This month, we’re writing a series of introductory articles about the many different ways to think about games and gaming. Last week, Alex wrote about what might motivate a gamer to play a game; today, I’ll focus on the games themselves, and I’ll discuss various means of classifying games and why those categories can be useful to a game designer.
Classically, the most common means of categorizing games has been by component. For some games, the parts that the game is played with, or the medium where the gaming occurs, is the single biggest factor in describing the game. Board games are played over a large, flat surface where pieces are moved around; Go, Sorry!, and Kingdom Builder are great examples of board games. Card games are typically played with a hand of cards and no board, and well-known examples of card games include Bridge, Uno, and San Juan.