1st enrty what is games?

1st Journal Entry What are games? Games are an essential part of human culture. A person experiences many different types of games throughout his everyday life. Marshall Macluhan believes that "games are extensions, not of our private life, but of our social selves." (Provenzo,F Engene (1991)This is true in that the majority of games humans involve themselves with contain social interaction. There is however no easy, single definition of a game. I would agree with Ludwig Wittgenstein's discussion of games. Wittgenstein observes that games don't all share the same features but they do all contain overlapping similarities, for example tennis and the lottery. Tennis is a skilful, competitive game whereas the lottery is competitive but contains no skill. Both games share a similarity in competitiveness but cannot be defined in the same way. Wittgenstein furthers his argument by comparing games to a rope. A rope has twisted fibres however no single, core thread. Wittgenstein also uses the analogy of a family to compare games and their definition. He argues that just as family members have similar characteristics, for example same eye colour, same hair colour and so on, so do games with their different values like luck and competitiveness. Each have their own similarities but are not identical. Therefore, the definition of a game has blurred edges. Applying Wittgenstein's argument to the games that I have played, his logic is evident. Games like Doom II and James Bond Goldeneye are highly skilled, highly competitive "shoot 'em up" games in which you have to fight and kill enemies, whereas Samorostos II and Lemmings for example are more, light hearted puzzle games. These puzzle games are not competitive in the way that Doom II and Goldeneye are in that they don't give a person the same adrenaline rush and sense of competition. These games do have a similarity despite first impressions; they all contain skill. So you can see certain games have similarities but can be entirely different.
Bib
(Provenzo,F Engene (1991) Video Kids Making sense of Nintendo. Camberige, Massachusetts London,England,Harvard University Press)