what is a video game

[grue]

some games ask you to imagine more, some ask you to read entire books, some are almost like watching a movie. but this isn't what makes them video games. the one defining characteristic is interacting with imposibility.

reading tolkien and imagining legolas isn't the same as playing legolas in a game. which has nothing to do with your level of enjoyment of books vs games, that's not what the argument is about. the isolated defining characteristic of video games is that they emulate rules outside of real life possibility

you can play with an RC car and it's great. you can also play sega rally and it's great. what's the difference? one's pretending to be an actual race that doesn't work within the rules of real life.

heck even sims are games insofar as they immitate real life conditions in impossible to reproduce means