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Two Kinds of Representation
What exactly is the relationship between games and representation? There are two ways to think about it: First, games can represent. Second, games are representations. Games can represent by creating depictions: of characters, stories, settings, ideas, and behaviors. Game representations gain meaning within the game universe, as they are experienced through play. Games represent by creating complex internal systems of meaning, so that in a GURPS fantasy role-playing game, for example, a sword is represented differently than a dagger. The difference in representation is not only achieved visually. A sword will certainly look different than a dagger (it is longer, for example), but its overall role in the game (how it is used, who uses it, what actions it allows) also contributes to its representation. On the other hand, games themselves are representations. Mortal Kombat is a representation of hand-to-hand combat, Go is a representation of territorial conflict, and Pong is a representation of Table Tennis. Games are representations when we consider them as representational wholes. These two ways of connecting games and representation are closely related. The forms of representation internal to a game work together to create a composite representation that emanates more generally from the game system. Sim City contains thousands of individual representations with which a player interacts over the course of game play (traffic jams, the city electrical grid, budget spreadsheets, and so on). These representations have meaning within the game, but also contribute to the meaning of the game as a representational object in its own right. The many internal representations of Sim City add up to create a single representation: the game depicts the process of urban planning.
