A simulation is a procedural representation of aspects of "reality." Simulations represent procedurally and they have a special relationship to the "reality" that they represent.
There are many kinds of simulations that are not games. However, all games can be understood as simulations, even very abstract games or games that simulate phenomena not found in the real world.
Game simulations usually operate metaphorically: they do not literally recreate a representation of their subject matter. The difference between a game simulation and its referent can be a source of pleasure for players.
A procedural representation is a process-based, dynamic form of depiction. Procedural representation is how simulations simulate their subject matter. These forms of representation emerge from the combination of the formal system of a game and the interaction of a player with the game.
An entire game can be considered a procedural representation of a particular subject. In addition, games include smaller procedural representations that make up the larger depiction.
The subject matter of game representations is linked to the kinds of conflict that a game can represent. Games typically represent territorial conflict, economic conflict, or conflict over knowledge. Most games combine two or all three of these categories. It is possible to represent other forms of conflict as well.
Simulations are a powerful way of thinking about narrative because procedural representation is an approach to storytelling that directly emphasizes the player's experience.
Simulations are abstract, numerical, limited, and systemic. A simulation cannot be both broad and deep. Because designing a simulation means radically reducing the simulation's subject matter, a game designer must carefully select which aspects of a phenomenon to depict and how to embody them within the system of the game.
Simulations, especially in digital games, can be structured according to a case-based logic, in which relationships between every element of a system are specified in advance, or a more generalized logic in which system elements share a set of general attributes. Generalized structures can save work time and lead to more emergent games where players have greater options for action. However, a balance between the two kinds of structures is usually necessary in any given game.
The phenomenon of metacommunication implies that game players are aware of the frame of a game and that a player's state of mind embodies a kind of double-consciousness that both accepts and refutes that frame.
The immersive fallacy is the belief that the pleasure of a media experience is the ability of that experience to sensually transport a player into an illusory reality. Although the immersive fallacy is prevalent in the digital game industry, it does not take into account the metacommunicative nature of play.
Media theorists Bolter and Grusin argue that all media operate through the process of remediation. The two opposing elements of remediation are immediacy, which promises true and authentic representation, and hypermediacy, which emphasizes the constructed nature of media representation.
Psychologist Gary Allen Fine identifies three layers of game player consciousness: direct identification with the game character, engagement with the game procedures as a player, and existence in larger social contexts as a person.
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