Editing Game mechanics (section)

== Definition of term ==
There is no consensus on the precise definition of game mechanics.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lim |first1=T |last2=Louchart |first2=S |last3=Suttie | first3=N |last4=Ritchie |first4=J.M. |last5=Aylett |first5=R.S. |last6=Stanescu |first6=I.A. |display-authors=etal |date=2013 |title=Strategies for Effective Digital Games Development and Implementation |journal=Cases on Digital Game-Based Learning |publisher=IGI Global|volume=12 |pages=168–198 |doi=10.4018/978-1-4666-2848-9.ch010|isbn=9781466628489 }}</ref> Competing definitions claim that game mechanics are:

* "systems of interactions between the player and the game" 
* "the rules and procedures that guide the player and the game response to the player's moves or actions"
* "more than what the player may recognize, they are only those things that impact the play experience"<ref>{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Steve |date=2010 |title=Introduction to Game Development (2.ed) |location=USA |publisher=Cengage |page=70 |isbn=978-0-84003-103-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theknowledgeguru.com/learning-game-design-mechanics/|title=Learning Game Design: Game Mechanics|last=Boller|first=Sharon|date=17 July 2013|website=The Knowledge Guru|access-date=11 August 2020}}</ref>

=== Game mechanics vs. theme ===
A game's mechanics are not its [[Theme (narrative)|theme]]. Some games have a theme—some element of representation. For example, in ''[[Monopoly (board game)|Monopoly]],'' the events of the game represent another activity, the buying and selling of properties. Two games that are mechanically similar can be thematically different, and visa versa. The tension between a game's mechanics and theme is [[ludonarrative dissonance]].<ref name="The Game Critique">{{cite web |last=Swain |first=Eric |date=August 25, 2010 |title=In Defense of Ludonarrative Dissonance |url=http://www.thegamecritique.com/recent-posts/in-defense-of-ludonarrative-dissonance/2283/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218081926/http://www.thegamecritique.com/recent-posts/in-defense-of-ludonarrative-dissonance/2283/ |archive-date=December 18, 2010 |access-date=December 27, 2010 |work=The Game Critique}}</ref><ref name="Clint Hocking">{{cite web |last=Hocking |first=Clint |date=October 7, 2007 |title=Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock |url=https://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/2007/10/ludonarrative-d.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114172154/https://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/2007/10/ludonarrative-d.html |archive-date=January 14, 2020 |access-date=November 19, 2018 |work=Click Nothing |via=TypePad}}</ref><ref name="Tom Bissell">{{cite book |last=Bissell |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Bissell |title=Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter |title-link=Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter |publisher=Pantheon Books, New York |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-307-37870-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/extraliveswhyvid00biss/page/37 37–38]}}</ref>

Abstract games do not have themes, because the action is not intended to represent anything. [[Go (game)|Go]] is an example of an abstract game. 

=== Game mechanics vs. gameplay ===
{{See also|Emergent gameplay|Game balance}}
Some [[game studies]] scholars distinguish between game mechanics and [[gameplay]]. In ''Playability and Player Experience Research'', the authors define gameplay as "the interactive gaming process of the player with the game."<ref name="nackeDiGRA">{{cite journal |last1=Nacke |first1=Lennart E. |last2=Drachen |first2=Anders |last3=Kuikkaniemi |first3=Kai |last4=Niesenhaus |first4=Joerg |last5=Korhonen |first5=Hannu |last6=van den Hoogen |first6=Wouter |last7=Poels |first7=Karolien |last8=IJsselsteijn |first8=Wijnand |last9=de Kort |first9=Yvonne |display-authors=8 |date=September 1, 2009 |title=Playability and Player Experience Research |url=http://www.digra.org/dl/display_html?chid=http://www.digra.org/dl/db/09287.44170.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Proceedings of DiGRA 2009: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112141834/http://www.digra.org/dl/display_html?chid=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digra.org%2Fdl%2Fdb%2F09287.44170.pdf |archive-date=November 12, 2011 |access-date=May 15, 2019 |quote=''playability'' is the evaluative process directed toward games, whereas ''player experience'' is directed toward players. More precisely, playability methods evaluate games to improve design, whereas player experience methods evaluate players to improve gaming.(p.1) |df=mdy-all}}</ref> In this definition, gameplay occurs when players interact with the game mechanics. Similarly, in ''Dissecting Play – Investigating the Cognitive and Emotional Motivations and Affects of Computer Gameplay'', the authors define gameplay as "interacting with a game design in the performance of cognitive tasks".<ref name="C">{{cite book |last1=Lindley |first1=Craig |url=http://www.bth.se/fou/forskinfo.nsf/8ea71836fbadac09c125733300214ab9/f336e780df204cf4c125753d003d3b45!OpenDocument |title=Dissecting Play – Investigating the Cognitive and Emotional Motivations and Affects of Computer Gameplay |last2=Nacke |first2=Lennart |last3=Sennersten |first3=Charlotte |date=November 3–5, 2008 |publisher=University of Wolverhampton |isbn=978-0-9549016-6-0 |location=Wolverhampton, UK |quote=The experience of gameplay is one of interacting with a game design in the performance of cognitive tasks, with a variety of emotions arising from or associated with different elements of motivation, task performance and completion |access-date=2010-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923195055/http://www.bth.se/fou/forskinfo.nsf/8ea71836fbadac09c125733300214ab9/f336e780df204cf4c125753d003d3b45!OpenDocument |archive-date=2015-09-23 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Video games researcher Carlo Fabricatore defines gameplay as:
* What the player can do
* What other entities can do, in response to player's actions.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fabricatore |first1=Carlo |year=2007 |title=Gameplay and Game mechanics Design: A Key to Quality in Videogames |url=http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/39414829.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329020912/http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/39414829.pdf |archive-date=2018-03-29 |work=OECD |page=5 |location=Rome, Italy}}</ref>
In ''Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings on game design'', the authors define gameplay as the combination and interaction of many elements of a game.<ref name="A">{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Ernest |title=Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on game design |last2=Rollings |first2=Andrew |publisher=New Riders Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=1-59273-001-9 |quote=One or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated environment"; "Gameplay is the result of a large number of contributing elements. .. gameplay is not a singular entity. It is a combination of many elements, a synergy that emerges from the inclusion of certain factors. .. The gameplay emerges from the interaction among these elements, .. |ref=AdRol}}</ref> 

However, popular usage sometimes elides the two terms. For example, gamedesigning.org defines gameplay as the core game mechanics that determine a game's overall characteristics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What are Video Game Mechanics? (Learn for Free) |date=11 March 2017 |url=https://www.gamedesigning.org/learn/basic-game-mechanics/}}</ref>

=== Categorization ===
Scholars organize game mechanics into categories, which they use (along with theme and gameplay) to [[game classification|classify games]]. For example, in ''Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design'', Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev classify game mechanisms into categories based on game structure, turn order, actions, resolution, victory conditions, uncertainty, economics, auctions, worker placement, movement, area control, set collection, and card mechanisms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Engelstein |first1=Geoffrey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unU-wwEACAAJ |title=Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms |last2=Shalev |first2=Isaac |date=2020 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-138-36552-0 |language=en}}</ref>