15. Rules and Verbs
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR.
One school of thought takes rules to be the fundamental element of games. Thus, to explain a game you need to examine the rules. For instance, if you use MDA (mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics) as your framework for understanding games, the only element that you can directly affect is the mechanics. The mechanics, in this case, are just rules of varying scope. But even if you choose to use some other framework to evaluate your game, you’ll likely need to examine the rules of the game as a fundamental element of the experience.
Rules
When you are introducing a game—say, hearts—to a friend, how do you explain the game? Generally, ...
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