Game V Toy

  The difference between toys and games is that games are something that consists of procedures, rules, an objective and other structural characteristics while a toy is simply a physical object whose main use is or can be for entertainment.  A game is abstract, a toy is physical.  You can not touch a game, only a toy.  However, you can never play a toy.  An example of a game and a toy would be poker and playing cards.  Poker has rules to be played by.  There is an objective you are trying to reach.  If someone were to ask you if you wanted to play some specific kind of poker, you would know what they meant.  Playing cards are simply objects.  There are no procedures to playing cards.  There are some general rules that define what playing cards can consist of, 52 cards with an optional two jokers, but nothing that tells you what you can do with them.  You are limited in their use only by their physical characteristics and your imagination.  Generally, you take a toy and you form a game based upon the use of that toy, but the toy has other uses.  The game has only the one use.

            A game and a toy are two separate ideas.  A toy cannot be a game, nor can a game be a toy.  This is simply because that they are different things.  As stated earlier, a toy is some actual physical object, while a game is simply a set of rules, procedures, objectives, etc which might involve how the toy is used.  There is a toy Monopoly, which is a game board, money, little pewter There is also a game Monopoly that consists of thing such as "If you pass or land on go, collect $200" and other things of that nature.  I can play a different game with the toy Monopoly pieces if I can think of one, and I can play the game Monopoly on the computer without the physical toy.

            In video games the line between toy and game break down some.  Part of the problem is that there is nothing really physical about video games, except the disk which you probably wouldn't want to use as some sort of toy, although you could.  Everything that happens is virtual.  You can not touch it as you could a normal toy.  Also, there is a large amount of structure to a game.  There are rules and procedures, even in games like The Sims.  However, video games are not exactly games either.  I could play Mario as it was intended and built to be play, simply trying to get through the missions, or I could make up a new game, based on how many coins I can collect or points I earn in a single level.  Now I don't care about reaching the end.  It doesn't matter if I die or not, just how many coins or points I have.  So in that sense it's very much like the Monopoly example.  Built with the intention of being played one way, but can be played in multiple others.  It is simply much more structured.  So perhaps objective is what separates the two.  Mario the toy has no objective, but Mario the game does.  So while the line is a little bit less clear, there still is a distinction between the game and the toy.

What about sandbox, Will Wright style video games?  Is The Sims or SimCity a game or a toy?  Well, it definitely is a toy in some sense, because they lack specific objectives.  Games can be made with them by giving yourself an objective, whether specific, "I want my character to become an astronaut", or general, "I want my town to grow larger."  But can it be both at the same time?  No, although the line is nearly not existent.  No matter how you play The Sims or SimCity or any game like them, you still have some sort of objective, even if its just as simple as   keeping your character or city alive, if not growing.  Again, a toy is something that can be given an objective while a game already has one.  Therefore there is a distinction and the two cannot be the same.