Defining Vidya games

Most people who play video game find them to be fun, but not all games are the same so we need to categorise them to find out what type of game tickles your fun.  A good way to categorise games is by genre such as role-playing game, first person shooters, strategy, and many more. The list keeps growing and some game cross genre and it all becomes one big mess.  In class we learnt about Paidia (play for pleasure or fun) or Ludus (more constrained by rules with a clear outcome, you win or lose).

A good example of Paidia would be bejewelled. You can’t really lose at bejewelled you just keep going and it even gives you hints if you get stuck. An exact opposite and a good example of Ludus would be Dark Soul. Renown for being extremely hard and unforgiving to new players which is reinforced to you every time you lose with the words “YOU DIED” in red across the screen.  Personally I would choose to play Dark Souls I prefer the thrill and challenge presented by it. Where as a more casual game might choose to play bejewelled instead and we would both be having fun and that’s what matters.  Another way to categorise games would be the type of game. For this you could use Agon, (competition) Alea, (chance/randomness) Ilinx, (movement) and Mimicry (make-believe/Role-play) these are used to describe the core aspect of the game otherwise they could all be used to describe every game. Here are examples of a game that uses each as a core aspect:

Agon: League of legends

Alea: Bejewelled

Ilinx: Burnout Paradise

Mimicry: Dungeon and Dragons