Is D&D a Game

[Umbran]

.
Which to me seems that the definition is so broad as to be useless.

Hardly, because usually the English Major and the Games Theorist are usually pretty clear about whose definition they happen to be using at the moment.

There will be the occasional case where the meaning is unclear. Then, we have to talk around it a bit, and then figure out what we each mean, and then move on. Trying to make up a whole new definition, and drive it's adoption, is a bit of overkill.

 

[Lidgar]

From Webster:

Game: an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement

That fits D&D for me.

 

[Janx]

Why worry about what is and is not a game? If you're enjoying the game, play it.

because in the thread about D&D is/is not art, I explored the concept that some people said it couldn't be art because it is "just a game".

aside from the point that D&D status wasn't exclusive towards being only game or art, i hypothesized that under a certain viewpoint, D&D wasn't even a game.

If it truly isn't a game, then those people's foundation on why it wasn't art was equally unstable.

Plus, it seemed interesting to discuss the concept of game, as it relates to D&D.

Discounting folks who can't read the entire page and see that the ball has moved..

 

[Agamon]

I've always thought of it as there being two types of games, competative and non-competative. The inablity of a fun activity to come to a conclusion that allows for winning and losing doesn't make the activity any less of a game, just a different type.

I believe what your trying to describe is a contest, which I agree D&D is not (unless you have a crappy DM...).

 

[howandwhy99]

D&D games are either a puzzle game or story game. Both count in my estimation.

The first is an alternate reality designed as a cooperative puzzle game, but without being a finite system. It accepts outside of game scope attempts by players, which then define for future play more code for the puzzle. Players perform characters within chosen social roles defining the scope of play.

There is success and failure, turns, and strategizing. When there is a gameboard or battlemat players take moves. The primary challenge is remembering and deciphering the code being repeated behind a screen.

The second game is more about expressing oneself, but it need not include characters or an alternate reality. Under the rubric of pragmatism some include decision mechanisms to determine who gets to tell a story next. Others don't, like when LARPers are expressing themselves simultaneously near each other.

Success and failure occur, typically randomly, as a result of the decision mechanic (which may denote player 1, player 2, etc.) The primary challenge is in each player attempting to express oneself as each wishes by attempting to manifest desires.

 

[Kaodi]

The only reason to define " game " as something other than what it has commonly been used to describe is because one has attached some value to the concept that makes it beneficial to one's psyche or pocketbook to start excluding other things.

This is just like happened to " sport " . No one gave a damn what exactly counted as a " sport " until some folks started coming along and attaching value, and more importantly, money, to things called sports. The redefinition of " sport " was entirely about politics, not semantics.

And if that is what some are trying to do to the definition of " game " , well, we all know what happens to political threads here...

 

[Tallifer]

Most definitely D&D is a game. A game is organized play. Winning and losing are often less important than playing in many fun activities. Did hockey stop being a game when my friends and I played it for fun on the local pond: stones for nets, no equipment beyond sticks and an old puck, a random number of players on each team?

D&D has rules like any other game; it has players; it has opponents to beat or be beaten by(the monsters et alia). It even has levels and points for scoring (treasure and epic battles survived).

Now on the other hand, I can see many aspects of art and literature in it. The stories, characters, worlds and legendary artifacts and monsters are the literary aspect: just like the oral sagas of Homer. The maps, character sketches and monster illustrations and often miniatures and modeled areas are the art.

 

[Dice4Hire]

D&D and RPGs are games.

 

[The Shaman]

A game is organized play. Winning and losing are often less important than playing in many fun activities. Did hockey stop being a game when my friends and I played it for fun on the local pond: stones for nets, no equipment beyond sticks and an old puck, a random number of players on each team?

Worth repeating.

 

[Argyle King]

Yes, I feel D&D is a game. I will also expand my answer to somewhat mirror my answer in the art thread by saying that I currently view D&D as being more dominated by the G in the abbreviation 'rpg.'


I found this to be especially true (for me anyway) during tonight's session when I was introduced to Gamma World.


(As an aside, I can't figure out what made me hate Gamma World during tonight's session. I went into the experience having high hopes and being honestly of the mindset that I really thought I would enjoy it. However, after actually playing it, I felt like I was suffering from borderline depression. I was in a pretty bad mood after tonight's face to face session of gaming. I'm supposed to be writing up some things for a game I am running, but the GW experience made it difficult for me to even open my 4E books when I got home. ...total buzzkill.)