Can games exist without players?

[boingboing]

[Read the post]

[Boundegar]

Headline contains a question mark. No is axiomatic.

[thaumatechnicia]

My first thought is of a game like Pyroto Mountain, which Cory’s played.

Sure, there were rules that had been programmed by Tim, but…the players WERE the game.

[woodfish]

Yes. They are called simulations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation

[tekk]

When can we get some proper terminology getting in here? If there’s no gameplay, then it’s not a game; a game without a player isn’t even an interactive movie. The term you’re looking for, in fact, is indeed a movie. Now if you’re talking a game that’s mainly meant to be seen as art rather than something fun or entertaining, I’m inclined to say interactive experience. Course the line can be blurred a little bit, I’d probably consider the works of Jason Rohrer to be games, although some of them like

There’s nothing wrong with a work being either of those, but it’s a bit mad to get offended when people buy something that was advertised as a game, and then complain about it because they didn’t understand your rather bizarre definition of a game.

[gregmcph]

The computer is the player.
Someone, something is the decision maker.

A game of chess with computer algorithms playing both black and white is still a game. It’s just the nature of the participants.

[TimmoWarner]

Progress Quest has been a game without a player for a very long time. The computer does all the playing for you to save time.

[coherent_light]

“Yes. Number of players: zero.”

—Wargames.

[OtherMichael]

Yet I still manage to suck at it.

[renke]

The title is the updated version of “if a tree falls in the forest”. Makes it easier for city dwellers to understand the philosophical implications.

[Arduenn]

Can games exist without players?

1. Well, yes. I have a game of chess stacked away in a box on the attic. There’s no players there, but it’s still a game.

2. You mean ‘no human players’? Sure. AI’s can be players too, I’d say.

3. Yeah, they’re called televisions. No players in your living room, just spectators.

4. << insert whatever answer you can think of, based on your own interpretation of this ambiguous title >>

[Boundegar]

Come to think of it, I have a mod for Civilization V that auto-plays until your civilization is ready to appear on the world stage - so you don’t have to play the Americans in 4000 BC. Sadly, you don’t get to watch the autoplay. I suppose that would be cheating.

[jeff_fisher]

No. Those are called simulations.

[dave_b]

Unreal tournament all bots.

[ficuswhisperer]

What about Progress Quest?