Enjoying games: March 2007

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Single-player games/Animals and games

Single-player games
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. This is not true, though, for a single-player computer game where the computer provides opposition.

Animals and games
Domestic animals have been observed playing simpler games such as tag, tug-of-war, and fetch. Whether this is due to instinct or conscious choice, and whether the animals are capable of the strategic thinking to interfere with their opposition, questions whether this activity is actually a game.

Single-player games/Animals and games

Board games/Card games/Role playing games

Video game

Field games (sports)

List of Types of Games

Useful articles

Useful Links

Board games/Card games/Role playing games

Parcheesi is a board game originating in India.
Main article: Board game
Board games use as a central tool a board on which the players' status, resources, and progress are tracked using physical tokens. Most also involve dice and/or cards. Most games that simulate war are board games, and the board may be a map on which the players' tokens move.

Main article: Card game
Card games use as a central tool a deck of cards. The cards may be a standard Anglo-American (52-card) deck of playing cards (such as Go Fish or Crazy Eights, or a deck specific to the individual game (such as Set). Uno and Rook are examples of games that were originally played with a standard deck and have since been commercialized with customized decks.

Main article: Role playing game
Role-playing games, often abbreviated as RPGs, are a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create stories and world setting. Examples of computer roleplaying games are RuneScape, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy, Fable: The Lost Chapters, Elder Scrolls, and Anarchy Online. Pen-and-paper roleplaying games include, for example, Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS.

Video game

Main article: Video game

A video game is a computer- or microprocessor-controlled game. Computers can create virtual tools to be used in a game, such as cards or dice.

A computer or video game uses one or more input devices, typically a button/joystick combination (on arcade games); a keyboard, mouse and/or trackball (computer games); or a controller or a motion sensitive tool. (console games). More esoteric devices such as 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.

It has been suggested that any game can be emulated as a computer game. Because computer games are simulations, every conceviable tool, environment or rule can be created. Whether or not the computer emulation possesses the same gameplay as the original game is an open question.

In more open-ended computer simulations, aka sandbox-style games, notably those designed by Will Wright, the player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of the virtual universe. Due to the lack of goals or opposition, it is disputed whether these programs are games or toys. (Crawford specifically mentions Wright’s SimCity as an example of a toy).

Field games (sports)

Association football is a popular sport worldwide.
Main article: Sports

Sports are arguably the most popular type of game. 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 benefit of the young, as in Little League.

Popular sports may have 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 fandom began with sports fans.

Stanley Fish cited[citation needed] 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 ball or a strike until it has been labeled as such by an appropriate authority, the plate 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.

List of Types of Games

Many types of games have been identified, according to the type of activity involved, the subject discussed or simulated by the game, the type of equipment used or where they are played. They include:
Alternate reality games
Ball games
Card games
Collectible card games
Casino games
Children's games
Clapping games
Computer and video games
Computer puzzle games
Online games
Online skill-based games
MUDs
MMORPGs
Conversation games
Counting-out games
Creative games
Dice games
Drinking games
Educational games
Economics games
Game shows
Games of chance
Games of dare
Games of logic
Games of mental skill
Games of physical skill
Games of strategy
Games of status
Global Positioning System-based games
Group-dynamic games
Guessing games
Letter games
Locative games
Mathematical games
Open gaming
Party games
Parlor games
Pencil and paper games
Play-by-mail games
Playground games
Political games
PowerPoint games
Pub games
Puzzles
Quizzes
Role-playing games
Singing games
Spoken games
Street games
String games
Table-top games
Tile-based games
Theatre games
Traditional games
Travel games
Wargames
Win-win games
Word games

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Useful articles

Sudoku

List of Types of Games

Single-player games/Animals and games

Board games/Card games/Role playing games

Video game

Field games (sports)

Shop Guiding Light Video's Secure Catalog for the finest in Children's Christian DVDs, CDs Videos & Games for kids of all ages!

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Sunday, March 11, 2007

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