Games or Simulations: A Ramble in G Major

Accepting that I have been making a game system that is essnetially for my friends, a group of novice gamers and CRPGers (a fine demographic from which I myself derived) I quite like the system I've created for them. Having said this my exploits and research around the net have raised one question for me that I feel is of crucial importance:

Is it alright to make a 'game'?

RPGs are not really games in the traditional sense in that typically they don't have a scenario for 'victory', there is success and failure but both are consummations of the game, the logical end points, neither is a victory or defeat in the face of a good scenario. Part of this is that most RPG (Wraith: The Oblivion aside) are geared towards a co-operative style of gameplay rather than competative gameplay like traditional tabletop or board games.

The idea is that a party comes together to complete an objective and that defines victory and all rules around that (Spells, movement, classes) are like Ludo rules, designed to extend the length of gameplay by putting restrictions (Often random, thanks to Uncle Gary) on what an individual can do.

'Rules light' systems such as FUDGE and even RISUS break this mould by allowing characters to be defined only by the limits of the player's imaginations and is often favoured by more 'story' orientated gamers.

So is one form superior?

I've been wrestling with this idea for a while and of course I can;t decide on an answer, if I could I would have already outlined it. Naturally we must consider what our parties want from an adventure and plan accordingly, but when making a system that you intend to push beyond the limits of the group it is important that a system has the flexibility and common sense to survive in the cut-throat world of RPG design.

So how does my beloved FIF stand up? Well FIF's problem, and perhaps it's strength, is that it is consciously a game. When drafting it I considered what my friends wanted; something simple to play, to make scenarios around (Our DM Mark is relatively inexperienced) and above all fun. I never set out to make a simulation the FATAL guys (although I'd rather not know what they were simulating) what I made was a game.

Alright admittedly my game, whilst having concessions to roleplaying, like the persuasion skill, is little more than a dungeon crawler. That's what my friends wanted and by jove I delivered a playable system, DM Mark added some (lots!) classes and all seems to be well for our new campaign, though in the background I intend to develope FIF into a fully fledged system with my own setting and even (le gasp!) a module eventually.

Just, y'know, patience. These things take time and testing and I still want to try OD&D at some point.