View source for Games

{{SocPsy}}
{{PsyPerspective}}
[[Image:Tug-of-war.jpg|thumb|Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment.]]
[[Image:Paul Cézanne, Les joueurs de carte (1892-95).jpg|thumb|''The Card Players'', a 1895 painting by Paul Cézanne depicting a game of cards.]]

A '''game''' is a structured [[activity]], usually undertaken for [[enjoyment]] and sometimes also used as an [[education]]al tool. Games are distinct from [[Manual labour|work]], which is usually carried out for [[remuneration]], and from [[art]], which is more concerned with the expression of ideas. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as [[jigsaw puzzle]]s or games involving an artistic layout such as Mah-jongg solitaire).

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and [[interactivity]]. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical [[skills]], serve as a form of [[exercise]], or otherwise perform an [[education]]al, [[simulation]]al or [[psychology|psychological]] role.  The requirement for interactivity should put games such as jigsaw puzzles and mah-jongg solitaire into the category of solo-player [[puzzle]] rather than being a game. 

Attested as early as 2600 BC,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.gamecabinet.com/history/Ur.html | title=The Royal Game of Ur | last=Soubeyrand | first=Catherine | publisher=[http://www.gamecabinet.com/ The Game Cabinet] | accessdate=2008-10-05 | year=2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1815747_1815707_1815665,00.html | title=Big Game Hunter | publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] | work=2008 Summer Journey | last=Green | first=William | accessdate=2008-10-05}}</ref> games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The [[Royal Game of Ur]], [[Senet]] and [[Mancala]] are some of the oldest known games.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.historicgames.com/gamestimeline.html | title=History of Games | publisher=[http://www.historicgames.com/ MacGregor Historic Games] | year=2006 | accessdate=2008-10-05}}</ref>

==Definitions==
{{wiktionary|game}}

=== Ludwig Wittgenstein ===
[[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word ''game''. In his ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]'',<ref name="wittgen">{{cite book
  | last = Wittgenstein
  | first = Ludwig
  | authorlink = Ludwig Wittgenstein
  | coauthors = 
  | title = Philosophical Investigations

  |date=1953/2002
  | location = 
  | url = 
  | doi = 
  | id =  ISBN 0-631-23127-7}}</ref> Wittgenstein demonstrated that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and [[competition]], all fail to adequately define what games are. He subsequently argued that the concept "game" could not be contained by any single definition, but that games must be looked at as a series of definitions that share a "family resemblance" to one another.

=== Roger Caillois ===          
French sociologist [[Roger Caillois]], in his book ''Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men)'',<ref name="callois">{{cite book|
|title     = Les jeux et les hommes
|last      = Caillois
|first     = Roger
|authorlink= Roger Caillois
|publisher = Gallimard
|year      = 1957}}
</ref> defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics:
* ''fun'': the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character
* ''separate'': it is circumscribed in time and place
* ''uncertain'': the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable
* ''non-productive'': participation is not productive 
* ''governed by rules'': the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
* ''fictitious'': it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality

=== Chris Crawford ===
Computer game designer [[Chris Crawford (game designer)|Chris Crawford]] attempted to define the term ''game''<ref name="craw">
{{cite book|
|title=[[Chris Crawford on Game Design]]
|id=ISBN 0-88134-117-7
|last=Crawford
|first=Chris
|authorlink=Chris Crawford (game designer)
|year=2003
|publisher=New Riders
}}</ref> using a series of [[dichotomy|dichotomies]]:
#Creative expression is ''[[art]]'' if made for its own beauty, and ''[[entertainment]]'' if made for [[money]]. ''(This is the least rigid of his definitions. Crawford acknowledges that he often chooses a creative path over conventional business wisdom, which is why he rarely produces [[sequel]]s to his games.)''
#A piece of entertainment is a ''[[plaything]]'' if it is [[interactive]]. [[Movies]] and [[book]]s are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.
#If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a ''[[toy]]''. ''(Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) ''[[The Sims]]'' and ''[[SimCity]]'' are toys, not games.)'' If it has goals, a plaything is a ''challenge''.
#If a challenge has no “active agent against whom you compete,” it is a ''[[puzzle]]''; if there is one, it is a ''[[conflict]]''. ''(Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Some games with noticeably [[algorithm]]ic [[artificial intelligence]] can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade [[Pac-Man#Ghosts|ghosts in ''Pac-Man'']].)''
#Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a ''competition''. ''(Competitions include [[racing]] and [[figure skating]].)'' However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

