. In fact, lots of the jobs available in the world are connected to gaming. Therefore, there’s always money to be made, since it’s also a form of entertainment.

In most cases, there’s money to be earned, because it’s a kind of entertainment. There are other types of games with many different types of equipment involved. For example, there’s video computer games and board games. If you think about video computer games, they can create an experience similar to that of playing a conventional computer game. Video computer games can cause people to think that they’re actually inside the game. They have sound effects and various visual elements.

Board games like the popular Monopoly and Risk are another example. When you play Monopoly, you control a business. In case of the latter, you can play against a computer game. In both examples, the object is to become the owner of a property and develop it by buying buildings and lands. As you gain more money, you can buy more properties and develop into a more successful business owner.

These are just some of the computer games that we usually consider games. However, what about the other kind of computer games? Chris Crawford, author of Choosing the Right Computer Game, believes that most PC games are not really games. Rather, they are “vehicles for complex ideas to travel across multiple mediums”. Computer games have “become a means for many people to communicate” using the PC, he points out.

This is where gamification occurs. By using mathematics and statistics, gamification helps us discover hidden patterns in the world. For example, gamers can easily measure success or failure based on statistical data. Gamification is also related to other methods of evaluation, such as quality metrics. According to Christopher Crawford, choosing a game is a “numbers game”, which is dependent on statistics.

In conclusion, the question “What is a game?” can apply to video games as well. Video games can also be called “emotional experience machines” (O’Rourke & Lopo, 2021), since they make it possible to satisfy our need for stimulation without having to go outside. They give people the opportunity to escape, and thus escape reality. Gamification may therefore be viewed not as a specific methodology per se, but as a general approach to games that may involve both design and psychology.