When does a game become a game?

[DANEgerous]

There are a lot of new game types or at least many new games in a verity of types and levels of activity but when do they truly become a game?

For instance G-Mod, Angry Birds, Dear Esther and Farmville are all viewed as games but should they be?

To me G-Mod clearly is a game despite being void of goals as is Angry Birds which is the most undeniable that it is in fact a game and yet in many ways G-mod is more difficult... despite the fact it is not at all difficult. It is hard to explain what that means exactly but simply put it implies you can make a game using G-Mod or set a goal like say build an airplane both of which can be quite difficult and take mass amounts of time when compared to Angry Birds most difficult task.

Then you have things like Dear Esther which to is the lowest form of game, it must be noted this does not at all mean lowest quality it just mean as little "game-nes" as you can have and still be a game where as Farmville to me has no "game-nes" nor does any other cow clicker. They have no story, no difficulty, no real expression of any message, no competition of any form in short nothing to make it a game.

All of this begs the question what is this "game-nes" thing I made up? I wish I knew how to put it, but i do not and I made it up.

 

[DoPo]

For instance G-Mod, Angry Birds, Dear Esther and Farmville are all viewed as games but should they be?

Never really heard Garry's mod being referred to as a game. I suppose it has been, I don't hang around all (or even "many") the discussions that feature it.

To me G-Mod clearly is a game despite being void of goals as is Angry Birds which is the most undeniable that it is in fact a game and yet in many ways G-mod is more difficult... despite the fact it is not at all difficult. It is hard to explain what that means exactly but simply put it implies you can make a game using G-Mod or set a goal like say build an airplane both of which can be quite difficult and take mass amounts of time when compared to Angry Birds most difficult task.

Also, I should mention that I've never used Garry's mod nor really been interested in it more than to know what's it generally about. Still, isn't it more of toolbox-editor-y thing? It certainly seems so to me. Does that mean I can also "play" the map editor in Heroes 3? It's quite a task making an interesting map, after all, and it does take lots of time, unless you're aiming for something really simple.

Farmville to me has no "game-nes" nor does any other cow clicker. They have no story, no difficulty, no real expression of any message, no competition of any form in short nothing to make it a game.

I certainly see it as a game. Is Tetris not a game because it has no story, or any message, too? Does a game need a story or a message? We can observe Sims, Crimsonland, various racing games, chess, card games, etc - no story, no message, no nothing. Or take various multiplayer games - even if they have single player, if people don't play that, does that mean that they don't view it as a game? If I've only played, say, Half-Life in MP, never to even hover over the SP option, what does that mean? Clearly the game has a story, but I don't play it for that.

And "competition", really? Should I list the games that don't have competition? Like, all the SP games, for a start. Since when does a game automatically equal competition?

Farmville is a game, as much as other sims are. It may be a shit game, but one nonetheless, I'd appreciate if people stopped removing titles to show their displeasure.