Crawford's definition may thus be rendered as: an interactive, goal-oriented activity, active agents to play against, in which players (including active agents) can interfere with each other.

===Other definitions===

* "A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome." ([[Katie Salen]] and [[Eric Zimmerman]])<ref>
{{citation | title=[[Rules of Play]]: Game Design Fundamentals | isbn=0-262-24045-9 | last=Salen | first=Katie | authorlink=Katie Salen | last2=Zimmerman | first2=Eric | authorlink2=Eric Zimmerman | page=80 | year=2003 | publisher=MIT Press }}</ref>
* "A game is a form of art in which participants, termed ''players'', make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal." ([[Greg Costikyan]])<ref>
{{citation | title=I Have No Words & I Must Design | url=http://www.costik.com/nowords.html | last=Costikyan| first=Greg | authorlink=Greg Costikyan | year=1994 | accessdate=2008-08-17 }}</ref>
* "A game is an ''activity'' among two or more independent ''decision-makers'' seeking to achieve their ''objectives'' in some ''limiting context.''" ([[Clark C. Abt]])<ref>
{{citation | title=Serious Games | isbn=0670634905 | last= | first=Clark C. | page=6 | year=1970 | publisher=Viking Press }}</ref>
* "At its most elementary level then we can define game as an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is an opposition between forces, confined by a procedure and rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome." ([[Elliot Avedon]] and [[Brian Sutton-Smith]])<ref>
{{citation | title=The Study of Games | isbn=0471038393 | last=Avedon | first=Elliot | last2=Sutton-Smith | first2=Brian | authorlink2=Brian Sutton-Smith | page=405 | year=1971 | publisher=J. Wiley }}</ref>
* "A game is a form of play with goals and structure." ([[Kevin Maroney]])<ref>
{{citation | title=My Entire Waking Life | url=http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/MyEntireWakingLife.shtml | last=Maroney | first=Kevin | year=2001 | publisher=The Games Journal | accessdate=2008-08-17 }}</ref>

==Gameplay elements and classification==
Games can be characterized by "what the player does."<ref name="craw"/> This is often referred to as [[gameplay]], a term that arose among [[computer game|computer]] [[game designer]]s in the 1980s but {{As of|2007|lc=on}} is starting to see use in reference to games of other forms.{{Fact|date=April 2007}} Major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules which define the overall context of game and which in turn produce skill, strategy, and chance.{{Clarifyme|date=March 2008}}

===Tools===

Games are often classified by the components required to play them (e.g. [[miniatures game|miniatures]], a [[ball game|ball]], [[card game|card]]s, [[board game|a board and pieces]] or a [[computer game|computer]]). In places where the use of [[leather]] is well established, the ball has been a popular game piece throughout recorded history, resulting in a worldwide popularity of ball games such as [[Rugby football|rugby]], [[basketball]], [[football]], [[cricket]], [[tennis]] and [[volleyball]]. Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region. Many countries in Europe, for instance, have unique standard decks of [[playing card]]s. Other games such as [[chess]] may be traced primarily through the development and evolution of its game pieces.

Many game tools are tokens, meant to represent other things. A token may be a pawn on a board, [[play money]], or an intangible item such as a point scored.

Games such as [[hide-and-seek]] or [[Tag (game)|tag]] do not utilise any obvious tool. Rather its interactivity is defined by the environment. Games with the same or similar rules may have different gameplay if the environment is altered. For example, hide-and-seek in a [[school]] building differs from the same game in a [[park]]; an [[auto race]] can be radically different depending on the [[race track|track]] or [[street racing|street]] course, even with the same cars.

