Outline of games

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to games and gaming:

Games are structured or semi-structured activities usually undertaken for enjoyment. They are usually fun activities that can be educational or purely just for fun. The term "game" is also used to describe simulation of various activities e.g., for the purposes of training, analysis or prediction, etc., see "Game (simulation)". Games are a universal part of the human experience, for all cultures, genders and ages. Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interactivity. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and sometimes both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational or psychological role.

Purpose
Individuals participate in game-play for various reasons, depending upon the aspect the particular game covers. These include:


 * Education
 * Learning analytics
 * Entertainment
 * Play
 * Social relation
 * Pleasure
 * Hobby
 * Strategy
 * Tactics

Types of games
• Alternate reality game

• Ball game

• Board game

• * Chess variant

• * Eurogame

• Brain teaser

• Business game

• Car game

• Card game

• * Collectible card game

• Casino game

• Children's game

• Clapping game

• Computer or video game

• * Puzzle video game

• * Online game

• ** Online skill-based game

• ** MUD

• ** MMORPG

• **MOBA

• Connect the dots

• Conversation games

• Counting-out game

• Crossword

• Dice game

• Drinking game

• Educational game

• 15 puzzle

• Game show

• Game of chance

• Game of skill

• Group-dynamic game

• Guessing game

• Jigsaw puzzle

• Lawn game

• Letter game

• Location-based game

• Logic puzzle

• Mathematical game

• Missing square puzzle

• Nonogram (a.k.a. gridders, paint by numbers, etc.)

• Open gaming

• Paper-and-pencil game

• Parlour game

• Party game

• Peg solitaire

• Play-by-mail game

• PowerPoint game

• Pub game

• Puzzle

• * Anagram

• Quiz

• Riddle

• Role-playing game

• Rubik's Cube

• Sangaku

• Simulation video game

• * Business simulation game

• * Government simulation game

• Singing game

• Single-player video game

• Situation puzzle

• Sokoban

• Soma cube

• Spoken game

• Sports

• Spot the difference

• Strategy game

• Street game

• String figure

• Sudoku

• Tabletop game

• Theatresports

• Three cups problem

• Three utilities problem

• Throwing sports

• Tile-based game

• Tower of Hanoi

• Wargame

• Whodunit

• Word game

Game components

 * Dice
 * Playing card
 * Game board (or simply board) – the (usually quadrilateral) surface on which one plays a board game; the namesake of the board game, gameboards would seem to be a necessary and sufficient condition of the genre, though card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games which use neither cards nor a game board) are often colloquially included. Most games use a standardized and unchanging board (chess, Go, and backgammon all have such a board), but many games use a modular board whose component tiles or cards can assume varying layouts from one session to another, or even as the game is played.

Components of role-playing games

 * Player character

Game play

 * Play
 * Player – a participant in a game
 * Player-coach

Game development
Game development
 * Dynamic game difficulty balancing
 * Dynamic music
 * Emergent gameplay
 * Evolver (3D Avatar Web Portal)
 * Game balance
 * Game design
 * Game mechanics
 * Gameplay
 * Gold sink
 * House rule
 * Kingmaker scenario
 * Lusory attitude
 * Simultaneous action selection
 * Super NES Emulator SE

Game theory
Game theory
 * Branch of applied mathematics
 * Cooperative game
 * Evolutionary game theory
 * Extensive form game
 * Information set
 * List of games in game theory
 * Normal-form game
 * Payoff matrix

Lists of games

 * List of board games
 * List of cross and circle games
 * List of card games
 * List of dice games
 * List of domino games
 * List of party games
 * List of role-playing games
 * List of sports
 * Lists of video games
 * List of best-selling video games
 * List of traditional children's games

Also see

 * Game club
 * Game semantics
 * Ludology
 * Play
 * Puzzle
 * Sport
 * Toy
 * List of puzzle topics
 * List of impossible puzzles
 * List of puzzle-based computer and video games