Ludus and Paidia

A book called What is a Game Designer was published by James Newman, in this book he talks about the differences between two types of games. Games that have a clear outcome and games that have no set objective or outcome, these types of games are called Ludus and Paidia.

Ludus:

These types of games are linear and the outcome is easy to predict, games such as Pac-Man travelling around the map eating dots and avoiding ghosts or dying and trying again and Dynasty Warriors a hack and slash game where you aim to conquer all the regions and march under one banner.

        


Paidia:

Paidia is the term given to games with no clear outcome, they are played for the sheer enjoyment of seting and meeting there own goals and doing something new. a good example of this is Minecraft, you set your own goals to create whatever you want to create, there is no limit.