Over at Chris Bateman’s ihobo blog a great discussion was had relating to Video Games. Are Videogames Made of Rules? I inserted my two cents as you can see below.
Hi Chris,
I believe you have teased out a continuum of how humans interface with each other or solitarily with play. There is little doubt in my mind that Rules are required, but the fidelity they hold depends on what people want to get out of their play experience! Which is exactly your point.
I believe that Rules are just one part of what I call the Imnersion Accords. I think you will find the following blog post validates your perspective:
As many have said in the comments, Rules are more tightly bound to when competition is a focus of play. What I would argue is that Rules exist to track measurement, which is what is unique to Games.
You roll two dice, not three, or one when you play Monopoly. Forcing one player to roll a different amount of dice is unfair. But why is it unfair? Because the measurement of movement is so critical to the game space of a board game and all participants should be treated the same. If you were playing Monopoly by yourself (why would you?) you can go ahead and roll as many dice or not as you wanted.
It is the presence of solitary play that makes Video Games special and so varied. Rules exist to formalize player practices, and the fewer the players (and spectators) the less formal rules can be. In contrast Hi-FI rules are a must with eSports and Sports. It all depends on what is your player practice preference, informal and toy-like or absolute and sport-like. Thankfully the rule on that is you get to choose!
Chris Billows is a knowledge seeker who believes in social responsibility, a health care professional, and a business dabbler. The Journals of Doc Surge is his personal blog.
Doc Surge (a cool synonym for Billows) is inspired by Doc Brass from the Planetary Comic series who in turn was inspired by the 1930s pulp hero Doc Savage.
Over at Chris Bateman’s ihobo blog a great discussion was had relating to Video Games. Are Videogames Made of Rules? I inserted my two cents as you can see below.
Hi Chris,
I believe you have teased out a continuum of how humans interface with each other or solitarily with play. There is little doubt in my mind that Rules are required, but the fidelity they hold depends on what people want to get out of their play experience! Which is exactly your point.
I believe that Rules are just one part of what I call the Imnersion Accords. I think you will find the following blog post validates your perspective:
https://journals.billo.ws/the-immersion-accords/
As many have said in the comments, Rules are more tightly bound to when competition is a focus of play. What I would argue is that Rules exist to track measurement, which is what is unique to Games.
You roll two dice, not three, or one when you play Monopoly. Forcing one player to roll a different amount of dice is unfair. But why is it unfair? Because the measurement of movement is so critical to the game space of a board game and all participants should be treated the same. If you were playing Monopoly by yourself (why would you?) you can go ahead and roll as many dice or not as you wanted.
It is the presence of solitary play that makes Video Games special and so varied. Rules exist to formalize player practices, and the fewer the players (and spectators) the less formal rules can be. In contrast Hi-FI rules are a must with eSports and Sports. It all depends on what is your player practice preference, informal and toy-like or absolute and sport-like. Thankfully the rule on that is you get to choose!
Thanks for the post,
Chris Billows