12 points
*
The paper starts with a weirdly bad definition of “computer game” too. It almost makes me think that (gasp) the paper was written by non-gamers.
Computer games are manually crafted software systems centered around the following game loop: (1) gather user inputs, (2) update the game state, and (3) render it to screen pixels. This game loop, running at high frame rates, creates the illusion of an interactive virtual world for the player.
No rendering: Myst
No frame rate: Zork
No pixels: Asteroids
No virtual world: Wordle
No screen: Soundvoyager, Audio Defense (well these examples have a vestigial screen, but they supposedly don’t really need it)
10 points
12 points
things that are games:
- the control circuitry for a $1 solar-powered calculator
- my car
- X11
things that aren’t games:
- pinball, unless it has an electronic score display
- Quake-style dedicated servers
- rogue (nethack)
9 points
