Beyond the game ...

When the game is an alternate reality game such as The Beast, where the game does not have any explicitly declared actions and outcomes, and in some cases does not even acknowledge its own existence, is it possible for there to be meaningful play?

Yes there is, I guess it all depends on the players, like in games such as Calvinball, the players themselves set the goals and rules of the game, and change them as they see want to experience the game. Having said that, I still think a large part of the experience of playing games is attributed to the way in which immersion is enabled through the oscillation of remediation between the making the interface disappear, and making the interface visible (immediacy vs hypermediacy). I guess the Interface in games is in fact, the magic circle, and it does not necessarily refer to the technology that constitutes the game, but rather the very experiential elements that constitute the game in which the players create meaningful play. Even if the interface is blurred until it disappears, I think the player is still conscious about the difference between the experiences that constitutes the game and normal day to day real life experiences, simply because, they can only find the game meaningful by playing them, not forgetting about them.

Does this type of "game" require us to rethink our definition of games?

I guess at this current moment, there is a tendency to associate the term ‘game’ with either digital games or conventional physical games such as board game and sports. These are usually clear cut in terms of the visibility of the interface, rules and goals etc. But perhaps one may suggest that the whole system of human life, which is made up of written and unwritten rules, and how people play out the power relations in their own lives, fits pretty much the definition of a game as well. So I guess we need to refine the definition of games not from the view of whether conflict involved in the game is artificial or not (interface/interface less), but whether the outcome has any real meaningful contribution to the larger game called ‘ life’ that we all play.

Game Systems

Creating mods (modifications) to existing games is a common practice, not just for computer games, but for any form of games. Does this imply that any game can be considered a game system? Why/why not?

Actually I am very tempted to agree that any game can be considered a game system, because I simply cannot find any game that offers no opportunity whatsoever for emergent play outside those of intended play (even if there are, those that I can think of do not fit my description of a game, such as interactive story books/movies). For non computer games, understanding completely the rules of the game is already one thing, but to actually enforce these game rules is another challenge altogether. At best games can be played according to agreed terms between all or some of the players, and meaning is created out of these agreed terms.

For digital games, although it can be argued that the computer act as the moderator, I find that there is still room for creativity. Even for a simple puzzle game such as Tetris, I could imagine someone could try to play it to use those falling blocks to form say, letters of their name initials for instance, or other silly stuff. There are people who play Sim City to build a beautiful city then call up disasters in a sense that, destroying the city now becomes the meaningful play...or what about people who play racing games by driving backwards all the way to the finish line? Almost all games, simple or complex, offer some sort of ways to play outside the intended play.

Consider a game which you feel could be successfully modified. How could this game be generalized into a game system? How much of the unique character/flavour of the game can be retained? How generic can you make the game system? How easy will it be to create new, unique games from the game system?

Fatal Frame would make a good modification into a game system. The game system of roaming around in 3d space with a camera to shoot objects can be retained, but player can capture other objects instead of evil spirits, and have different kind of objects in different zones of the level. It wouldn’t be so difficult to create new games out of this system I guess, just a matter of level design and art design for the objects.

Describe one new game designed on top of the game system you proposed in question 2.

I would call the game, “Wild Frame”, players are equipped with a camera with different lenses and capabilities, and then they are left out in a safari with wild animals roaming around. The objective is to capture as much as possible pictures without getting attacked by the animals…

Or we can make it into a paparazzi game, "Fatal Fame", where the player identify celebrities from the crowd and try to take pictures of them…And when the celebrities are identified, they would run away, and we have to catch them…As in real world, such Papparazi chasing game is no joke, it can be fatal…(in memory of Princess Diana, 1997)