What Is a Game? General Models for Understanding Games/ Th e Issue of Genre

Are poker and Assassin’s Creed examples of the same phenomenon? Th e playing situation could hardly be more diff erent. Poker is inherently multiplayer and is governed by abstract rules not justifi ed by any fi ctive world-a full house beats two pairs, aces are higher than jacks. Meanwhile, Assassin’s Creed is a single-player stealth-based fi ghting game which takes place in colorful historical settings, the rules of which mimic those of the physical world (see Figure . ). Th ese two games are so diff erent that it might be hard to see how they both belong to the same category.