simulation

I think games and simulations are the same. They may strive to be different in the case of an army simulation, but they're always going to have game things about them. Crawford says that simulations aren't stylized, but their gaming interface and other things are always going to be stylized. A game menu is stylized. I've been playing Endless Ocean recently which blends simulated boredom with a very game like interface. There's not very much structure to the game, it's mostly just exploration via simulated diving. I know it isn't a pure simulation, but my argument is that it's impossible to have a pure simulation (Flight Simulators will always have game menus to get you into the game etc.) and that simulations vary in how stylized they are. I suppose it's kind of like arguing about genre, though. Nobody knows exactly what is a horror western film or how to define and RPG or whether Metroid Prime and Portal fall into the FPS category. For the purpose of an argument Crawford might have had to make a distinction between simulation and games, but I feel the difference is unnecessary.  read more »