What 'Game' Mean?

i have play many type of game in my life but never really know the meaning of 'game'. For me, the meaning of game is as simple as is a thing that give us to play and have fun on it. After i done some research on the definition of game for my class work i found that there is different type of definition about the game.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game. He define the game have some element such as play, rules, and competition. But he also say that all this definition fail to define what a game are because he also don't know how to define what is game. Why Ludwig Wittgenstein refuse his own definition about the game. Let give an example, a young boy is playing a ball alone by throwing it to the wall and catch it. Some people say that kid is playing a game but from the game there is no any rules and competition on it but people still take it as a game. This is why Ludwig Wittgenstein say he could not define what game mean because there is no fixed answer on it because every people have different view on a word. For example, when people tell you a word 'fire' what have you think in your mind when you heard it. Some people will say a burning torch, some say a house was burning, some say a flame, some people say you get fired by your boss. This show that a word can come with different opinion on it from different people thats why Ludwig Wittgenstein cant define what is game.

Roger Caillois

Roger Caillois is a french sociologist, in his book "Les juex et les hommes" defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristic such as fun, separate, uncertain, non-productive, governed by rules, and fictitious. What he mean about separate is when a people is focusing while playing a game he will totally forget about the time and place. For example, when i was playing my favorite game i will totally forgot to eat my food and i will play the game from morning until night without feeling hungry. A game is uncertain because you never know what you will get from a game either lose or win. I was disagree with the word non-productive because this is not true. For example, people learn how to work together as a team to win the game such as sport game, and we also can learn some knowledge through the video games such as serious game that give people awareness on aids. 

Jane Mcgonigal

Jane Mcgonigal is an American game designer and author who advocates the use of mobile and digital technology to channel positive attitudes and collaboration in a real world context. She define game when we strip away the genre differences and technological complexities, all games share four defining traits such as goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participants. We can see three of them also state rule in their definition because every game have rule that limited what you can and can't do in the game. A game also have a goal that tell you what you need to do or done in a game. A game without a goal is call as toy said by Chris Crawford. Feedback system is a system that attract the player to play the game. for example, score, achievement, honor, item, trophy, stage process, story and others. When you playing a game, you are voluntary to join it not by force so you have to follow the rule and goal in a game if you don't you can choose not to play the games.

the definition for game have no fixed answer on it because different people have different opinion on it and it does not have wrong or right.