27. Understanding the Games Using Function Behaviour Structure Ontology

The nature of the games has changed dramatically, and games are not just used for entertainment but also applied in other fields such as health, education, and marketing. When the potential of games attracts researchers and industry to apply game mechanics in different non-gaming contexts, the theoretical side of game design is still relatively underdeveloped. Generally, the game is the term used loosely on daily basis for gamified activities. The existing game design frameworks are described as separate stages connected to each other. Still, the process involved in transferring the variables from one stage to the next stage is not transparent. Because of the lack of transitions between the components of existing frameworks, the gamified activities are termed as games. FBS ontology helps to represent the process as a set of transformations between function, behaviour, and structure. The FBS ontology is helpful because a reasonable selection of variables allows the focus on relevant aspects of the game design. The focusing effect is an essential part of what a representation offers because the complexity of the game is overwhelming. This paper uses the Function-Behaviour-Structure ontology to understand the game and to identify game design’s functional, behavioural, and structural variables. Based on the identified functional, behavioural, and structural variables of game design, the difference between the games and gamified activities is also discussed in this paper.