What Is a Video Game? 1

Video game. Noun. A game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a monitor or other display.

Video games are more diverse than they've ever been. As the market matures, we're starting to see new ideas introduced that challenge the very rules upon which the industry has been built. But, as with any and all change, there is unrest – and some titles are being treated like they don't belong in the sector at all. The question is: what does the term 'video game' even mean in this day and age?

Not too long ago, this was easy to identify. Video games existed on computers, consoles, or arcade cabinets. They required you to push buttons in order to prompt on-screen actions. You'd earn points for performing well. Making a mistake would cause you to lose a life. Running out of retries would result in a 'Game Over' screen. Depending on the release, you'd then need to start the game again.

What Is a Video Game? 2

But how long has this really been true? As far back as 1996, titles like Resident Evil bucked many of these concepts. You'd still push buttons to manipulate on-screen actions, of course, but your progress was rewarded by narrative rather than points. You could create save states so that you never ran out of lives. These were different kinds of video games, but still video games all the same.

So if the industry has gone through this kind of change before, why does the debate still rage? By definition, video games are "games played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program". And yet, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture – a game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program – is, according to some, not a video game.

Perhaps the operative word here is 'game'. According to definition, a game can be one of two things: "a form of competitive activity or sport played according to rules" or "an activity that one engages in for amusement". A title like Space Invaders fits both of these definitions with ease, but something more contemporary like Proteus only really subscribes to one of the above ideas.

What Is a Video Game? 3

This is because there are no real rules outside of the controls, and there's certainly not a competitive component. But if a game – and, by extension, a video game – can be defined as something that "one engages in for amusement", then by that measure would we describe an experience as simple as a magic eye puzzle – if rendered by a computer program – as a video game? Tricky.

Perhaps it's a question of mechanics instead. A title like The Unfinished Swan shares many similarities with Dear Esther, from its first-person perspective to its narrative focus – but it requires you to fling paint and other items in order to progress. In essence, there's a clear objective that extends beyond simply walking from A-to-B and absorbing the atmosphere interactively.

But surely it's that mere act of interactivity – no matter how rudimentary – that alerts us to the fact that we're playing a video game. A release like Beyond: Two Souls may focus heavily on cinematics and cut-scenes, but the fact that button prompts have an impact on the outcome of these surely suggests that we're playing a video game rather than simply watching a movie.

What Is a Video Game? 4

Why, then, do some object to these types of experiences being labelled as video games? Is it perhaps due to the fact that they don't find value in these titles, and thus look for a way to undermine them? Or is it a fear of change that prompts this kind of reaction – an underlying worry that one day video games could represent something different to what they did yesterday?

It's an interesting topic, and one that the above paragraphs have come no closer to solving. The English language is very clear in defining what a video game is, but perhaps it's our perceived notion of what a video game should be that's preventing us from settling upon a firm conclusion. All we know is that with the industry changing by the day, this is a debate that's going to rage on.

What do you think makes a video game a video game? Would you argue that experiences like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture are not video games, and why? Are there a set of rules that all video games should subscribe to, and what are they? Come to a conclusion in the comments section below.