Them's the Rules

"You broke the rules! I'm not playing with you anymore!" This statement has much more truth than it might let on at first. See, if someone breaks the rules of a game, technically, they aren't playing the same game anymore. A game is largely defined by its rules - the rules create a gaming environment, and any activity constrained by that environment can be called a part of that game. This perspective on gaming enacts itself in quite a few ways. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman define these as such - Operational, Constituative, and Implicit rules.

Operational rules govern over the gameplay itself. These are what most people consider to be the "rules" of a game, i.e. the procedures that, if followed, constitute playing the game. There is usually some penalty if they are broken or in some cases it is not possible to break them while playing correctly.

Constituative rules are the underlying structural rules of a game, similar to the metagame. Take tic-tac-toe. If no player makes a stupid mistake, the game will always end in a tie. This is not a part of the game's operational rules, but is understood through a logical analysis of the game.

Implicit rules are rules that are simply taken for granted. For example, an implicit rule of most games is that you cannot suddenly decide to quit once you start losing. You have to keep playing until the end, or until an agreement to end has been reached.

These rules apply well to traditional games and simple video games, but what about the more complex video games we see nowadays? Describing the Operational rules is very difficult, and can sometimes blur together with the Constituative rules. Because of this, our book chooses instead to focus on Interplay and Evaluation rules, a pair more customized for video games.

Interplay rules govern the world of the game, such as where you can go, where you can't go, what happens if you push a button on the controller, what objects are available in the playworld, etc. These rules are in charge of presenting you with the game to play.

Evaluation rules govern the world of the game in a different way - they govern the actual occurrences and their consequences. Interplay rules determine that there are pits in Super Mario Bros., but Evaluation rules determine that if you fall in a pit you start the level over. Similarly, if you jump on a goomba, the points you are awarded are determined by an Evaluation rule. It is essentially the game's reward/punishment system, and is in charge of evaluating how well you are playing the game.

Video game rules are a combination of these different sets (though moreso the latter), and these rules come together to determine how the game is played, how the game is scored, and how the game is presented. In video games, this is far more definite than traditional games, since each of these rules must be hard-coded into the game itself. Is it better for a game to have stricter rules, or to leave more to the player?