[MUD-Dev] Quote from a Simutronics developer

[Phillip Lenhardt]

On Sun, Apr 16, 2000 at 11:04:25PM -0500, Raph Koster wrote:
> Anyone have any thoughts on this? I clipped it from the VaultNetwork, from
> whence it will quickly scroll off tomorrow or the next day. :)
> 
> start quote--->
> [snip]
> Game. We're building a game. Using the most general definitions, a game is
> an activity that provides entertainment or amusement. Using the vernacular
> of object oriented programming, a game "IS A" form of entertainment, not
> "HAS A" form of entertainment.
> 
> Games are a subclass of entertainment, not the other way around The same can
> be said of watching TV and burning ants with a magnifying glass, but logic
> tells us that not all subsets of a given set necessarily overlap with each
> other.
> 
> Since we're building a game and want to meet that goal and thereby succeed
> and ensure the continued life of this company, it is important not to expend
> resources on incorporating unnecessary levels of entertainment into the game
> which are not game-related. Going for a walk in the woods, having a picnic,
> and enjoying the company of your fellow sentient is something that can be
> done in all our currently existing games, and I see no reason why it
> shouldn't be possible in Hero's Journey as well. But make such activities
> engaging to the point of being able to do them to them day after day, for
> hours on end, over the course of a couple of years? I don't think so - going
> on a picnic isn't a game no matter how entertaining it is.
> 
> So, what makes a game, a game? Let's find some other definitions: "a period
> of competition or challenge", "a contest, physical or mental, according to
> certain rules, for amusement, recreation, or for winning a stake; as, a game
> of chance; games of skill; field games, etc.", "a physical or mental
> competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct
> opposition to each other".
> 
> *Those* definitions explain why combat creeps into the equations so quickly.
> And considering the ease of quantifying RL combat for implementation into a
> game, compared to quantifying politics, it's not hard to understand why
> there are so few massively multiplayer online political games.
> [snip]
> - Mike "Jhyrryl" Paddock
> <---end quote

I might claim that games are not subclasses entertainment; instead making
the weaker claim that every member of the set of games is also a member
of the set of entertainments.

Also, I might claim that a thing's membership in the set of games is not
determined by having certain properties (ie, there is no simple definition
of game). Instead, I might claim that:

	having properties A+B make a thing a game,
	having properties B+C make a thing a game,
        having properties A+C do not make a thing a game,
        having property D prevents a thing from ever being a game,
	having properties A+B+C are not sufficient to make a thing a game.

That is to say, I might claim an algorithmic definition of game.

Then again, I might not. ;)



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