What's in a Game

Published:

I’ve just started my freshman year in the Colorado School of Mines, and as I do so I’ve started thinking about something specific: Games.

Most games try to give a reason for their existence, most indirectly. For example, games like Kerbal Space Program mainly serve the sandbox space crowd, while games like CSGO serve the crowd of people looking for a first person shooter. They don’t list the reason for their existence, but it can be inferred. There’s other types of games like the shoe game, which serves as team bonding. I won’t argue any game doesn’t have its place, otherwise it wouldn’t be a game.

What I will argue is that this makes everyone a gamer. Whether its gaming the system or gaming the game, all of us game to find that reason to feel happy. We’re all finding tricks and making tangents on how to game more efficiently. The game may not be a physical game, but instead the ‘system’ or ‘machine’, or even ourselves. The game is what we play in our heads that makes us feel like we’re working towards happiness. That purpose in itself becomes the happiness, even if we don’t realize it.

I believe this is a large piece of what makes us human, our innate desire to find games in everything. We seek out the game of social connection in order to mutually grow each others sense of game, a feeling cemented by assurance. We seek out to employ others in these games, using money as a motivator to fuel our own ability to complete these games. Money in itself becomes a game, sometimes a guessing game.

I feel a lot of these games make no sense, born purely for the love of the game. I will not highlight anything specific, as what is born purely from game becomes subjective, but I think it is okay that these games make no sense. They are what help to live life well, and that’s enough. We should help each other participate in these games, and try ourselves to make them worthwhile.