Abstract

It is an obvious statement to declare that games are rule-based. From the famous definitions of Johan Huizinga and Roger Caillois to the recent ontological accounts of video game scholars, one is expected to follow strict principles of conduct in order to play a game. These principles are permitting as well as prohibiting means and actions to achieve specific goals and to obtain a particular and/or a final result. Insofar as the act of regulating is enforced by a computer program, video games are even more bound by their set of rules. However, these fundamental and explicit regulations hide other ones, less clear but as cardinal to the game activity: conventions.