Games as abstract artifacts

Recent debates in the ontology of games have primarily focused on questions of individuation and persistence. By contrast, the problem of the nature of games has received limited attention. This paper aims to address this gap by examining what kind of entities games are. After surveying several possible answers to that question, which I argue to be unsuccessful, I explore the view that games are abstract artifacts. I consider how this theory can be developed and motivated, as well as some challenges it faces.