Can 'Dear Esther' be classified as a game?

[razor343]

Don't get me wrong I don't mean to rant against it any way, in fact I'm rather disappointed that the developers aren't able to get a pre-order set up on Steam so that I could throw my money at them.

But, the developers themselves tell you to 'forget the normal rules of play' effectively acknowledging that Dear Esther is not a game but rather an interactive story. I suppose the correct question to ask here would be 'Does a game need gameplay to be considered a game?'

I ask this because I've had an idea for a 'game' for a while now which has grown bigger and bigger since I had first thought of it. Right now I'm split between the game being more of a action-puzzler (In a very basic sense) or rather for it to be a game of exploration based on contextual story telling with no actual gameplay (Puzzles, Combat, Leveling Up. None of it.)

I believe the game could actually work either way, but again, if there is no actual gameplay involved, will it be a game?

 

[DustyDrB]

I've never heard of it until this thread, so had to look it up. The trailer I saw didn't tell me much. If the game really is little more than wandering around (no matter how great the environment), then it is not something that interests me. And if that is the case, is it a game? It could be. Perhaps there is a challenge in its exploration.

What little I've heard of it reminds me of another upcoming game: Journey. And I've been saying for a while that I can't see me playing that game if all there is to it is exploration. Keep in mind, this is just for me. Exploration has always been low on my list of things I want in a game, even as a big RPG fan.

 

[Hazy992]

I'd call it a game, personally. The term 'video game' is so broad that it covers everything from Skyrim to [/i]Angry Birds[/i]. This doesn't happen with any other medium.
Besides if the likes of Dragon's Lair can be considered a video game, I can easily call this one, especially as there is more interaction from the player in this.

 

[Fishyash]

Well... just go to the definition of a game, as in;

There is a set of rules, and a at least one winning condition that is normally based on overcoming a challenge (goals).

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

A game as rules so pretty much the same with this. I remember playing it and if you start trying to swim away from the island the guy will start to whisper "Come back... Come back... COME BACK! COME BACK!!!" in a rather unsetteling way.

Or with only one goal is to follow the path in which all stories have with their linear nature then it could be called an interactive story determining do or do not check out some places on the way.

I'm confused.

 

[SoundByte]

If I rememebr correctly I think "Dear Esther" was basically a way of showing off what could be done, kind of like "The Lost Coast" for HL2 (although Lost Coast is definetly counted as a game even though its about the same length as a poorly drawn youtube stick figure)