Behind the Line: What is the definition of a Video Game?

What is a video game?

I don’t mean that as a rhetorical question, but really, how do you, the reader, to yourself, define what makes a video game?

There are so many different kinds of products sold as video games that it can be difficult to define, and I would even say that the term “video game” is tragically limiting, especially when some titles are released and people may give criticisms like “there isn’t much of a game here” to something like The Stanley Parable. While there can be legitimate criticisms of The Stanley Parable, if you look to it for an engaging play session you are looking for the wrong thing. That’s like going to a Marvel movie and complaining that it’s not realistic. You’re not judging it in the same way it is presenting itself, which is unfair to the product.

I would like to propose a few ways to look at what makes a “Video Game”. Some are obvious, some overlap but are still worth individual recognition, and some should probably be more accepted than they are.

 

Game

A game is an activity that is partaken of for amusement with defined rules of some sort and almost always has an end goal that denotes victory. This obviously applies to Video Games quite thoroughly.

Clearly, the origin of video games is as an electronic novelty game. They were amusing diversions that were exploring a whole new type of device with the computer. There are stories of engineering students spending hours figuring out how to program early machines to play simple music. People love to take anything new and use it for amusement.

Eventually, enough was learned to make little games, either something you would play by yourself in the manner of Solitaire, or you would play against someone, in the manner of table tennis. You were either competing against the system, or against the other player. This spirit of competition has formed the backbone of perception of video games throughout the years, and with good reason. Some of the most memorable and enduring video games are based on player versus player competition, from Pong, to Street Fighter, to Warcraft, to today’s MOBAs.

Clearly the title of game applies to most video games, but not all. Can “The Stanley Parable” be called a game?

 

Toy

A toy is a small item used for amusement, generally by children, and not for serious use.

These games were very quickly looked at as, more or less, for children. Sure, there were plenty of adults who would sink plenty of money into Pong machines, enjoy their Atari 2600s, or even play with the same enthusiasm as their children, but that wasn’t standard. Perhaps this is because children were generally more ready to accept this new experience, or possibly because the makers found it easier to market to children. In particular, this is what helped Nintendo come out of the great crash, marketing the NES as a toy for children as opposed to a computer or piece of electronics.

Look upon the glory, the savior of video games. Praise R.O.B.!

Look upon the glory, the savior of video games. Praise R.O.B.!

Whatever the cause, Video Games became known in the late 70s as something for children, and this is a stigma that is only fading relatively recently, as the children of the 70s and 80s are growing older to take over the market.   Incidentally, this is also coinciding with the rise of indy games that are stretching the meaning of a video game.

Toy can apply to a lot of video games. They are not for “serious” use and are for amusement. But for most toys the fun is in playing with them, where most video games have rules that you have to play by and even an objective to move toward, rather than making your own rules, without a goal being needed.

Now, there are still video games like “Mario Paint”, “Sim City”, or “The Sims” that don’t exactly have strict rules about what you do, or any goal, but these are not the majority.

 

Challenge of Skill

If a video game is a game, if there’s any competition to it, then there is inherently some challenge, some need of skill involved. Some games are adored for their difficulty, and some players are praised for their skill in overcoming challenges, either presented by the game, or by other players.

The aspect of challenge in a game is a significant dividing line for some people. If something is too challenging, then it isn’t fun. If it’s too easy, then it isn’t fun. If someone is playing the game on an easy difficulty setting, then they don’t deserve respect. If someone enjoys a casual game, they could be accused of not being a “real gamer”.

Most often it seems that the idea of “game play” is seen as synonymous with “overcoming a challenge”.   I believe this is why people would consider there to be no “game play” in The Stanley Parable, because there is no obstacle, or challenge to overcome.

Clearly most games have a level of challenge with them, but there are also games where it is impossible to “lose”. Again, The Stanley Parable is an example of this.

Furthermore, I think it is a great shame that the experiences that can be given by games should be restricted to those with better coordination, endurance, or reaction time. Why should the ability to become lost in a game world be something that only the “elite” should experience? By that I don’t mean including an easy difficulty setting, but rather consider older people who would be confused by a complicated control system standard in many modern games. Should these controls and the difficulty of the challenges mean that they are never even allowed to experience these things? Here is where we need to expand our definition of what is a “video game” beyond the obvious.

 

Story Telling Medium

Much has been made about the concept of the video game industry becoming bigger than the film industry. Games can sell more copies, reach more people, and get more awareness in the general culture than a lot of movies. Games are often used to tell stories at that. Naughty Dog made the Uncharted series, and The Last of Us, both of which are very cinematic presentations.

The ability for video games to tell a story is at once undeniable, incredibly difficult, and astonishingly powerful. The ability to be a part of the story puts a sense of immediacy and urgency in the story that no other media can hope to accomplish. If Shadow of the Colossus were a movie, it could be a respectable tale, but when WE are Wander, and we are going through the trials he is going through, we can feel his sacrifice. Without spoiling things for those who haven’t played it (and if you haven’t PLAY IT NOW) the bond you feel for Agro the horse is so much stronger when you know it is YOU who has been asking him to go with you on these dangerous hunts, and you may not even realize that bond until the game forces that upon you.

See for yourself.  The farther you go with Wander, the more worn down he and his gear gets.  It takes a toll on him, and as a player, you can feel it.

See for yourself. The farther you go with Wander, the more worn down he and his gear gets. It takes a toll on him, and as a player, you can feel it.

