What are games?

What are games?

Games are a structured means of interacting with other people. (In some cases, a game player might be interacting with a computer or a deck of cards instead.) Games overlap with activities like puzzles. For example, is solitaire a game? What about a crossword puzzle? Or a jigsaw puzzle?

As far as we're concerned, the specific definition of "games" is pretty explicit. This site focus on some specific games types, mostly board games, card games, and roleplaying games right now, but we have plans to expand our coverage to include all types of games, including dice games, party games, trivia games, etc.

Here are some traits that we think all types of games have in common:

• Players - All games have players, even solitaire games, which have on player.
• Structure - Think of structure as a set of rules for a game. No rules? No game. Even the simplest types of games, like tic-tac-toe, have rules.
• Goals - All games have some kind of goal. In Monopoly, a player's goal is to bankrupt the other players. In Scrabble, the goal is to score more points than your opponent.

Read more »

Posted in: Skills

Gaming Skills Become a College Course

Problem-solving skills used in one of -- if not the most -- popular real-time strategy games of all time are not unlike those used in the 21st Century real world. At least that is the song that the University of Florida is singing.

The school, located in Gainesville, Florida, is offering a two-credit honors couse titled, "21st century Skills in Starcaft." The eight-week class "does not teach about Starcraft," but combines weekly gameplay, analysis of recorded matches and "synthesis of real/game-world concepts," to develop workplace skills.

Part of the course description for the interdisciplinary honors course reads:

"With society becoming increasingly technology-based and fast-paced, it is important for professionals to be highly proficient in skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, resource management, and adaptive decision making. These skills are fundamental in Starcraft and therefore make the game a highly effective environment for students to analyze and take action in complex situations."

The course is open to twenty students that have access to a Mac or PC, Internet access outside the school labs and experience playing the popular game. (No noobs allowed.)

The class is taught by Nathaniel Poling, a doctoral student in the school's department of education. He recently told the MIT Technology Review:

"In StarCraft you're managing a lot of different units and groups of different capacities. It's not a stretch to think of that in the business world or in the work of a healthcare administrator."

In other words, don't use a Dragoon to do the job of a Zealot.

Let's hope the curriculum includes other important tidbits, such as the tip that playing the game for 50 hours with little sleep or food can be bad for your health.

This isn't Blizzard Entertainment's first foray into the world of higher education. Last year, the University of California at Berkeley started offering a course in competitive Starcraft playing.

Read more »

Posted in: Skills