{"id":5287,"date":"2015-08-10T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T15:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=5287"},"modified":"2015-08-04T10:05:46","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T16:05:46","slug":"do-all-games-include-a-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/08\/10\/do-all-games-include-a-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Do All Games Include a Conflict?"},"content":{"rendered":"Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"ID-100121611\"Yes. And: No.<\/p>\n

It depends on how we define things.<\/p>\n

First, I think it\u2019s important to distinguish between digital games and non-digital or \u2018analog\u2019 games in these discussions. Few can agree on a precise definition for ‘game’ and there has been much discussion about it over the years (Wittgenstein, 1953, McLuhan, 1964, Sutton-Smith, 1997, Salen & Zimmerman, 2004, Juul, 2005, Egenfeldt-Nielsen et. al., 2008). Given that, we stand a better chance of getting to meaningful discussions of we can constrain the domain a bit. So, I am excluding non-digital games from my response.<\/p>\n

Having established the domain, the answer to this question is completely dependent on how one defines “conflict”. \u00a0If we define “conflict” to be some sort of challenge, then yes, all games must have this. If they don’t then they are toys rather than games. The word “conflict” has negative connotations for me as well as others, and I personally tend to avoid games that have the kind of conflict that pits people against each other – even virtual ones. I’m not a fan of shooters, fighting games, or war games.<\/p>\n

Given that, it should be no surprise that my favorite genre is puzzle games, and I would say that while puzzles can have considerable challenge, they tend not to have much in the way of conflict. On the other hand, games with a narrative, often do involve some identifiable conflict: Phoenix Wright is about finding out who committed the crime, and Professor Layton has a mystery to solve that usually includes some villain and very clear conflict.<\/p>\n

\"???????????????????????????????????????\"Thiagarajan is a well-respected training specialist and designer who specializes in in-class and paper-based learning and development activities. He identifies five critical characteristics of training simulation games that I’ve found quite useful (Thiagarajan & Stolovitch, 1978):<\/p>\n

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  1. conflict<\/strong> (which can also be described as challenge) – I prefer the term ‘challenge’.<\/li>\n
  2. constraints<\/strong> (on players’ behaviors; = rules)<\/li>\n
  3. closure<\/strong> (the game must come to an end)<\/li>\n
  4. contrivance<\/strong> – all games are contrived situations<\/li>\n
  5. correspondence<\/strong> – designed to respond to some selected aspects of reality (It turns out that the degree to which people insist on this connection lies at the heart of many arguments over whether or not some learning and development activity constitutes a game or a simulation. This is a judgment call and highly subjective.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n