Games exist and have existed in many forms for long times. There are games to laugh, to learn, to evaluate et cetera. Since the 1970’s, there is a steady and increasing demand in operational gaming constructs for commercial organizations [Duke, 1980].

Gaming is an activity in which people agree to abide by a set of conditions in order to create a desired state or end [Suits, 1967]. Geurts and Vennix [Geurts and Vennix, 1989] define gaming as a model with rules and tools in which people, which play certain roles, gradually create a future. A simulation game consists of two elements: human players and a computer. In this combination, a computer acts as a high-speed calculator, and it contains one ore more models, triggered by actions of players [Greenblat, 1987].

Literature
Duke, R. (1980). A paradigm for game design. Simulation & Games, 11(3):364–377.
Suits, B. (1967). What is a game? Philosophy of Science, 34(2):148–156.
Geurts, J. and Vennix, J. (1989). Verkenningen in beleidsanalyse, theorie en praktijk van modelbouw en simulatie. Kerckebosch (in Dutch).
Greenblat, C. S. (1987). Designing Games and Simulations : An Illustrated Handbook.