In any case, because the player can make choices in the game, then theoretically they can shape the story by their own behavior. This is difficult to design a game around, because you can’t write for every possible choice a player can make, but because the player has any level of control on the narrative, then it allows for the strongest “gut punch” moments possible in any media. A betrayal in a movie or book may hurt, but there’s still a separation there. If it’s in a game, there’s a brief moment where YOU are being betrayed. It could be the same story, but this time, even if for only a moment, it literally is personal.

I cannot think of a more engrossing story telling experience than Shadow of the Colossus. The story itself is in broad strokes, but that’s not what the story is about. The story is only there to serve the feelings it causes. When I play, I feel what wander feels, the struggle, the hope, the pain and weariness, and even the possible futility.

 

Interactive experience

A lot of the power that video games have with their story telling is the fact that it is interactive. This is what powers that sense of immediacy. However, there are other types of games that don’t tell any story at all. All they do is pose a question, or specifically try to cause a feeling, or even challenge your feelings or point of view on something.

While it applies, I won’t go to The Stanley Parable again for this one. Instead, I think Loneliness is a great example. It’s quick and free on Kongregate here:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/JordanMagnuson/loneliness

If you aren’t able to see it, I will give a brief description:

You are a box traveling upward. You see other boxes moving around, or in shapes. If you approach, they scatter away from you. Instead you could choose to keep away from them and leave them be. All the while, a simple piano melody plays. The farther up you go, the darker and cloudier the screen becomes, and the fewer other boxes you see. Eventually the screen becomes completely black, and some text appears on screen:

Children and adolescents in Korea are the least satisfied with their lives among 26 member countries of the OECD.

Many report loneliness as a major factor.

This notgame was made for them. www.GameTrekking.com

This is not what you would call a “game” as there is no true objective, no challenge, no competition. This is simply an experience that you can proceed through however you like. You can choose to intercept the other boxes, disrupt as many groups as you can, or attempt to leave them undisturbed. But no matter what you do, they will not join you in any way. There is, in a sense, no way to not be alone. This game, simple and short as it is, challenges the player to think just a little about what it must be like to experience that kind of loneliness. It tries to help someone understand an aspect of another person’s life that can not be described, and can only be experienced.

Another example is Rust and their choice to automatically generate characters, including their race, and for that to be permanent  This has shown some players what it is like to be on the receiving end of racial discrimination. They have literally been put in someone else’s skin, and have been made to experience, even if only in a small and distorted way, what it is like to be that other person.

This kind of interactive experience is a very powerful element to video games, and one that is completely detached from the simple notion of being a game, or a toy.

 

Mechanics as Metaphor

Some games go a bit further in their symbolism. Some games use their own mechanics as a metaphor for some deeper meaning. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is one example of this.  It’s at the end of the game, so check the spoiler here if you want to know why it is both tragic, and touching. 

Spoiler

When the older brother, who can swim, has died, and the younger brother must swim. The player must use the older brother’s action button as the younger brother to proceed. The younger brother is remembering the older brother, and growing up through this experience.

[collapse]

 

Another example that is far stranger is Killer7. This game was met with a lot of confusion when it came out due to it’s strange “on rails but not a rail shooter” game play. While the player could turn at junctions, or back track, they were not truly given free movement. It would not be a stretch to say that the player was not truly given any choice in the narrative of the game, but that they are only following the rails, or the path, that has been dictated to them. That is until the very end when the player is actually presented a choice, real agency over what is happening in the world of the game.

Using the game mechanics themselves as a metaphor for something deeper is another artistic tool that is completely unique to video games.

 

Art

It wasn’t so long ago when Roger Ebert had said that games could never be art. The community was understandably angered, and some then took to embarrassing themselves by needlessly insulting the great film critic, which did little to open his mind to new possibilities. Unfortunately we can now never know if he could have ever accepted a video game, or any other form of electronic interactive experience as art. He seems to have limited his view to video games as toys, novelties, a product to be sold with all of the inherent integrity of easy cheese. If you look at video games and only see the technical side of engineering, development and management, or the product side of distribution and profit, or the simplistic elements of the presentation of simple games for children, then it’s no wonder that you would say that it is not art. Let’s be honest, from that point of view then all video games would look like Tiger Electronics hand held toys.

This is not what you think of when you want to prove that games are art.

This is not what you think of when you want to prove that games are art.

There is much more to video games, though, and it is beginning to show what it is capable of as a true art form. I do believe that the label “video game” carries baggage with it. It pigeon holes the medium in the minds of many people, but as more time goes on, more bold experiments are taken, more players are taken on journeys, and a greater acceptance and appreciation for what is possible will emerge.

The goal isn’t always for this to be fun, as these aren’t all toys or games. Not all movies are fun, not all books are fun, and not all “video games” should be “fun”, at least if we are going to honestly explore what these interactive experiences are capable of. I ask you to keep an open mind if you see someone complain about something “not being a game”. Sure, it may be cheap garbage, but it may also be that the objective wasn’t to be a fun toy, or to challenge your skill, but to make you feel something.

 

That’s my feelings on the subject, but I would also like to point out two pieces that give more food for thought:

The first is worth it just to hear the increasingly elaborate descriptions of space marines:

And the second is an interesting analysis of games vs toys.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KeithBurgun/20150406/240462/Videogames_Are_Broken_Toys.php

 

 


 

Kynetyk is a veteran of the games industry.  Behind the Line is written to help improve understanding of what goes on in the game development process and the business behind it.  From “What’s taking this games so long to release”, to “why are there bugs”, to “Why is this free to play” or anything else,  if there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please write in to kynetyk@enthusiacs.com

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