===Rules===
Whereas games are often characterized by their tools, they are often defined by their rules.  While rules are subject to variations and changes, enough change in the rules usually results in a "new" game. For instance, [[baseball]] can be played with "real" baseballs or with [[wiffleball]]s.  However, if the players decide to play with only three bases, they are arguably playing a different game.

Rules generally determine turn order, the rights and responsibilities of the players, and each player’s goals. Player rights may include when they may spend resources or move tokens. Common win conditions are being first to amass a certain quota of points or tokens (as in [[Settlers of Catan]]), having the greatest number of tokens at the end of the game (as in [[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]), or some relationship of one’s game tokens to those of one’s opponent (as in chess's checkmate).

===Skill, strategy, and chance=== 
A game’s tools and rules will result in its requiring [[skill]], [[strategy]], [[luck]] or a combination thereof, and are classified accordingly.

[[Games of skill]] include games of physical skill, such as [[wrestling]], [[tug of war]], [[hopscotch]], [[shooting sport|target shooting]], and [[stake (lawn game)|stake]] and games of mental skill such as [[checkers]] and [[chess]]. [[Games of strategy]] include checkers, chess, [[go (board game)|go]], [[arimaa]], and [[tic-tac-toe]], and often require special equipment to play them. [[Games of chance]] include gambling games ([[blackjack]], [[mah-jongg]], [[roulette]] etc.), as well as [[snakes and ladders]] and [[rock, paper, scissors]]; most require equipment such as cards or [[dice]]. However, most games contain two or all three of these elements. For example, [[American football]] and [[baseball]] involve both physical skill and strategy while [[tiddlywinks]], [[poker]] and [[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]] combine strategy and chance. Many card and board games combine all three; most [[trick-taking game]]s involve mental skill, strategy and an element of chance, as do many strategic board games such as [[Risk]], [[Settlers of Catan]] and [[Carcassonne (board game)|Carcassonne]].

===Single-player games===
Most games require multiple players.  However, [[single player|single-player games]] are unique in respect to the type of challenges a player faces. Unlike a game with multiple players competing with or against each other to reach the game's goal, a one-player game is a battle solely against an element of the environment (an artificial opponent), against one's own skills, against time or against chance. Playing with a [[yo-yo]] or playing [[tennis]] against a wall is not generally recognised as playing a game due to the lack of any formidable opposition. 

It is not valid to describe a [[computer game]] as single-player where the computer provides opposition. If the computer is merely record-keeping then the game may be validly single-player. 

Many games described as 'single-player' are actually puzzles or recreations.

==Types of game==
{{Seealso|List of types of games}}

Games can take a variety of forms, from competitive [[sport]]s to [[board game]]s and [[video game]]s.

===Sports===
{{main|Sport}}
[[Image:UEFA-Women's Cup Final 2005 at Potsdam 1.jpg|thumb|right|[[Football (soccer)|Association football]] is a popular sport worldwide.]]
Many sports require special equipment and dedicated playing fields, leading to the involvement of a community much larger than the group of players. A [[city]] or [[town]] may set aside such resources for the organisation of sports leagues.

Popular sports may have [[spectator sport|spectators]] who are entertained just by watching games. A community will often align itself with a local sports team that supposedly represents it (even if the team or most of its players only recently moved in); they often align themselves against their opponents or have traditional rivalries. The concept of [[fan (aficionado)|fandom]] began with sports fans.

[[Stanley Fish]] cited{{Fact|date=February 2007}} the balls and strikes of baseball as a clear example of [[social construction]], the operation of rules on the game's tools. While the [[strike zone]] target is governed by the rules of the game, it epitomizes the category of things that exist only because people have agreed to treat them as real. No pitch is a [[strike zone#ball|ball]] or a [[strike zone#strike|strike]] until it has been labeled as such by an appropriate authority, the plate [[Umpire (baseball)|umpire]], whose judgment on this matter cannot be challenged within the current game.

