Games and Video Games - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 8

the players try to achieve it. Most early arcade games, such as Space Invaders and
Breakout , gave the players an unachievable goal.

The goal of the game is defined by the rules and is arbitrary because the game
designers can define it any way they like. The goal of the children's card game Go
Fish is to obtain topics —collections of four cards of the same suit—but the defini-
tion of what is to be collected could be changed by changing the rules. A topic has
no intrinsic real-world importance; it's just a particular collection of cards. But
within the context of a game of Go Fish, a topic has a symbolic importance because
the rules state that assembling it is a goal on the way to victory. The goal must be
nontrivial because a game must include some element of challenge. Even in a game
of pure chance such as craps or roulette, the players must learn to understand the
odds and place bets that will most likely benefit them. Similarly, in a creative game,
creation itself challenges the players. To do well requires skill. If the object can be
achieved in a single moment, without either physical or mental effort, then the
activity is not really a game. For example, children sometimes do a rudimentary
form of gambling called Odds and Evens. Each flips a coin of identical value. If the
results are odd (don't match), one child takes both coins; if they are even (do
match), the other does. The odds are exactly 50 percent and there is no way to
improve them; in fact, there is no decision-making at all. This does not qualify as
a game under the definition because it does not include a challenge. The object is
trivial and the process momentary. It is a form of betting, but not a game.

NOTE There must be
some challenge (non-
trivial effort) involved
in trying to achieve a
game's goal. The dif-
ficulty of a challenge
is perceived differently
by different players,
however.

The rules of a game frequently characterize the game's goal as a victory condition —
an unambiguous situation within the game at which point one or more of the
players are declared the winners. For example, the victory condition for chess states
that the first player to checkmate his opponent's king (an unambiguous situation)
is the winner. In timed sports such as basketball, the victory condition states that
when time runs out (the unambiguous situation), whichever team has the most
points wins the game and the other team loses. Game designers can also establish
additional rules about ties and tie-breaking mechanisms if they think it is impor-
tant to have a clear winner.

The rule that determines when the game is over is called the termination condition.
In two-player games, the termination condition is usually taken for granted: The
game ends when one player achieves victory. Note that the victory condition does
not necessarily end the game, however. In a game with more than two players, play
can continue to determine who comes in second, third, and so on. A foot race
(which is a game according to the definition) does not end when the first runner
crosses the finish line; it continues until the last runner does.

NOTE The concepts
of winning and losing
are not essential to
games, but they make
a game more exciting.
A game must have a
goal, but the goal need
not be characterized as
victory or defeat.

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

—J OSHUA , IN THE MOVIE W AR G AMES

Not all games include a victory condition. Some establish only a loss condition , a sit-
uation that indicates the end of the game by specifying which player has lost. Such
a game can never be won, only abandoned. The RollerCoaster Tycoon game is a good