[MUD-Dev] When is the game a game?

[Travis Casey]

On Monday June 25, 2001 13:25, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> I've been working a lot on (and talking a lot about) my game
> system lately. Occasionally I'll describe how it handles things
> here, and use that as an example.

> The catch, of course, is that the game *system* is not actually
> part of any coherent *game*. It does not run anywhere. It is not
> in distribution. It is not even playable, as it currently
> stands. However, the game systems are defined and in most cases
> even implemented in test drivers. Those few systems that are not
> implemented are "proven" by other test drivers -- once I know that
> "an object" is properly handled in every way, I don't have to test
> EVERY object. If a given object is supposed to be something you
> can buy, sell, use, and drop... well, once we know that buy, sell,
> and drop work, we only need to test "use" for other
> objects. Similar circumstances exist for other "partial" systems.

> Which leads to the question, when is the game actually a game?
> Certainly, when the game is completed and placed online for people
> to play and people actually do *play* it, it's a game. But what
> about before then?

> This is primarily a philosophical question with no real practical
> use.  I'd just like to hear other people's opinions on it.

Well, my point of view is rather on the philosophical end -- that
it's a game from the time that it first *could* be implemented.

I've heard arguments that a game is the game system + people playing
it -- but we don't call the boxes on the shelves in stores "game
systems" or "potential games" -- we call them games.  That implies
that they are games even when there's no one playing them.

Further, I'll note that any mud system can -- in theory, at least --
be run without a computer.  It might not be something that anyone in
their right mind would want to do, but it can be done.  (And yes,
that applies even to graphical muds -- there's nothing that prevents
a person from following instructions that say "draw this at that
location".  As I said, no one in their right mind may *want* to play
the game without a computer, but it's at least theoretically
possible.)  Thus, it seems very arbitrary to me to consider it not
to be a game until someone actually codes it.  This is especially
true with simpler mud systems, which often aren't as complex as many
paper RPGs that people already play.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_     Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-' 
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) 

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