what is a video game

[Ben]

no really, what is a video game. philosophically, how does it differ from a book or a movie? i am not talking about the tech

what are the boundaries to a video game? what crosses over into another medium?

i think about this a lot and id like to hear what people think. whats a great example of "this is it. this is a game"? i have many answers but i will type them later

[risbolla]

Ahhh, console video games (or vidcons as I call them), the ultimate medium of expression, able to convey any emotion ranging from hatred to love, loyalty to fear, all in front of our eyes. Ah, and with lovingly crafted art, music, and the ability to control the action, vidcons are the ultimate combination of the high arts. While I tend to play the stoic, I will be the first to admit that vidcons have driven me to cry, to scream and shout, to feel actual hate; such is the power of this force beyond our wildest reckoning. And here I am, before you, to tempt your tongues with the taint of such a tantalizing topic. And the Japanese, the true geniuses behind the world of video games. Pah, I throw my scorn upon such incompetents of the West who would mock the true art of the Japanese with 'games' such as Baldur's Gate and Madden. Perhaps it is that the West is not as intelligent as the East, but this is a matter for another day. Japan has given us such masterpieces as the Final Fantasy series, Star Ocean, Wild Arms, and of course, Arc the Lad. Yes, some of the finest vidcons in the world were created by Japanese. I come to you today to ask you in all earnesty, what is your favorite vidcon? I will reveal mine after the grand debate has illustriously begun, but not before the first poster falls victim to my plot of discussion.

[Zomber_Jesus]

Guys, I think there's something wrong with risbolla

[risbolla]

1 nothing wrong with me
2 nothing wrong with me
3 nothing wrong with me
4 nothing wrong with me
1 somethings got to give
2 somethings got to give
3 somethings got to give

[Zomber_Jesus]

I blame the Swedes, personally. 

I think the best frame for thinking about games is that while books and movies aspire to "show, don't tell", games have the option to "do, don't show".  In other words, the added layer of interpretative value is there because games have interactive mechanics, the details of which communicate things other mediums are incapable of. Jon Blow is a good example of this - both the rewinding in Braid and the lines in The Witness aren't just a means to winning. They have symbolic depth that you get to experience by acting in their constraints.

[Zomber_Jesus]

Read this if you want the retarded opinion of a frog faced pile of dough that thinks it's in fact sentient and a relevant film critic

[Kentucky Fried]

telling twelve year olds to suck my dick without getting arrested is the greatest feature of online video games
books or movies can't do that

[risbolla]

books are for nerds but video game is for skilled ppl like me that likes to own noobs u cant own anyone with reading ab ook thats my philosophy

[Zomber_Jesus]

It's pretty jarring to think a state would arest a twelve year old just because it wanted to suck Kentucky's dick

[GeorgeBubbinzInSpace]

no really, what is a video game. philosophically, how does it differ from a book or a movie? i am not talking about the tech

what are the boundaries to a video game? what crosses over into another medium?

i think about this a lot and id like to hear what people think. whats a great example of "this is it. this is a game"? i have many answers but i will type them later

I'm not going to think about this weird question too hard until I hear what you think, but the most obvious difference is interactivity. philosophically, doesn't it depend entirely on the individual game? they are all obviously an art form, but that doesn't mean they are equal. super mario bros. isn't exactly comparable to any book above a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level. 

as far as boundaries go, I'd probably say the most glaring problem is character development. in a novel, a character's personality is explored and explained over the course of hundreds of pages, (generally speaking) through exceptional and sometimes obsessively reviewed use of language. it is actually pretty difficult to read an entire novel without being somewhat emotionally invested in some aspect of it, whether you like it or not. in a video game, I think it is sort of an inherent, maybe mostly unavoidable problem for character's to be so complicated, simply because you have to build a story in a way that it is purposefully interrupted (repeatedly) by gameplay, loud noises, music, graphics, etc, thus removing the consumer from an emotional scene at the blink of an eye. when movies do that (take you out of the movie, with some poor directorial or stylistic choice) it sucks. remember that game The Last Of Us? I never played it, but I read and saw a lot of reviews. what was the most common thing you heard? first, that the story was deep, and emotional, and consumers were invested in the characters and the story. what was the second most common critique? that the gameplay suffered because of it. it was boring. it seems to me like the best games find a way to pull both of them off, (I can't think of an example of this off the top of my head) or the story is so simple a child could follow it, and the focus was on amazing gameplay, or worldbuilding, or economy, all that good stuff. the simplest games are some of peoples most favorite. CS:GO, try to plant the bomb and make it go boom or defend against that. moba's, capture other teams big castle thing, and so on. so, what is a game? I guess in my opinion a game is a creative idea whose focus should almost entirely be on interactivity. interactivity with the world that was built within the game. that is how video games achieve immersion, I think. if you can do an absurd amount of things within the world provided, you're gonna have fun. games are a fun distraction. books and movies are [usually] introspective one's.

[grue]

imo the true defining thing that makes video games be different from physical games is that virtuality allows you to emulate things that would be impossible in real life

for example driving motorcycles over buildings, casting spells, having a girlfriend, shooting nazis with miniguns, exploring imaginary worlds, etc

[Zomber_Jesus]

(If we ignore d&d and such)

[grue]

d&d doesn't emulate, it's all in your head

[risbolla]

what is a video game ??? a miserable little pile of secrets !!! but enough talk,,,,,,have at u

[Zomber_Jesus]

Some games reqire imagining stuff to a degree higher than d&d. Older stuff especially, but we have things like A dark room and Hide even today, which are good exactly because of how little they show. I would argue that the fact you have visual input of a character jumping a building doesn't mean games necessarily 'emulate' experiences in a more efficient way, or that that's the biggest advantage to gaming. Sometimes it's easier to get carried away by a book than by causing havoc in GTA.