title: XNA - Using Game Components
body: <p>When should one use Game Components? What are they used for, what is the design pattern around them?</p>
  
  <p>Which is better:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Having a background component, a player component, a spaceship component and various instances of an enemy component, each one responsible for updating and drawing itself;</p></li>
  <li><p>Having all of the above inside the gameplay screen class, which manages everything.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Speaking of gameplay screen, the <a href="http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/game_state_management" rel="nofollow">game state management example</a> didn't seem very modular. Is it better to structure things like in the example, where we program entire screens at once instead of reusable bits and pieces, or to use game components to achieve maximum modularity?</p>