FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
How Video Games Entertain
At its most elementary level, game design consists of inventing and documenting the elements of a game. However, games don't exist in a vacuum; people create them to serve a purpose. That purpose might be training or study, but most often games are meant to entertain. You cannot become a successful game designer simply by creating games in the abstract. To make games for entertainment, you must learn to be an entertainer. This section looks at how games entertain people.
Different people enjoy different things, so we have both grand opera and motorcycle races as well as long, slow adventure games and short, frenetic arcade games. As a well-rounded game designer, you should be able to create games that entertain in a variety of ways.
It is not possible to design an ideal game that pleases everyone, because everyone does not enjoy the same thing. Do not try.
