Can you list every game you've ever played?

Kevin Fox writes about a game design assignment: list every game you've ever played. every game, not only electronic; games like chess, checkers, blindman's bluff, spin the bottle, playing house, etc.

An interesting thread results.

And I am provoked also to consider why, when I say I study "games", I usually mean only electronic/video games. Are there applicable lessons to be learned from studying Hide-and-Seek?

I will have to think about this much longer before I can come up with my list.

(via Jason Kottke)

Comments

[Chris M. Dickson]

I've tried to make a complete list of all the board games I've ever played:

http://www.dickson.demon.co.uk/gamesplayed2002.xls

Tens of board gamers produce and publish lists of which games they've played over the year, principally those which they've played 5+ times or 10+ times. I've extended the project this year to estimating all the board games I've ever played and how frequently. (In past years, I've reviewed each of 200+ board games in one word and reviewed each of 290+ board games in 20 characters.)

[Bowler]

I think every game has credibility as far as lessons to be learned for electronic game design.

Even broken down to its core elements, Magic the Gathering has some amazing balance issues to study, which can be tweaked for use in an MMORPG, for instance.

Granted, I don't play many non-electronic games anymore, but I'd say there's definitely learnable lessons there :)

[Tofu]

for me, it would be impossible to list all the games ive played as i believe anything mildly competitive or involves some decision-making is a game.

now, i dont play games to get game design ideas... but i guess every game that i play involves some sort of balancing. even a game like "would you rather..." involves some sort of balance or it would be to easy to say that you would rather be normal than be ultra-fat and super strong. point of game, stump your friends.

all games should be fun or involve a sense of accomplishment.

[Andrew Mayer]

Are there applicable lessons to be learned from studying Hide-and-Seek?

Kids games are one of greatest sources for a designer. Anything that has been that succesfull for that long is going to clue you into basic patterns of play.

And there's nothing better then realizing that you just got a check for designing an electronic version of "Mother may I?".

[Greg Roberts]

i've made a comprehensive list of every electronic game i have played over the past 25 years, including some non-electronic favorites, such as rubik's cube and diplomacy.

http://66.56.40.6:7777/gamelog/

on your prompting, perhaps i will include such fun ones as [RL] capture the flag, soccer, and, uh... truth or dare?!?!

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