Certain competitive sports, such as [[racing]] and [[gymnastics]], are not games by definitions such as Crawford's (see above), despite the inclusion of many in the [[Olympic Games]], because competitors do not interact with their opponents; they simply challenge each other in indirective ways.

====Lawn Games====
[[Lawn game]]s are outdoor games that can be played on a [[lawn]]; an area of mown grass (or alternately, on graded soil) generally smaller than a "field" or [[Pitch (sports)|pitch]].  Variations of many games that are traditionally played on a [[Pitch (sports)|pitch]] are [[Marketing|marketed]] as "lawn games" for home use in a front or back yard. Common lawn games include [[horseshoes]], [[sholf]], [[croquet]], [[bocce]], [[lawn bowls]] and [[stake (lawn game)|stake]].

===Tabletop Games===
{{main|Tabletop game}}

A tabletop game generally refers to any game where the elements of play are confined to a small area and which require little physical exertion, usually simply placing, picking up and moving game pieces. Most of these games are, thus, played at a table around which the players are seated and on which the game's elements are located. A variety of major game types generally fall under the heading of tabletop games. It is worth noting that many games falling into this category, particularly [[party game]]s, are more free-form in their play and can involve physical activity such as mime, however the basic premise is still that the game does not require a large area in which to play it, large amounts of strength or stamina, or specialized equipment other than what comes in the box (games sometimes require additional materials like pencil and paper that are easy to procure).

====Dexterity/coordination games====
This class of games includes any game in which the skill element involved relates to manual dexterity or hand-eye coordination, but excludes the class of video games (see below). Games such as [[jacks]], [[paper football]] and ''[[Jenga]]'' require only very portable or improvised equipment and can be played on any flat level surface, while other examples, such as [[pinball]], [[billiards]], [[air hockey]], [[foosball]]/[[table soccer]], and [[table hockey games|table hockey]] require specialized tables or other self-contained modules on which the game is played. The advent of home video game systems largely replaced some of these, such as table hockey, however air hockey, billiards, pinball and foosball remain popular fixtures in private and public gamerooms. These games and others, as they require reflexes and coordination, are generally performed more poorly by intoxicated persons but are unlikely to result in injury because of this; as such the games are popular as [[drinking games]]. In addition, dedicated drinking games such as [[quarters]] also involve physical coordination and are popular for similar reasons.

====Board games====
[[Image:PetitsChevaux1.svg|thumb|right|[[Parcheesi]] is an American adaptation of a board game originating in [[India]].]]

{{main|Board game}}
Board games use as a central tool a board on which the players' status, resources, and progress are tracked using physical tokens. Many also involve [[dice]] and/or cards. Most games that simulate war are board games (though a large number of video games have been created to simulate strategic combat; see "Video Games" below), and the board may be a map on which the players' tokens move. Virtually all board games involve "turn-based" play; one player contemplates and then makes a move, then the next player does the same, and a player can only act on their turn. This is opposed to "real-time" play as is found in some card games, most sports and most video games. 

Some games, such as [[chess]] and [[go (game)|Go]], are entirely deterministic, relying only on the strategy element for their interest. Children's games, on the other hand, tend to be very luck-based, with games such as [[Candy Land]] having virtually no decisions to be made. Most other board games combine strategy and luck factors; the game of [[backgammon]] requires players to decide the best strategic move based on the roll of two [[dice]]. Trivia games have a great deal of randomness based on the questions a person gets. [[German-style board game]]s are notable for often having rather less of a luck factor than many board games.

Board game groups include [[Race games]], [[:Category:Roll-and-move board games|Roll-and-move]] games; [[Abstract strategy games]]; [[Word games]] and [[Wargaming|Wargames]] as well as the Trivia and German-style board games mentioned above. Some board games fall into multiple groups and even incorporate elements of other genres; [[Cranium (game)|Cranium]] is one popular example, where players must succeed in each of four main skills: artistry, live performance, trivia, and language skill.

