Caillois’ Terminology: Alea, Ilinx, Agon, Mimicry, Paidea and Ludus

Caillois has defined four categories for different types of games: alea, ilinx, agon and mimicry.

Alea are games that some form of randomness, for example many board games utilise this.

Illinx are games that heavily involve movement. These games make you move in different ways to get to the finish. The Super Mario Bros. series is a good example of this.

Agon are games that involve some sort of competition; games such as wrestling games are these as they make two players fight against each other.

Mimicry are simulation games: they mimic real life. There are many examples of these as the genre is so broad. The many "tycoon" type games fit into this.

Finally, there are two other important words: Paidea and Ludus.

Paidea: “Physical or mental activity which has no immediate useful objective, nor defined objective, and whose only reason to be is based in the pleasure experienced by the player”. This usually means playing for pleasure. The Sims series of games are a good example; the main game does not revolve around any objectives as they are made by the player.

Ludus: “Activity organised under a system of rules that defines a victory or a defeat, a gain or a loss”. This is basically the opposite of the above. A game that has a lot of rules you need to follow to play and win it would be a good example of this; Chess for example.