Games

An activity with an objective that places a player - whether that player is a device, a person, several individuals, a group, or several groups - into competition against other players or against standards. If achievement standards are posited then the simulations or several parallel ones also become games. Games are related to simulations in many ways. Games can be more useful than dry simulations to determine the adequacy of existing structures, policies, or procedures for future possibilities, to bring about more effective communications, and to enhance learning, and thus to prepare people for coping with events that may occur in the near future. Games can also help explore the reactions of people to scenarios, eliciting a wide range of creative ideas and a lot of data for improving the model and simulations that would otherwise not be available. Games often are more challenging to the participants than the more intellectual exploration of a scenario that occurs in a simulation without serious competitive challenge. Games reach people's feelings and therefore lead to ideas that may not arise in the drier environment of a simulation. Games stimulate totally new approaches to the real world. For issues pertaining to the future, games more than simulations can project much of the variety and dimensions of uncertainty that are characteristic of the future's rich panorama. Games include all simulation formats, since working on any of them to accomplish a goal, meet standards, or compete against other people or groups turns a simulation into a game.