====Card games====
{{main|Card game}}
Card games use a deck of cards as their central tool.  These cards may be a standard [[Playing card#Anglo-American|Anglo-American]] (52-card) deck of [[playing cards]] (such as for [[Contract Bridge|bridge]], [[poker]], [[Rummy]], etc), a regional deck using 32, 36 or 40 cards and different suit signs (such as for the popular German game [[skat (card game)|skat]]), a [[Tarot card games|tarot deck]] of 78 cards (used in Europe to play a variety of [[trick-taking game]]s collectively known as Tarot, Tarock and/or Tarocchi games), or a deck specific to the individual game (such as ''[[Set (game)|Set]]'' or [[1000 Blank White Cards]]). [[Uno (game)|Uno]] and [[Rook (card game)|Rook]] are examples of games that were originally played with a standard deck and have since been commercialized with customized decks. Some [[collectible card game]]s such as ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' are played with a small selection of cards which have been collected or purchased individually from large available sets.

Some board games include a deck of cards as a gameplay element, normally for randomization and/or to keep track of game progress. Conversely, some card games such as [[Cribbage]] use a board with movers, normally to keep score. The differentiation between the two genres in such cases depends on which element of the game is foremost in its play; a board game using cards for random actions can usually use some other method of randomization, while Cribbage can just as easily be scored on paper. These elements as used are simply the traditional and easiest methods to achieve their purpose.

====Dice games====
{{main|Dice game}}
Dice games use a number of [[dice]] as their central element. Board games often use dice for a randomization element, and thus each roll of the dice has a profound impact on the outcome of the game, however dice games are differentiated in that the dice do not determine the success or failure of some other element of the game; they instead are the central indicator of the person's standing in the game. Popular dice games include ''[[Yahtzee]]'', [[Farkle]], [[Bunco]], [[Liar's dice]]/[[Perudo]], and [[Poker dice]]. As dice are, by their very nature, designed to produce [[random number generator|apparently random numbers]], these games usually involve a high degree of luck, which can be directed to some extent by the player through more strategic elements of play and through tenets of [[probability theory]]. Such games are thus popular as gambling games; the game of [[Craps]] is perhaps the most famous example, though Liar's dice and Poker dice were originally conceived of as gambling games.

====Domino and Tile games====
{{main|Tile-based game|Dominoes}}
Domino games are similar in many respects to card games, but the generic device is instead a set of tiles called [[dominoes]], which traditionally each have two ends, each with a given number of dots, or "pips", and each combination of two possible end values as it appears on a tile is unique in the set. The games played with dominoes largely center around playing a domino from the player's "hand" onto the matching end of another domino, and the overall object could be to always be able to make a play, to make all open endpoints sum to a given number or multiple, or simply to play all dominoes from one's hand onto the board. Sets vary in the number of possible dots on one end, and thus of the number of combinations and pieces; the most common set historically is ''double-six'', though in more recent times "extended" sets such as ''double-nine'' have been introduced to increase the number of dominoes available, which allows larger hands and more players in a game. [[Muggins]], [[Mexican Train]] and [[Chicken Foot (domino game)|Chicken Foot]] are very popular domino games. [[Texas 42]] is a domino game more similar in its play to a "trick-taking" [[card game]].

Variations of traditional dominoes abound: [[Triominoes]] are similar in theory but are triangular and thus have three values per tile. Similarly, a game known as [[Quad-Ominos]] uses four-sided tiles. 

Some other games use tiles in place of cards; [[Rummikub]] is a variant of the [[Rummy]] card game family that uses tiles numbered in ascending rank among four colors, very similar to Anglo-American [[playing cards]]. [[Mah-Jongg]] is another game very similar to [[Rummy]] that uses a set of tiles with card-like values and art.

Lastly, some games use graphical tiles to form a board layout, on which other elements of the game are played. [[Settlers of Catan]] and [[Carcassonne (board game)|Carcassonne]] are examples. In each, the "board" is made up of a series of tiles; in Settlers of Catan the starting layout is random but static, while in Carcassonne the game is played by "building" the board tile-by-tile. [[Hive (game)|Hive]], an abstract strategy game using tiles as moving pieces, has mechanical and strategic elements similar to [[chess]], although it has no board; the pieces themselves both form the layout and can move within it.

