ABSTRACT
Games create play experiences that inhabit a fictional space. For an abstract game, that space might be purely experiential. That is the case for many abstract strategy games, like with the Japanese teahouse feel of a thick wood go board and polished black and white stones. For a progressive story game, the fictional space is narrative, as is the case in Grim Fandango’s papier-mâché quest through the Mexican Day of the Dead. Emergent, nonabstract games are somewhere in between. Examples include the wacky RoboRally machine shop, Portal’s darkly comedic weapons-testing facility, Magic: The Gathering’s magical fantasy, and Half-Life’s alien-infested dystopia.
