A Note from the Casual, Occasional Gamer

      What does something have to have to qualify as a game? A set of rules? An agreed upon story line? A goal? A purpose? Possibility for growth and achievement? After reading Sutton-Smith's article, "Play and Ambiguity," this week, I realized an acceptable answer to this question is "I don't know." An interface can have all of these features or none of these features; what is most important is the player's experience and what he/she takes away from that experience. As a relatively inexperienced gamer, I can recognize that I've experienced some of the nuances of video games in things that are not labeled as such.
      Take this for example (try it out before reading on). Right off the bat, you have a mission: to figure out how this board of gray squares in front of you works. Naturally, you click a box to see what happens. The resulting sound enlightens you to click around some more to see if there is variance in sound across the board. Next, you try to see if there is any connection between position and time clicked in relation to when the sound is played shown by the visual cue of the illuminated boxes.With this knowledge, you can now move forward to make what you want out of this experience, whether it is to create something that sounds pleasant or horrendous. Everyone has their own strategy. Notice, there was never a tutorial. The creator of this game wanted every person to try it out and make those natural connections until he/she figures out all there is to know about this board of boxes. The only simple instruction that is given is "click a box." This reminds me of Caillois's idea of the natural instinct of paidia which states we are all equipped with this natural aptness, instinct, curiosity, and potential which allows us to thrive in unknown environments like the first level of a game. So, can we consider this musical board of boxes a game? I'd like to think so.
     Whether you have had every video game console in your home or simply just a computer, you have most definitely experienced the common mechanics of a game. In the words of Sutton-Smith, the definition of games is ambiguous, and in a practical sense anything imagined and/or with an ulterior goal/motive could be considered a game. During childhood we call it "playing," during adulthood we call it "recreation," either way, it all allows the same break from reality we all enjoy.