what are games?

What Are Games?

Games are a huge and essential part of life. Games can be playing a board game, a crossword, or playing a sport. But what are games and how do we actually define games. In the dictionary it is defined as “an activity providing entertainment or a amusement, a pastime“. “Games are extensions not of our private live but our social selves“* This is true as to playing multiplayer games like pro evolution soccer or call of duty 3. It can be true of all games however 1 player games in my opinion do not extend our social selves when we play the game as it involves absolute attention. Wittgenstein believes that it is impossible to define exactly what is a game. He discusses that a games have many similar characteristics to classify them as games but also they have characteristics making the unique. Much like a species of animal or a family. I definitely agree with Wittgenstein’s theory of games. When playing Doom II and Samorostos II I could apply Wittgenstein’s theory of games. Doom II did not involve too much thinking, it is a simple objective of kill everything to complete the level. Samorostos II involves logical thinking and problem solving. Each game was different but its similarities were that both involved using skill, and both games were one player games.

(Provenzo. F Engene (1991) video kids making sense of Nintendo. Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England, Harvard (university press)