this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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"The only difference between programming and games is that games have win conditions."

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[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Imo definitions are important even if people aren't aware of them.

I did say it's an interesting area of study. So I was referring to the academic side and specific definitions.

The other definitions are way too wide imo and easily include many things that clearly aren't games.

Win free games are basically just constrained play I feel.

Again Minecraft isn't a game technically. Beating the ender dragon doesn't end the game. If it did then it would better fit the definition of a game imo. It's a sandbox or digital Lego.

[–] voodooattack@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What about MMORPGs? Where do they fit in this classification? I’m genuinely curious.

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's predefined goals and rules.

It has win and lose conditions, for example failing a raid.

It can technically be completed even if that takes an insane amount of time and effort. You can therefore fail to complete it.

So you could argue it is a game quite easily. You could also argue it's a set of distinct games within a framework.

But things get a lot more messy with digital games compared to classic games.