Question: "What's a word you can use to describe what games are?"
Answer: - Entertainment.
Whether physical or mental, games are a form of entertainment.
Now if we can agree on that, the next thing to ask is: - "What in a game makes it entertaining?"
A prerequisite to any game is enjoyment. If a game doesn't have that ability it ceases to be a game. Why bother playing any game if you can't enjoy it? I say enjoyment rather than fun because a lot of games are probably enjoyed seriously. And that alludes to having elements that will interest the people playing them.
Before I generalize too much I should explain that I comment from the point of view of an inventor and of what Emmor Ray Sperry calls "Career" games or what might be called games of life. Money games or sleuth games like the classics Monopoly or Clue (Cluedo) or basically family games.
Now to get more specific on the subject of inventing these types of board games and what requirements help to make a good one work.
On this basis one thing to consider is the capacity of a game to bridge the generation gap and appeal to a wide age group. Of course it is this factor that is critical to the description "family game". I believe games can be created that can be as hard as needed for an adult and in which a child can compete equally.
I had spent serious time in inventing five board games in the early nineties and none are published. I’ll explain why towards the end. I guess for me to offer advice or to make criticisms of other games already published may seem a bit cheeky. Nonetheless I still believe sharing my own game designing experiences and observations of other games on (or previously on) the market could be helpful to any would be game designer out there.
Interplay and Interaction.
I believe a good family or group partition board game will have elements of interaction or involvement between the players. Interplay and interaction between the players will involve elements of strategy, tactics, concentration, observation, risk, bluffing skills, greed, gamble, memory, back stabbing, betrayal and also varying degrees luck and chance or (as I interpret), fate.
Knowledge.
Unless inventing a word or quiz game such as Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit I believe knowledge aspects (if playing too large a part) can limit a game.
A question element that requires knowledge in a family game would need to be designed as not to disadvantage any particular age group. This can be achieved if the inventor considers different ways to balance questions so that knowledge acquired by age alone doesn't play a part. E.g. If a game about music or entertainers had a question choice about performers in different era's with as many catering to the taste of both the very young and through to the very old age groups equally it may work very well.
Educational.
A number of game inventors boast an educational element in their games or they push a cause like the environment. Put too much focus on these elements and your game suffers. I have nothing against a game having an educational or a do-good aspect but it shouldn't take precedence over that main element of enjoyment. I guess the key is to be subtlety educated. Some of the good examples of what I mean by this are:- An Australian sheep farming game called Squatter had an excellent educational aspect that didn't detract at all from its enjoyment. The Stock Market game was another successful game that subtlety educated without affecting the enjoyment of the game as did the classic Monopoly.
Family game, Group game, Career game, Life game, Money game, Sleuth game and Strategy game, most of these descriptions apply to each of the games I have invented.
The basic formulas I have used to make each of my games enjoyable and fun to play do include the main ingredients that I believe make a good game of this type work.