Single Player Game

What are single-player games?

A game is a structured type of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Sometimes people play games purely for enjoyment, while other times they play for achievement or reward, such as professional Single Player Game of spectator sports or games, or those who engage in artistic games like jigsaw puzzles, Mahjong, solitaire, or certain video games.

 Definitions Other definitions

• “Voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” Bernard Suits

• “A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.” (According to this definition, some “games” that do not involve choices, such as and are not technically games any more than a slot machine is.

• “A game is a form of play with goals and structure.” (Kevin J. Maroney)

• “A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.”

• “A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context.“

Gameplay elements and classification

Gameplay characterizes games by what the player does. Major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules that define the overall context of the game.

Tools

A selection of pieces from different games. From top: Chess pawns, marbles, Monopoly tokens, dominoes, Monopoly hotels, jacks, and checkers pieces.

Single Player Game are often classified by the components required to play them (e.g. miniatures, a ball, cards, a board and pieces, or a computer). In places where the use of leather is well-established, the ball has been a popular game piece throughout recorded history. Resulting in the worldwide popularity of ball games such as rugby, basketball, soccer (football), cricket, tennis, and volleyball. Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region.

Single-player games

redirect here. For video games, see video games.

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 skills, against time, or 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 puzzles or recreations.

Multiplayer games

“Multiplayer game” redirects here. For multiplayer video games, see Multiplayer video game.

The Card Players by Lucas van Leyden (1520) depicts 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 coalitions. 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.

Types

See also: List of game genres

Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment.

Games can take a variety of forms, from competitive sports to board games and video games.

Sports

Main article: Sport

Association football is a popular sport worldwide.

Many sports require special equipment and dedicated playing fields, leading to the involvement of a community much larger than the group of players. A city or town may set aside such resources for the organization of sports leagues.

Popular sports Single Player may have spectators who are entertained just by watching games. A community will often align itself with a local sports team that supposedly represents it (even if the team or most of its players only recently moved in); they often align themselves against their opponents or have traditional rivalries. The concept of fandom began with sports fans.

Lawn games

Lawn games, those delightful outdoor pastimes, thrive on the green canvas of a well-maintained lawn. Unlike sprawling sports fields, these games find their niche in the intimate spaces of our front or backyards. With roots in traditional sports, they’ve evolved into leisurely pursuits, perfect for social gatherings or family fun. Common lawn games include horseshoes, sholf, croquet, bocce, and lawn bowls.

Tabletop games

A tabletop game is a game where the elements of play are confined to a small area and require little physical exertion, usually simply placing, picking up, and moving game pieces. Most of these games are played at a table around which the players are seated and on which the game’s elements are located. However, many games falling into this category, particularly party games, are more free-form in their play and can involve physical activity such as mime. Still, these games do not require a large area in which to play them, large amounts of strength or stamina, or specialized equipment other than what comes in a box.

Board games

Main article: Board game

Parcheesi is an American adaptation of a Pachisi, originating in India.

Board games use as a central tool a board on which the players’ status, resources, and progress are tracked using physical tokens. Many also involve dice or cards. Most games that simulate war are board games (though a large number of video games have been created to simulate strategic combat), and the board may be a map on which the players’ tokens move. Virtually all board games involve “turn-based” play; one player contemplates and then makes a move, then the next player does the same, and a player can only act on their turn. This is opposed to “real-time” play as is found in some card games, most sports, and most video games.

Main article: Card game

Further information: Collectible card game

Playing Cards, by Theodoor Rombouts, 17th century

Card games use a deck of cards as their central tool. These cards may be a standard Anglo-American (52-card) deck of playing cards (such as for bridge, poker, Rummy, etc.), a regional deck using 32, 36 or 40 cards and different suit signs (such as for the popular German game skat), a tarot deck of 78 cards (used in Europe to play a variety of trick-taking games collectively known as Tarot, Tarock or Tarocchi games), or a deck specific to the individual game (such as Set or 1000 Blank White Cards). Games like Uno and Rook, which were originally played with a standard deck, have since been commercialized with customized decks. Some collectible card games, such as Magic: The Gathering, are played with a small selection of cards that have been collected or purchased individually from large available sets.

Dice games

Main article: Dice game

Students use dice to improve numeracy skills. They roll three dice, then use basic math operations to combine those into a new number which they cover on the board. The goal is to cover four squares in a row.

Dice games use several dice as their central element. Board games often use dice for randomization, significantly affecting the game’s outcome. Dice games differ because the dice alone determine success or failure, without other game elements influencing the result. They instead are the central indicator of the person’s standing in the game. Popular dice games include Yahtzee, Farkle, Bunco, Liar’s dice/Perudo, and Poker dice. Domino and tile games

Main articles: Tile-based game and Dominoes

Domino games resemble card games in many ways, but instead of cards, they utilize a set of tiles known as dominoes. Each domino tile traditionally features two ends, each adorned with a specific number of dots or “pips,” and every combination of two possible end values on a tile is unique within the set. Variations of traditional dominoes abound: Triominoes are similar in theory but are triangular and thus have three values per tile. Similarly, a game known as Quad-Ominos uses four-sided tiles.

Guessing games

A guessing game has as its core a piece of information that one player knows, and the object is to coerce others into guessing that piece of information without actually divulging it in text or spoken word. The genre also includes many game shows such as Win, Lose or Draw, Password, and $25,000 Pyramid.

Video games

Video games are computer- or microprocessor-controlled games. Computers can create virtual spaces for a wide variety of game types. Some video games simulate conventional game objects like cards or dice.  Others can simulate environs either grounded in reality or fantastical in design, each with its own set of rules or goals.

A computer or video game uses one or more input devices, typically a button/joystick combination (on arcade games); a keyboard, mouse, or trackball (computer games); or a controller or a motion-sensitive tool (console games). Paddle controllers, among other esoteric devices, have also seen used for input.

Online games

Online games have been part of culture from the very earliest days of networked and time-shared computers. Early commercial systems such as Plato were at least as widely famous for their games as for their strictly educational value. Visitor’s Day in 1958 saw Tennis for Two taking the spotlight and bringing attention to the oscilloscope at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Maze War served as the primary attraction at Xerox PARC throughout the 1980s, as the team offered it as a hands-on demo to visitors.

Role-playing games

Role-playing games, often abbreviated as RPGs, are a type of game in which the participants (usually) assume the roles of characters acting in a fictional setting. Usually face-to-face, and keep track of the developing fiction with pen and paper. Together, the players may collaborate on a story involving those characters; create, develop, and “explore” the setting.  Vicariously experience an adventure outside the bounds of everyday life. Pen-and-paper role-playing games include, for example, Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS.

Business games

Business games can take a variety of forms, from interactive board games to interactive games involving different props (balls, ropes, hoops, etc.) and different kinds of activities. The purpose of these games is to link to some aspect of organizational performance and to generate discussions about business improvement. Many business games focus on organizational behaviors. Some of these are computer simulations while others are simple designs for play and debriefing. Team building is a common focus of such activities.

Simulation

The term “game” can include simulation or re-enactment of various activities or use in “real life” for various purposes: e.g., training, analysis, and prediction. Well-known examples are war games and role-playing. The root of this meaning may originate in the human prehistory of games deduced by anthropology from observing primitive cultures, in which children’s games mimic the activities of adults to a significant degree: hunting, warring, nursing, etc.