Reality May Be Broken, But 'Other Reality' Is Coming To An End

Jane McGonigal opens the first chapter of her 'Reality is Broken' book with a quote from Bernard Suits about the definition of a game.

Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles

(Suits, B. 2005: 54-55)

In his book, entitled 'The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia' Suits offers up the concept of the Lusory Attitude, which is a psychological mindset where the player will be willing to accept the rules of the game, in order the reach the goal.

"To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs, using only means permitted by rules, where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means, and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity" (Suits, B. 2005: 54-55)

McGonigal sets out the four main aspects of a game; goal, rules, feedback and voluntary participation. The rules make the goal hard to reach, this is what challenges the player and ultimately sets out the game as a whole. Without rules, the goal would be a one move completion. Feedback is a way for a player to know how far they are through the game. 

However, feedback, in certain instances is not necessarily important, especially for the "infinite" games which James P. Carse talks about in 'Finite and Infinite Games' (1986). These games are ones which the player does not want to finish. A loose example of this is Rockstar's 'GTA V' The player wants the story to continue and want it to be very long, because once its over, their 'other reality' is gone.

Games are being seen to form the same structure, but what has been so successful about the industry is how differently this structure can be interpreted. 

Bibliography

McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Penguin Press HC.

Suits, B. (2005, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia, Broadview Press.
Carse, J.P. (1986), Finite and Infinite Games. New York: Ballantine Books.