Finding Juul's while Playing Games

After reading the writing about Juul, I find it easier to define what is a game. Juul claims the existence of a standard model for creating games that has been constant for several thousand of years. Interesting.

Juul defines a good game definition as having three things. 1) The rules of the game. 2) The relation between the game and the player. 3) The relation between playing the game and the rest of the world. A simple way to test a game definition is to test it for being too broad or too narrow. Coming up, I always thought that Sim City was too complicated. I often thought how life would be thrown off if there was a fourth choice to rock, paper, scissors.

Through time, the definitions of a game have evolved into saying the same thing in different ways.  It is a system in which players engages in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that result in a quantifiable outcome. Juul has his definition broke down into 6 points: Rules. Variable Quantifiable outcomes. Value assigned to possible outcomes. Player effort. Player attached to outcome. Negotiable Consequences.

With everything being mentioned, I think life can be played as a game. Think about this. The poorest people on earth, and the richest people on earth play games. Kids with no power, can have just as much fun as kids in the suburbs. The cool thing about being a kid, is that some of the best games sporadically come up from imagination. That’s it. As we grow up, society tells us to play less games and do more work.  That’s why we are constantly asked as kids, what do you want to be when you grow up? It should be substituted with, how are you going to win the game of your life?