ABSTRACT
Game playing is, with a few exceptions, inherently social. Before the advent of computer games, most games were played with other people, either competitively or collaboratively. Games provide a reason to be with other people and a context for activity, as well as acting as a social facilitator, for example at family gatherings or social events where people do not know each other well, making social interaction easier by giving it a focus. While there are some examples of pre-digital games that are solo activities (solo card games such as Patience being a notable example), the advent of computer games initially made gaming a more solitary practice, as the growth in un-networked home computers in the 1980s spawned a range of genres for ‘play-alone’ games, such as adventure or platform games. Even though these games were designed to be played by one person, they were still often used in social situations with players working collaboratively to solve problems, or taking turns to play while watching others.
