week1

Wittgenstein on Games
Games. We all play games (more or less). But what is the definition of a game. Wittgenstein says (retrieved from the World Wide Web from the site mentioned below) “that there is nothing common to all games rather they have certain similarities and relationships they share with each other”. He goes on to tell his reader “not to think, but to look” at the games. He says that games have overlapping features (not exactly the same) like a rope. Wittgenstein also says that games have games have overlapping features which he associates to the concept of family resemblance. He says like people of a family share certain characteristics i.e. build, features, colour of eyes etc. games also do (retrieved from the World Wide Web from the site mentioned below). Games also have certain overlapping and criss-crossing features.
Now I would like to take the example of few games and apply it to what Wittgenstein said. My first example is Fifa 2002. It is a typical sports game in which a person has to select on side and play football against the other with fairly simple rules (that of football) and my other example is Age of Empire II.AOE II is a strategy game very much like civilization II where the player has to develop and expand his civilisation and defeat his enemy (or enemies if one chooses so). Both of the games are very different to each other and yet both have certain similarities like both have a win or lose criteria, both have a certain level of competition, both have rewards. I would also like to take the example of Doom II which is a “shoot everyone you see” sort of a game. It is also very different from the above mentioned games yet has certain overlapping characteristics it shares with Fifa 2002 and Age of Empire II. Doom II has an element of skill and competition which Fifa 2002 also has. Similarly it has element of skill, reward and luck that it shares with Age of Empire II. Until now every game I have played has characteristics described by Wittgenstein in some way or the other.


Word Count-358

Bibliography:
Retrieved from the world wide web on 8 march: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_resemblance