The Game in All of These
Where the game lives
Six structures—rules, goals, feedback, uncertainty, choice, play—map any game-like thing; the missing ones explain why it does or doesn’t feel like a game.
A second look at what games are, what they do, and what we call them.
Second Playthrough takes the ideas players and designers argue about — genre labels, serious games, gamification, games as art — and gives each one a careful second look. Every video becomes a sourced essay you can read, check and cite.
Latest essay
All essays →Three series to start with
All five series →Series 04
The Game in All of These
Where is the game in this, and who wrote its rules?
Series 03
Beyond Entertainment
What is left of a game when its purpose is not fun?
Series 05
Categories and Classification
How do we describe what a game actually is, without leaning on a label that no longer means anything?
From the Field Guide
All 25 terms →Gamification
Adding game design elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards to activities that are not games.
Serious game
A complete game made mainly to do something other than entertain, such as teach, train, inform, or persuade.
Genre
A genre is a name for a recurring shape of play, meaning what you actually spend your time doing in a game.
Roguelike
A roguelike is a game of generated, one-life runs in which nothing carries over between attempts except what the player has learned.
About Second Playthrough
Second Playthrough is a video essay channel and publication about games as a medium. Each episode makes one argument — about classification, serious games, gamification, or games as art and industry — and each argument is published here as a sourced, citable essay. The Field Guide collects the terms those essays depend on, defined precisely and in plain words.
Second Playthrough is independent and reader-supported. Members read every essay before the video.