What is a game?

Ludwig Wittgenstein was “an Austrian philosopher” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein) from the early twentieth century who claimed that there is not single definition for the term game, however instead, several characteristics each shared by some but not all. There is no single characteristic shared by every game. Wittgenstein gives the example of a piece of rope, which is made of many different fibres that are twisted into place but there is no single fibre that runs through out the piece of rope. He also gives the example of family resemblance. Often, it can be fairly simple to see the resemblance between different family members however if you were to try to define the specific characteristic that is commonly shared in a family of five, it would become clear that no single feature is shared through out. However three out of five of this family may have similar shaped noses and a different three members may share eye colour. He suggests that if someone asks for a definition of what a game is, it is far easier to list examples of games in order to give a general idea of what one is.

If you were to look at two digital games on the PS2 for example Fifa 2005 and The Incredibles, you would see that they are very different games. Fifa 2005 is a football game where the player controls the footballers in matches. You can play in tournaments or even be the manager of a club and work your way through the football seasons. In the Incredibles, you control each of the different family members for a level at a time. The aim of the game is to complete each level overcoming different challenges to get to the next one until you finally reach the end of the levels and the story line is completed. If you were to compare these games to say Pacman or Pong, you would see that they are even more different still and have very different characteristics however there are some similarities between some in certain ways and not others. For example Pacman and the Incredibles are both science-fictional where as Fifa 2005 and Pong is based on real life games (football and tennis/table tennis). In the Incredibles and Fifa 2005, the player controls a human or human like figure. These are examples of similar characteristics shared by some and not others which follow Wittgenstein’s theory.

Bibliography:

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Date Unknown). Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 3rd February 2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein