At the same time, games and music could actually be positioned on two opposite axes of human activities. Games, in fact, are "top-down" processes, not prescriptive of the outcome but indicative of rules and norms to achieve a result, the method and development of which are not specified. Essentially, the course of the game is not defined a priori, but carried out and realized by the participants who, through respecting the rules and utilizing the tools provided by the structure of gameplay, reach their goal in a free and subjective manner. In contrast, especially in traditional practice, music focuses heavily on the precise and detailed description of the performance of the piece: performers are not given general indications, but rather very detailed scores filled with precise instructions. Only in recent times has contemporary music focused on the freedom of the performer and their involvement in the production of the final work, endowing them with a role more advanced than that of a mere mechanical performer. The decision-making aspects of the performer have often been relegated, throughout human history, to musical productions more widespread in popular realms, or specific to certain genres such as jazz or certain Baroque practices.
In this conception, music is therefore a bottom-up process, which involves the most detailed possible indication of the method to achieve the result, while also taking into account that this result can never be exactly identical to another, thus leaving room for interpretation and departure from the confines of the score. This differs profoundly from games, which do not prescribe a similar level of detail in execution and often leave more room for improvisation and personal interpretation within the framework of the rules.
This difference is also due to the differences in the complexity of the outcome and the focus of each operation: the execution of any piece will never be reducible to the binary "win-loss" of any game, as it requires a certain amount of data (frequencies, dynamics, timing, instruments) to succeed in its performance. A game often has a simple on-off outcome, namely the possibility of an event occurring (a win) or not (resulting in a loss). Within these binaries, many possibilities are foreseen (crushing victory, narrow victory, draw...), all of which confirm the statutory definition of "game", whereas to verify the truth of the condition “Bachian performance", at least a certain percentage of frequencies and rhythms must be correct, in order to allow for that recognizability typical of the author in question.
Another layer could also be taken in consideration. An interesting set of mismatches between games and music, referring to their reciprocal state, could be individuated as follows:
- games have not been conceived as art for long; some tools involved in games have been developed so deeply that gained interest within the cultural landscape of specific fields, such as design and fashions, but games per se haven’t reached that level;
- music has not been conceived as a game; definitely an entertainment, but not exactly a game, due to its requirements of specific and quite advanced skillset to play an instrument or imagining a composition.
This entails mostly to a specific Western cultural landscape, with a very specific set of values and mindsets that often shows the practice to rank or compare disciplines and fields to outcast the most appreciated or most underrated, even when they don’t really share similar properties1. The actual motives behind these historical events may not solely be based on factual reasons.
Perhaps a most obvious and immediate distinction lies in the relation between the enjoyment of the activity and the teleological purpose: games often have one, while music does not. The sense of music resides in the experience during the music itself, be it emotional, rational or just sensorial; the sense of the game is often given in relation to the purpose for which it is played: to win, to beat someone, to achieve a specific goal. Games often possess a teleological dimension largely absent from the musical experience. Nguyen, again, divides players into several main types, among which two are of primary interest and could be summarized as "achievement players," those who play to win, and "striving players," those who play for the sake of playing and having fun, whose dynamics determining victory are aimed solely at the development of the game itself, and which are often not followed in order to prolong the carefree effect stemming from the game itself. In the former, professionals are often recognized, those who make games their life: sports competitors, Olympians, and teams from major leagues. Individuals whose salary, and thus quality of life and success, depends on winning or losing. In a sense, the same argument could be made for certain musicians, whose success and standard of living depend on their performance; however, this usually does not involve competition against others, or any kind of contest, but rather a type of performance understood from an expressive point of view (in the broadest sense of the term game). While they may experience similar sensations, a soccer player generally will not be concerned with the elegance of a shot if it scores; however, a guitarist in a band has no points to score, no numerical objectives to achieve. Certainly, spectators may be interested in the artistic quality of a basketball game, as well as the elegance of certain movements or plays, but certainly to a lesser extent than the score achieved by opposing teams or the competition between players and the sense of challenge and rivalry stemming from the clash. Similarly, concertgoers would not expect two singer-songwriters to "compete," except in an artistically interesting manner, dialoguing - unless it is one of the modern show formats, such as contests or talent shows, but in that case it is more of a media gimmick aimed at sales. Excluding these dynamics, such as competitions or rankings aimed at assigning certain social roles, what remains in the musical realm are mostly experiences based on the activity itself, and not on the achievement of specific objectives.