Exercise 2.4: Rules

Can you think of a game that has no rules? This sounds like a very simple question. However, it does not have an answer that is very easy to come up with. Even the simplest games seem to have rules. For example, hide and go seek is one of the most basic games played by children. It has many rules, such as: the seeker has to count to twenty before they begin to look for the other players, every player hides except for one, and the hiders must stay in their hiding spots until they are found. Without these rules, the game would not function properly. Therefore, games without rules do not exist.

Some games, like Minecraft, may seem to have no rules. In reality, there are rules to every game. Even though the player cannot win or lose, there is one rule. Anything that the player wants in their game must be made from scratch with blocks. Nothing can be placed into the game made from something other than blocks. I have never actually played Minecraft, so with further research I may be able to find more rules. For now, this is the game that I have found with the least rules.

This exercise is extremely difficult because rules hold games together. With no rules, the designer of the game has no way to dictate how the game will be played. With too much freedom, the player will no longer know what to do and it will cease to be a game.