====Pencil and Paper games====
Pencil and paper games require little or no specialized equipment other than writing materials, though some such games have been commercialized as board games (''[[Scrabble]]'', for instance, is based on the idea of a [[crossword puzzle]], and [[tic-tac-toe]] sets with a boxed grid and pieces are available commercially). These games vary widely, from games centering on a design being drawn such as ''[[Pictionary]]'' and "connect-the-dots" games like [[Sprouts (game)|sprouts]], to letter and word games such as ''[[Boggle]]'' and ''[[Scattergories]]'', to solitaire and logic puzzle games such as [[Sudoku]] and [[crossword puzzles]].

====Guessing games====
A guessing game has as its core a piece of information that one player knows, and the object is to coerce others into guessing that piece of information without actually divulging it in text or spoken word. [[Charades]] is probably the most well-known game of this type, and has spawned numerous commercial variants that involve differing rules on the type of communication to be given, such as ''[[Catch Phrase (game)|Catch Phrase]]'', ''[[Taboo (game)|Taboo]]'', ''[[Pictionary]]'', and similar. The genre also includes many [[game shows]] such as ''[[Win, Lose or Draw]]'', ''[[Password (game show)|Password]]'' and ''[[$25,000 Pyramid]]''.

===Video games===
{{main|Video game}}
Video games are [[computer]]- or [[microprocessor]]-controlled games. Computers can create virtual tools to be used in a game between human (or [[artificial intelligence|simulated human]]) opponents, such as cards or dice, or can simulate far more elaborate worlds where mundane or fantastic things can be manipulated through gameplay.

A computer or video game uses one or more [[input device]]s, typically a [[Button (control)|button]]/[[joystick]] combination (on [[arcade games]]); a [[Computer keyboard|keyboard]], [[Computer mouse|mouse]] and/or [[trackball]] ([[computer games]]); or a [[Game controller|controller]] or a motion sensitive tool. ([[Video game console|console games]]). More esoteric devices such as [[Paddle (game controller)|paddle controllers]] have also been used for input. In computer games, the evolution of user interfaces from simple keyboard to mouse, joystick or joypad has profoundly changed the nature of game development.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}

There are many genres of video game; the first commercial video game, [[Pong]], was a simple simulation of [[table tennis]]. As processing power increased, new genres such as adventure and action games were developed that involved a player guiding a character from a third person perspective through a series of obstacles. This "real-time" element cannot be easily reproduced by a board game which is generally limited to "turn-based" strategy; this advantage allows video games to simulate situations such as combat more realistically. Additionally, the playing of a video game does not require the same physical skill, strength and/or danger as a real-world representation of the game, and can provide either very realistic, exaggerated or impossible physics, allowing for elements of a fantastical nature, games involving physical violence, or simulations of sports. Lastly, a computer can, with varying degrees of success, simulate one or more human opponents in traditional table games such as [[chess]], leading to simulations of such games that can be played by a single player.

In more open-ended computer simulations, also known as sandbox-style games, the game provides a virtual environment in which the player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of this universe. Sometimes, there is a lack of goals or opposition, which has stirred some debate on whether these should be considered "games" or "toys". (Crawford specifically mentions [[Will Wright (game designer)|Will Wright]]’s [[SimCity]] as an example of a toy.<ref name="craw"/>)

====Online games====
{{main|Online game}}
From the very earliest days of networked and timeshared computers, [[online games]] have been part of the culture.  Early commercial systems such as [[PLATO (computer system)|Plato]] were at least as widely famous for their games as for their strictly educational value. In 1958, [[Tennis for Two]] dominated Visitor's Day and drew attention to the [[oscilloscope]] at the [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]]; during the 1980s, [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]] was known mainly for [[Maze War]], which was offered as a hands-on demo to visitors.

