Defining Games and Play In their landmark 2004 game design textbook, Rules of Play, Salen & Zimmerman devote a chapter to definitions of games. They run through eight definitions of games and play from various scholars—Huizinga, Caillois, Abt, Avedon & Sutton-Smith, Suits, Crawford, Costikyan, Parlett—and compare them in a single charming chart: Table of game definitions from Rules of Play (Salen & Zimmerman 79) There are, obviously, many other definitions of games, but I think this chart...
