Bernard Suits’s Definition
In addition to the short definition “a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles,” Suits also offers a longer, more robust version: “To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by rules, where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favor of less efficient means, and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity.” Throughout his book, Suits proposes and refutes various attacks on this definition; and having read the book, I am certainly willing to say that he has found the definition of “game” that most accurately matches the way that the word is used in day-to-day life.
However, it’s also important to realize that this definition was crafted in 1978, and even though digital games and roleplaying games existed at this time, Suits was either unaware of them or intentionally ignored them. In fact, in Chapter 9 of The Grasshopper, Suits laments that there is no kind of game with rules for dramatic play through which players could burn off dramatic energy (much like children
can burn off excess athletic energy via play of any number of different sports).10
10 Suits, Grasshopper, 95.
Although this is a small point, it gets at exactly what is missing from this definition: Whereas Suits’s definition of game is an accurate definition of the word, it offers nothing to designers seeking to craft good games for others.
For an example of what I mean, take a moment to play Jason Rohrer’s fantastic game Passage: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/ (see Figure 1.2). The game only takes 5 minutes to play, and it does a fantastic job of demonstrating the power that even short games can have. Try playing through it a couple of times.
Suits’s definition will tell you that yes, this is a game. In fact, it is specifically an “open game,” which
he defines as a game that has as its sole goal the continuance of the game.11 In Passage, the goal is to continue to play for as long as possible...or is it? Passage has several potential goals, and it’s up to the player to choose which of these she wants to achieve. These goals could include the following:
11 Suits contrasts these with closed games, which have a specific goal (for example, crossing a finish line in a race or ridding yourself of all your cards in Bartok). Suits’s example of an open game is the games of make-believe that children play.
Moving as far to the right as possible before dying (exploration) Earning as many points as possible by finding treasure chests (achievement) Finding a partner (socialization)
The point of Passage as an artistic statement is that each of these can be a goal in life, and the three goals are mutually exclusive to some extent. If you get married early in the game, it becomes more difficult to get treasure chests because the two of you are unable to enter areas that could be entered singly. If you choose to seek treasure, you will spend your time exploring the vertical space of the world and won’t be able to see the different scenery to the right. If you choose to move as far to the right as possible, you won’t rack up nearly as much treasure.
In this incredibly simple game, Rohrer exposes a few of the fundamental decisions that every one of us must make in life and demonstrates how even early decisions can have a major effect on the rest of our lives. The important thing here is that he is giving players choice and demonstrating to them that their choices matter.
This is an example of the first of a number of designer’s goals that I introduce in this book: experiential understanding. Whereas a linear story like a book can encourage empathy with a character by exposing the reader to the character’s life and the decisions that she has made, games can allow players not only to understand the outcome of decisions but also to be complicit in that outcome by giving the player the power and the responsibility of decision and then showing her the outcome wrought by her decisions. Chapter 8, “Design Goals,” explores these in much greater depth.