Sports

Frame · Genre genre

Competition by rules – the reproduction or abstraction of physical contests as a game within a game.

Design question – Your game reproduces a sport or invents a new one. What makes the contest fair – and where lies the tension between skill and luck?

Reference example – Football: the sport itself, with rules, teams and competitions. EA Sports FC: the same sport as a video game, played with a controller. Wii Sports: tennis, bowling and boxing with movements of one’s own body.

Associations

• Typical Activities – Competing, Training, Strategizing, Performing

Coherence

Core expectations: rule-based competition, physicality (real or simulated), fairness, season structure, team spirit or individual contest. Mechanisms: real-time or turn-based (sports strategy), Scoring, Dice/Randomiser (luck element), Team Management. Activities: Competing, Training, Strategizing, Performing. Ludic Temporal Structure: match-based (fixed duration), season/league structure, halves. Ludic Social Structure: team vs. team, 1v1, league (many teams).