Why Do We Play Computer Games?

We play computer games because it evolved naturally out of Games With Rules. John Von Neumann, the guy who came up with the "von Neumann architecture" of modern computers, also gave birth to the mathematical discipline called Game Theory. There is an almost organic connect between Games With Rules and the computer. And that's because anything that can be reduced to a set of rules is, for the most part, programmable on a computer. It was games that had simple rules that first made into onto the computer. And then games with complex rules - like war games and simulations - simply because the computer was better at keeping track of rules then human beings were.

Then there is behavior. Let's face it, the computer is an electronic playmate that never cheats [1] or gloats, or engages in counter-productive behavior. Or even counter-destructive behavior. I first noticed that there are some people you just can’t play a serious game with when I tried to play a game of Napoleon at Waterloo with my older brother. I had patiently explained to him how conflict simulation games worked, and had laid out the hexagonal map, and had put down the little card board counters that represented the British and French units that were at the battle, and then made my moves for the Grand army of the French. Then I waited for his moves as the stand in for the British commander, Wellington. He promptly dropped his chin to the paper map, disturbing some of the carefully placed stacks of counters. And then he stared at one particular stack of my counters that was directly under his nose. Then he stuck his tongue out and tapped it on the top of the stack and lifted the counter that had stuck to his tongue up into his mouth and proceeded to chew it up and spit it out. End of game.

With such a playmate as the computer, you never have to worry about troglodyte behavior like that. You can create and run a lively, animated world of your own without having to deal with any balky people. Sometimes, if work is a game you don't like playing then so may real life.

[1] Not quite true. The early computer games, like Civilization I, had such poor Artificial Intelligences that they had to be allowed to cheat in order to be any kind of a challenge for a human player.