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The Art of Computer Game Design--Chapter 1 - What is a Game?(10) Games versus Toys Games lie between stories and toys on a scale of manipulability. Stories do not permit the audience any opportunity to control the sequence of facts presented. Games allow the player to manipulate some of the facts of the fantasy, but the rules governing the fantasy remain fixed. Toys are much looser; the toy user is free to manipulate it in any manner that strikes his fancy. The storyteller has direct creative control over his audience抯 experience; the game designer has indirect control; the toymaker has almost none. Significance of Interaction Interaction is important for several reasons. First, it injects a social or interpersonal element into the event. It transforms the challenge of the game from a technical one to an interpersonal one. Solving a cube puzzle is a strictly technical operation; playing chess is an interpersonal operation. In the former, one plays against the logic of the situation; in the latter, one uses the logic of the situation to play against the opponent. Second, interaction transforms the nature of the challenge from a passive challenge to an active challenge. A puzzle will always present the player with exactly the same challenge. But a game opponent reacts to player抯 actions, and presents different challenges in each game. This difference has major emotional significance. The person solving the puzzle must somehow divine, guess, deduce, master, or discover the key trick built into the puzzle by the designer. Emotionally, the puzzle player is working against the puzzle or its designer to unmask its secret. Once the secret is known, the puzzle is no longer interesting. The game-player, by contrast, faces different challenges each time she plays the game. Where a puzzle is dead a game is alive; the player must create her solution to the game in a manner best suited to her own personality and that of her opponent. The key distinction between a game and a puzzle is the difference between creating your own solution and discovering the designer抯 solution. A game acknowledges the player抯 existence and reacts to the player抯 personality; a puzzle lies down like a dead fish.
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