Editing Game (section)

==Gameplay elements and classification==
Games can be characterized by "what the player does".<ref name="craw" /> This is often referred to as [[gameplay]]. Major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules that define the overall context of game.

===Tools===
[[File:Game pieces.jpg|thumb|A selection of pieces from different games. From top: [[Chess]] pawns, [[marbles]], [[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]] tokens, [[dominoes]], Monopoly hotels, [[jacks (game)|jacks]] and [[Draughts|checkers]] pieces.]]
Games are often [[game classification|classified]] by the components required to play them (e.g. [[miniatures game|miniatures]], a [[ball game|ball]], [[card game|cards]], [[board game|a board and pieces]], or a [[computer game|computer]]). In places where the use of leather is well-established, the ball has been a popular game piece throughout recorded history, resulting in a worldwide popularity of ball games such as [[rugby football|rugby]], [[basketball]], [[soccer (football)]], [[cricket]], [[tennis]], and [[volleyball]]. Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region. Many countries in Europe, for instance, have unique standard decks of [[playing card]]s. Other games such as [[chess]] may be traced primarily through the development and evolution of its game pieces.

Many game tools are tokens, meant to represent other things. A token may be a pawn on a board, [[play money]], or an intangible item such as a point scored.

Games such as [[hide-and-seek]] or [[tag (game)|tag]] do not use any obvious tool; rather, their interactivity is defined by the environment. Games with the same or similar rules may have different gameplay if the environment is altered. For example, hide-and-seek in a school building differs from the same game in a park; an [[auto race]] can be radically different depending on the [[race track|track]] or [[street racing|street]] course, even with the same cars.

===Rules and aims===
Games are often characterized by their tools and rules. While rules are [[house rules|subject to variations and changes]], enough change in the rules usually results in a "new" game. For instance, [[baseball]] can be played with "real" baseballs or with [[wiffleball]]s. However, if the players decide to play with only three bases, they are arguably playing a different game. There are exceptions to this in that some games deliberately involve the changing of their own rules, but even then there are often immutable [[meta]]-rules.

Rules generally determine [[Turns, rounds and time-keeping systems in games|the time-keeping system]], the rights and responsibilities of the players, scoring techniques, preset boundaries, and each player's goals. 

The rules of a game may be distinguished from its aims.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schwyzer |first=Hubert |date=October 1969 |title=Rules and Practices |journal=The Philosophical Review |volume=78 |issue=4 |pages=451–467 |doi=10.2307/2184198 |issn=0031-8108 |jstor=2184198}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> For most competitive games, the ''ultimate'' aim is winning: in this sense, checkmate is the aim of chess.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kemp |first=Gary |date=2007 |title=Assertion as a practice |journal=Truth and Speech Acts: Studies in the Philosophy of Language}}</ref> Common win conditions are being first to amass a certain quota of points or tokens (as in [[Settlers of Catan]]), having the greatest number of tokens at the end of the game (as in [[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]), or some relationship of one's game tokens to those of one's opponent (as in chess's [[checkmate]]). There may also be ''intermediate'' aims, which are tasks that move a player toward winning. For instance, an intermediate aim in football is to score goals, because scoring goals will increase one's likelihood of winning the game, but isn't alone sufficient to win the game.

An aim identifies a [[Sufficient Condition|sufficient condition]] for successful action, whereas the rule identifies a [[necessary condition]] for permissible action.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Marsili |first=Neri |date=12 June 2018 |title=Truth and assertion: rules versus aims |url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/127177/7/MARTAA-35v1.pdf |journal=Analysis |volume=78 |issue=4 |pages=638–648 |doi=10.1093/analys/any008 |issn=0003-2638}}</ref> For example, the aim of chess is to checkmate, but although it is expected that players will ''try'' to checkmate each other, it is not a rule of chess that a player ''must'' checkmate the other player whenever possible. Similarly, it is not a rule of [[football]] that a player must score a goal on a penalty; while it is expected the player will try, it is not required. While meeting the aims often requires a certain degree of skill and (in some cases) luck, following the rules of a game merely requires knowledge of the rules and some careful attempt to follow them; it rarely (if ever) requires luck or demanding skills.

