Fundamental Game Components

From Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber, there are several fundamental components in game design:

• game state - the collection of relevant information that may change during game play (health, points, items, lives, etc).
• players/avatars - all games must have someone playing them. In some cases, the player represents themself (poker, Tetris, etc), and in others, there is an avatar which represents the player in the game (first person shooters, Mario Kart, etc).
• mechanics - rules which act upon the game state and players, and describe all ways to change the game state.
  • setup mechanics describe how the game starts
  • victory conditions describe how to win the game
  • progression of play mechanics determine if the game is turn-based (words with friends), or realtime (Mario Kart)
  • player action mechanics or "verbs" describe what a player can do and how it affects the game state
  • game view mechanics describe what information each player knows at any given time
• dynamics - pattern of play which comes from the mechanics. Some examples are territorial acquisition (Starcraft, Risk, Go), and race to the end (Mario Kart, Chutes and Ladders)
• goals - provide rewards to motivate the player to do something. The ultimate goal is victory, but there may be others like defeating an enemy, finding items, or getting a high score.
• theme - the story and world around which the game takes place. Some games like Tetris have no theme, and others like Halo have so much backstory that there are books written about it.

Choose one of your favorite games and determine as many of the above components as possible. Pick a couple key components that you think make the game so compelling. Is it because of the story that the game tells? Is it the victory conditions (or lack thereof)?