Why do we play?

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This is a collection of games, toys and reasons to play, originally collected on Dec 3rd 2008.

Feel free to add to, order or modify this list.

Games and toys

  • Card games
  • Poker
  • Face to face roleplaying games
  • Real life sports games
  • Lego

Reasons to play

Real world transfer

  • Monetary gain
  • Some games need special occasions and locales, with special atmosphere (e.g. Roulette)
  • Building up a reputation in real life as good gamer
  • Active reception, interaction compared to TV or movies
  • Experiencing probability calculus 'learning' (Poker)

Social bonding

  • Being together with like minded people
  • Social interaction - joking about the game, talking about the game
  • Learning something about your fellow players

Creativity

  • Being creative, imaginative in arranging given elements (Lego)
  • Creating your own toys and playing with them

Roletaking

  • Roletaking, trying out different roles
  • Being nosy

Challenge and competition

  • Inventing and testing one's own strategies against an opponent or the game
  • Challenged by the game to be creative, flexible, inventive, interactive, problem solving
  • Testing your own limits (sports)
  • mastery of a game

Excitement

  • Ambivalence - Uncertainty of end of the game
  • Curiousity about the course the game will take
  • Mysteries, dramatic developments, strange worlds to explore

Leveling up

  • Competition and comparision via levels and scores (also against one's own higscore)
  • enjoying the gatherer-instinct, amassing points, money, abilities, options etc.
  • powergaming, mastering and exploitation the rule-system of a game

Escape

  • Your decisions make a difference, at least for the simulated world (e.g. roleplaying games)
  • Relaxation and escaping reality
  • The feeling of losing oneself in a game task (i.e. Tetris)
  • Configuring a game system an watching it react and develop, like a piece of art (Sim-Games like Simcity, or Tower Defense Games)

Aesthetics

  • Enjoying good artwork in a game, or well-crafted playing material in a physical game like a boardgame
  • Well written or thought of background and evolving storylines
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