As already said, I'm interested in a theory of game and gameplay which offers new approachs to genres which are not already established.

Taking Tom Sawyer, and more lately Charles Dicken's heros like Oliver Twist, as an example seems to be a good choice to me, because I don't see games at the moment which are comparable to these novels.

Main property: a hero who is too weak to fight!
Main difference to the established games: they can't accumulate strength and abilities to make a carreer, to get strong enough to fight.

So, it is not about getting and establishing power, but about powerlessness and how to avoid and escape from it!
It could be called the different approach to life of girls and boys: Boys have to expect to grow strong, and to establish themselves and their needs by strength, while girls mainly have to expect to be the weaker part of a fight, means, they have to think about different strategies to establish themselves and keep peace.
And, that's it, the girls' way of keeping peace, which is the main task within democracy: avoiding powerlessness, the girls' way in games, beyond playing with dolls or The Sims, the struggle against powerlessness, is something which is established in novels and movies, but isn't established in games yet.

(Hope, this isn't too confusing. If you didn't understand, but are still curious, what I meant, please ask! )