Rules of Play Response #3: Defining Rules

            This reading was a bit more straightforward than the previous ones. Whenever I am asked if I want to play a game that I haven’t heard of before, there is only one question that comes to mind: what are the rules? There is simply no way to properly participate in a game if you aren’t aware of what limitations you have. The rules are probably the most defining characteristic of a game – they give you your goal, and they tell you how you are meant to achieve it. By examining a deck of cards and all the games that use one, it is explained how the pieces/parts of a game are engrained into the rules. There are also rules of strategy, which aren’t required but are vital to win the game. The example they use is when playing tic-tac-toe, it is a strategic rule to block your opponent from making 3 in a row.

                  Many games share general rules, or “under the hood rules.” Rules such as players alternate turns. These types of rules must exist within context of the rest of the game in order to make sense. This example doesn’t tell you how to make a turn, it just lets you know that players will take turns one after the other.

                  My favorite part of the reading was how it pointed out that science is considered a form of uncovering rules of nature. The more we learn about the world, the more we are able to understand the relationships between molecules. I never tried to pt science so simply; if we can figure out the rules of nature, we can better play the game of life.