Sid Meier divides game enjoyment up into four categories: Easy Fun, Hard Fun, Relaxing Fun, and Social Fun.<p>&quot;Relaxing Fun&quot; is basically what the GP post was talking about -- a diversion, something you do to pass the time, which is typically not completely passive but mostly so.  A lot of sandbox-type games do this well, where you&#x27;re mostly just sort of looking at the scenery and derping around and having a good time without being particularly threatened or challenged.<p>&quot;Hard Fun&quot; is nearly the opposite -- it&#x27;s competition and challenges and stuff that gets your heart rate up.  It&#x27;s &quot;play to 20, win by 2&quot; and you end up finishing 25-23 in a high-stakes match to improve your global rating [0].  It&#x27;s beating a level in a single life when it used to take you 5 or 10 lives.  It&#x27;s shaving 3 seconds off of your speedrun by perfecting a tricky maneuver.<p>&quot;Easy Fun&quot; is things like shiny in-game treasure, achievements, even satisfying sounds like the Mario coin pickup sound.  It&#x27;s stuff that makes you smile just for playing and making ordinary progress.<p>&quot;Social fun&quot; is, of course, anything that connects you with other people -- playing cooperatively or competitively, or even talking about the game outside of the game itself.  (I met my wife on a video game BBS 18 years ago.)<p>[0] A Descent match between two of my friends: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=7Mq6hyfFAo4&amp;index=2&amp;list=PLoqgd0t_KsN6-B8RELj9FKd8BXaAQ7sfM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=7Mq6hyfFAo4&amp;index=2&amp;list=PLo...</a>