===Skill, strategy, and chance===
A game's tools and rules will result in its requiring skill, strategy, [[luck]], or a combination thereof, and are classified accordingly.

[[Games of skill]] include games of physical skill, such as [[wrestling]], [[tug of war]], [[hopscotch]], [[shooting sport|target shooting]], and stake, and games of mental skill such as [[checkers]] and [[chess]]. [[Games of strategy]] include checkers, chess, [[Go (board game)|Go]], [[arimaa]], and [[tic-tac-toe]], and often require special equipment to play them. [[Games of chance]] include gambling games ([[blackjack]], [[Mahjong]], [[roulette]], etc.), as well as [[snakes and ladders]] and [[rock, paper, scissors]]; most require equipment such as cards or [[dice]]. However, most games contain two or all three of these elements. For example, [[American football]] and [[baseball]] involve both physical skill and strategy while [[tiddlywinks]], [[poker]], and [[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]] combine strategy and chance. Many card and board games combine all three; most [[trick-taking game]]s involve mental skill, strategy, and an element of chance, as do many strategic board games such as [[Risk (game)|Risk]], [[Settlers of Catan]], and [[Carcassonne (board game)|Carcassonne]].

===Single-player games{{anchor|Single-player}}===
{{Redirect|Single-player game|single-player video games|Single-player video game|section=yes}}
Most games require multiple players. However, single-player games are unique in respect to the type of challenges a player faces. Unlike a game with multiple players competing with or against each other to reach the game's goal, a one-player game is a battle solely against an element of the environment (an artificial opponent), against one's own skills, against time, or against chance. Playing with a [[yo-yo]] or playing [[tennis]] against a wall is not generally recognized as playing a game due to the lack of any formidable opposition. Many games described as "single-player" may be termed actually [[puzzle]]s or [[recreation]]s.

===Multiplayer games{{anchor|Multiplayer}}===
{{Redirect|Multiplayer game|multiplayer video games|Multiplayer video game|section=yes}}
[[File:The Card Players by Lucas van Leyden.jpg|right|thumb|''The Card Players'' by [[Lucas van Leyden]] (1520) depicting a multiplayer card game]]
A multiplayer game is a game of several players who may be independent opponents or teams. Games with many independent players are difficult to analyze formally using [[game theory]] as the players may form and switch [[coalition]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=K.G. Binmore |url=https://archive.org/details/gametheorysocial0001binm_1994 |title=Game Theory and the Social Contract |publisher=MIT Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-262-02444-0 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The term "game" in this context may mean either a true game played for entertainment or a competitive activity describable in principle by mathematical game theory.

====Game theory====
{{main|Game theory}}
[[John Forbes Nash|John Nash]] proved that games with several players have a stable solution provided that coalitions between players are disallowed. Nash won the [[Nobel prize]] for economics for this important result which extended [[Minimax|von Neumann's theory]] of [[zero-sum]] games. Nash's stable solution is known as the [[Nash equilibrium]].<ref name="moral">{{Cite book |last1=Laszlo Mero |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kqQjX-S1idsC |title=Moral calculations: game theory, logic, and human frailty |last2=Anna C. Gosi-Greguss |last3=David Kramer |publisher=Copernicus |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-387-98419-3 |location=New York}}</ref>

If cooperation between players is allowed, then the game becomes more complex; many concepts have been developed to analyze such games. While these have had some partial success in the fields of economics, politics and [[Conflict resolution|conflict]], no good general theory has yet been developed.<ref name=moral/>

In [[quantum game theory]], it has been found that the introduction of [[quantum information]] into multiplayer games allows a new type of equilibrium strategy not found in traditional games. The [[Quantum entanglement|entanglement]] of player's choices can have the effect of a contract by preventing players from profiting from what is known as ''betrayal''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Simon C. Benjamin |last2=Patrick M. Hayden |name-list-style=amp |date=13 August 2001 |title=Multiplayer quantum games |journal=[[Physical Review A]] |volume=64 |issue=3 |page=030301 |arxiv=quant-ph/0007038 |bibcode=2001PhRvA..64c0301B |doi=10.1103/PhysRevA.64.030301 |s2cid=32056578}}</ref>