What is a Game? - Intellectual Production #4

A seemingly simple question: What is a Game? On the surface we all can seemingly differentiate between what is and isn't a game, but digging deeper it is more difficult to provide a clear and broad enough definition that encompasses all games while also being narrow enough to exclude activities that are not.

In chapter 4 of the textbook, Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction, the authors review and critique a variety of different theories exploring the aspects of what makes up a game. Below I've mapped out the theories using MindMeister, you can also watch the accompanying video to get a better sense of how the theories connect and differ from one another and why I chose to map it the way I did.

Here is an overview of the mindmap that can be seen in more detail at this link.

References

Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S., Smith, J. H., Tosca, S. P., & Taylor & Francis eBooks A-Z. (2020). Understanding video games: The essential introduction (Fourth ed.). Routledge.