Games Defined

How might you define a game?

Some notes:

- the first rule could also be defined as "gives the player(s) agency over the outcome of the game"

- a "player-driven" goal isn't necessarily not a game, however it isn't what you are trying to accomplish in the terms defined by the game itself. It would be like saying just building a house in Minecraft is a game, even though that doesn't really get you closer to beating the ender dragon. Wording is hard.

References:

- The Super Mario Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJRopau0g0

- Study showing we might learn more from success than failure: https://www.livescience.com/10559-learn-success-failure.html