Week 2 Reading: "I Have No Words & I Must Design" by Greg Costikyan

(Actual full title is "I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games" if you want to be specific!)

During this article, Costikyan writes "A game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals." Below I have taken the words/phrases in italics and explained what I think they mean from what Costikyan has said.

Interactive Structure: This doesn't have to mean a digital game, it can also mean any form of game, such as a board game like Monopoly. The word interactive literally means just that; the player can interact with it in some way. If it isn't interactive, it isn't a game, although it should be noted that some things may have an interactive element to them but not be games.

Endogenous: This is basically a form of currency or something of value in the game, but it only has a use in the game it's in. A good example used was Monopoly money; a form of currency used in that game that has value while you're playing it, but is useless in the real world (unfortunately!) 

Struggle: For a game to be fun, there must be a challenge to complete/a complication to overcome. For example, if there was a choice between two options, one made you win, one made you lose, you would complete the game instantly and it wouldn't be satisfying. The struggle to complete the game is what makes it satisfying. Costikyan's example was of Britain during World War Two, with the two choices being "go against Hitler and win" and "give up." 

Goals: Goals are an important aspect of games, as without them the player has nothing to work towards and there is no reward for the player for playing the game. If there were no goals, the player's interest would probably tire out pretty quickly. Many games, such as RPGs, set multiple goals that the player can choose between instead of having only one goal to choose from, giving the player the choice so they don't have to complete a goal they may not find interesting first, making them still play the game instead of getting bored and leaving it.