Modern online games are played using an Internet connection; some have dedicated [[client (computing)|client]] programs, while [[browser game|others]] require only a [[web browser]]. Some simpler browser games appeal to demographic groups (notably [[women]] and the [[middle-aged]]) that otherwise play very few video games.{{Fact|date=November 2007}}

The computer game is the most established of all sectors of the emergent new media landscape. The media is transformed from the traditional way of circulating in just one way to an interactive way. This is the phenomenon that is broadening around the world of videogame. It is an obvious example of the ways in which online and offline space can be seen as ‘merged’ rather than separate.<ref>Flew, Terry and Humpphreys, Sal (2005) “Games: Technology, Industry, Culture” in Terry Flew, New Media: an Introduction (second edition), Oxford University Press, South Melbourne 101–144</ref>

Media audiences’ characteristic has been changing in consequence of the social changes and development. They are becoming active and interact more than ever before.  The players of the game in this phenomenon are just like the social formation in our society. They are both self-regulating, creating their own social norms and subject to regulation and constraint through the code of the game and sometimes through the policing of the game by those who run it. The values that are policed vary from game to game. Many of the values encoded into game cultures reflect offline cultural values, but games also offer a chance to emphasis alternative or subjugated values in the name of fantasy and play. The players of the game at the new century are now apparently expressing their profound self through the game. When they can play with their anonymous status, they are found to be more confident to express and to step out from the position they have never been out from. It offers new experiences and pleasures based in the interactive and immersive possibilities of computer technologies.{{Fact|date=November 2007}}

===Role-playing games===
{{main|Role-playing game}}
Role-playing games, often abbreviated as RPGs, are a type of game in which the participants (usually) assume the roles of characters acting in a fictional setting.   The original role playing games&mdash;or at least those explicitly marketed as such&mdash;are played with a handful of participants, usually face-to-face, and keep track of the developing fiction with pen and paper.  Together, the players may collaborate on a story involving those characters; create, develop, and "explore" the setting; or vicariously experience an adventure outside the bounds of everyday life. Pen-and-paper role-playing games include, for example, ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and ''[[GURPS]]''. Modern [[indie role-playing games|independent RPGs]], however, often blur the line between the more traditional idea of the RPG and other traditional genres, or border on story-telling.{{or|date=October 2008}}

The term ''role-playing game'' has also been appropriated by the video game industry to describe [[role-playing video game|a genre of video games]].   These may be single-player games where one player experiences a programmed environment and story, or they may allow players to interact through the internet.  The experience is usually quite different than traditional role-playing games.  Single-player games include ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', ''[[Fable (video game)|Fable]]'', ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', and ''[[Mass Effect]]''.  Online multi-player games, often referred to as [[Massively multiplayer online game|Massively Multiplayer Online role playing games]], or MMORPGs, include ''[[RuneScape]]'', ''[[EverQuest 2]]'', ''[[Guild Wars]]'', ''[[MapleStory]]'', ''[[Anarchy Online]]'', and ''[[Dofus]]''.  {{As of|2008}}, the most successful MMORPG has been ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', which controls the vast majority of the market.,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.mmogchart.com/analysis-and-conclusions/ | title=An Analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth | last=Woodcock | first=Bruce Sterling | accessdate=2008-11-16 | year=2008}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Chess]]
* [[Childrens recreational games]]
* [[Computer games]]
* [[Entrapment games]]
* [[Gambling]]
* [[Game theory]]
* [[Leisure time]]
* [[Play (activity)|Play]]
* [[Play value]]
* [[Prisoners dilemma game]]
* [[Recreation]]
* [[Simulation games]]
* [[Sport]]
* [[Toy]]
* [[Zero sum games]]

: ''Main list: [[List of basic game topics]]''

==Further reading==
* Avedon, Elliot; [[Brian Sutton-Smith|Sutton-Smith]], Brian, ''The Study of Games''. (Philadelphia: Wiley, 1971), reprinted Krieger, 1979. ISBN 0-89874-045-2

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==




[[Category:Childhood play behavior]]
[[Category:Games| ]]
[[Category:Leisure activities]]
[[Category:Recreation]]


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