mindlesspuppet said:
Disagree. Just because you drive a car doesn't make you a racer.
Buh? Hang on a second, am I missing something here, or is there some requirement needed to be a 'gamer' other than basic fundamental requirement of
playing computer games? If you answer 'yes' then I have a very strong suspicion that you're one of the elitists that is doing the gaming community no favours.
Also driving a car normally and driving it for a race are, while similar on the surface, very different things that require a significant jump in skill and knowledge.
Also, someone who drives a car is a driver. A racer is a sub-set of being a driver.
mindlesspuppet said:
Just because you play a game of football, you're not a football player.
You kind of are actually, unless you define 'football player' in a strictly professional sense.
mindlesspuppet said:
Farmville and the likes are not games. If you count them as games, then posting on forums should be a game too, post counts are like highscores.
Okay then, how do you define a 'game'?
A game is an activity designed to engage an individual, or individuals, in the act of play. This can cover a wide area and the concept of play extends far and wide, including computer games.
Computer games at their most basic level require the ability for the player to make control inputs, there must be obstacles or challenges of some description to overcome (combat is an obvious one, though it can be something else) and provide conflict, and the results of actons should be presented to the player while hiding things like random calculations behind the scenes. There should also be some form of goal; this can be defined by the game as some story, or able to be defined by the player though game mechanics. Objects in the 'world' should also provide player interaction, and interact with eachother. Choice and problems should also be present, giving 'pathways' for the player to progress down. All of this should be bound by a set of rules that constrains what is possible for the player and everything else in the world to do.
These rules also cover a wide area; from something as simple as defining the bounds of the world, to more complex interactions of and action X affecting Y in manner Z; for example, if you click somewhere on the screen it will cause something in your control to move to that location or attack what you clicked on like in Strategy games.
FarmVille counts, like it or not.
Forums do not, except when an individual contructs a set of rules for the purpose of making a forum-based game.
