The game, the player, the world: looking for a heart of gameness

This paper proposes a definition of games. I describe the classic game model, a list of six features that are necessary and sufficient for something to be a game. The definition shows games to be transmedial: There is no single game medium, but rather a number of game media, each with its own strengths. The computer is simply the latest game medium to emerge. While computer games 1 are therefore part of the broader area of games, they have in many cases evolved beyond the classic game model.