How many games do you own?

[jeep]

"How many games do you own?" a coworker recently asked me.

My response was: "I own equipment to play an unlimited number of games."

That didn't satisfy the person asking the question. "But how many games do you actually own?"

"What do you mean by owning a game," I asked.

"How many games have you bought?"

"Is bridge a game?"

"Yes, but..."

I interrupted. "I own a deck of cards. And I have rules for bridge in a book. Do I own bridge?"

"No, cards is one game"

I wanted to scream: NO IT'S NOT. I didn't. "Is Chess a game?"

"Yes."

"I have several chessboards and several sets of pieces, do I count each way of pairing them?"

"No, count all the chess games as one, because it's only one game"

"But I can use that same equipment to play other games."

"But it's only one game, and you've already counted the equipment."

"So each piece of equipment can only count once?"

"Sure"

"I own a set of Chu Shogi pieces. I also own a handful of additional pieces. The combination of Chu pieces with these other pieces let's me play Dai Shogi. Do I count that as two games?"

"Yes, they are different games."

"So I have a deck of cards, letting me play Bridge. I remove a handful of cards, and now I can play Euchre. Do I count that as two games?"

"No, count all card games as one."

"But not all shogi variants?"

"Those are different games."

"A deck of cards is a piece of gaming equipment. It's not a game. I probably own a hundred commercially produced games. However that says nothing about how many games I have equipment for. Do you want me to count generic equipment as a game? Like a set of chessmen can be used to play many different games. If I use those chessmen, add in four handmade pieces, it's yet another game. Should I count those?”

“Never mind.”

I didn’t mean to scare the person away. I suspect he was asking how many commercially produced games I own, but I still don’t know how to count generic equipment or multi-use equipment. He seemed to want me to count that too…

Anyway, comments?

[jeep]

?? Why? I was just trying to get enough information to answer the question.

We get along well, I just wanted to figure out what he wanted.

-JEEP

[jeep]

Huh, maybe I'm biased by having been there, but I can't even read that to make me sound like a jerk. I *was* curious though. I like talking about games, but I couldn't understand what he meant by a "owning a game." I never found out if I owning the pieces for Grand Chess counts, even though it is just a chess set with four extra pieces.

-JEEP

[jeep]

Solitaire is a puzzle.

I don't own this site.

A sport is a game that is primarily a contest of physical skill.

A computer isn't a game. It's a piece of gaming equipment.

-JEEP

[jeep]

http://mafiascum.net/forum/profile.php? ... ofile&u=10 Check out Antrax's title.

-JEEP

[jeep]

I wouldn't know. I never got him to answer what he meant by owning a game.

-JEEP

[jeep]

17 is clearly not correct.

-JEEP

[jeep]

No, he wanted to know something... I'm just not sure what. He knows I play many games.

-JEEP

[jeep]

OK, so I didn't put the whole conversation there so you guys don't know what happened before, but I did get clarification.

I probably own a hundred commercially produced games.

That was NOT what he was asking. He was asking how many "game systems" I own, but he didn't have the terminology nor a real understanding of what a game system is.

So my game systems are:
Playing Cards, Tarot Cards, Icehouse pyramids, Dominoes, Go board/stones, several home-made systems and probably more commercial ones, I'll have to think and look.

It was a good question, now that I know what he was asking. His frustration was that he didn't have the terminology he needed to get his point across.

-JEEP

[jeep]

Video games was clearly excluded.

As to including my fist, I don't. A gaming system is nicely defined in Ron Hale-Evan's game journal articles as: A set of components that function together in multiple games.

Your fist is not a gaming system. It can be used to play many games, but it's not a set of components... Granted, if you believe Ron Hale-Evans your fist is a component in a gaming system. He used: sticks, dirt, stones, body parts, voice as a gaming system. That one, I do own.

I'm still waffling on my Shogi pieces/boards...

-JEEP