- Games usually have fixed rules.
- Games are competitive and are played either between players or against the game system itself.
- Games are activities or sports involving skills, knowledge and chance.
- Games are simulations that work wholly or partly on the basis of players’ decisions.
- Games have roles, goals, activities, constraints and consequences.
- Games involve social and or personal interaction.
- Games set boundaries and give feedback.
- Games can be played alone or with others.
The various structural elements of games are describe by Prensky (20001)as:
- games have rules; these rules are usually fixed.
- goals
- outcomes and feedback
- competition or challenge
- interaction
- representation
Some game features and definitions.
- Competitive – Goal to achieve better than other persons.
- Difficulty – Presentations of task that requires effort.
- Exploration – A context-sensitive virtual environment.
- Fantasy – A make believe story or environment.
- Goals – Explicit aims and objectives, with a clear purpose.
- Interaction – Feedback from actions and changing state of game.
- Outcomes – Measured results from game play, i.e. scoring.
- People – Other individuals playing the game at the same time.
- Rules – Boundaries of play, limitations or constraints.
- Safety -Lacks consequences of the game in the real world.