"Video Games": why is this primitive term still used?

[MrHide-Patten]

I simply refer to it what it is, an interactive medium. Example Journey, not really a good game per say but an awesome interactive experience.

 

[Nouw]

While the term 'graphic novel' is somewhat pretentious, it has a legitimate purpose because it distinguishes two types of products physically; they have different bindings and graphic novels tend to be longer. Comparing the term graphic novel to a new word for video games isn't really fair. Having said that, the term 'video game' is fine because it tells us exactly what they are. Games, we play through a visual display as Daystar simply put on the first post.

 

[bafrali]

No offense but as soon as i saw the title, i thought of pretentiousness.

Why do we call them video games? Because it is a short, self-explanatory and common name.

 

[JEBWrench]

Well, I for one have been calling video games 'Gookins' for years now. I mean, what's taking the rest of you so long to get with the times?

(Because sarcasm is not easily detected via text I feel the need to point out that I am joking and just named the first weird made-up word that came to mind. But seriously. Gookin. It could work.)

I grok Gookin.

Anyways, I'm going to continue to refer to Gookins as video games the same way my ancestors did when they first played their Atari 2600s in their caves.

 

[epidemia]

Most games these days in my opinion fall under the category of interactive movie. 20 years ago the gaming community thought that was the ultimate goal but they hadnt imagined the awful reality of 10 minute cutscenes and set pieces that play themselves.

 

[Vhite]

Some shit just sticks. No matter what hard science do you study, you still end up as Doctor of Philosophy (if you go all the way for Doctorate) just because in good ol' Greece, philosophy was pretty much the only science and no one thought that maybe we should change it seeing how far philosophy is from science these days.

 

[lapan]

A game is a type of activity meant for enjoyment and friendly competition and serve no direct productive purpose. An example of a game is chess or poker.

There is a "sub-genre" of games that are typically played on a computer or a special console, these games have no physical presence and instead give feedback through a video display, typically a computer screen or a TV. This type of game is therefore called a "video game" to distinguish it from traditional games.

The name still works.

A game has to have a victory condition and/or loss condition

Not really. Do simulator games have victory/loss conditions? There are also several games where you cant die. Are they not games?

 

[MindFragged]

Regrettably video games suffer the same problem with regard to their name as comic books do. Both names suggest a certain lack of depth, like they are a 'light entertainment' medium. In all honesty, most examples from both mediums ARE light entertainment, but it certainly hampers the perception of those remaining which deserve more credit and the medium as a whole.

As comics have 'grown up' a number of new terms have appeared for the reason of differentiation, like 'comix' or 'graphic novel'. Neither really helped to my mind, as 'comic books' or 'comics' is still the mainstream term for the genre.

'Interactive entertainment' is a broader yet more accurate term for video games but again, I don't see it changing for a while.

Scott McCloud redefined the term 'comics' in 'Understanding Comics', which I think was the best solution. That way when the term is used in common parlance, people like me who like to think of comics as 'juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey an aesthetic response in the viewer' won't get offended when people refer to 'From Hell' etc. as comic books.

ANYWAY. To that end, I think we should get a Scott McCloud of our own.

 

[zehydra]

A game is a type of activity meant for enjoyment and friendly competition and serve no direct productive purpose. An example of a game is chess or poker.

There is a "sub-genre" of games that are typically played on a computer or a special console, these games have no physical presence and instead give feedback through a video display, typically a computer screen or a TV. This type of game is therefore called a "video game" to distinguish it from traditional games.

The name still works.

A game has to have a victory condition and/or loss condition

Not really. Do simulator games have victory/loss conditions? There are also several games where you cant die. Are they not games?

Death is not necessarily a loss condition, nor does a game necessarily require a loss condition if there is a victory condition. (Play until you win)

 

[lapan]

A game is a type of activity meant for enjoyment and friendly competition and serve no direct productive purpose. An example of a game is chess or poker.

There is a "sub-genre" of games that are typically played on a computer or a special console, these games have no physical presence and instead give feedback through a video display, typically a computer screen or a TV. This type of game is therefore called a "video game" to distinguish it from traditional games.

The name still works.

A game has to have a victory condition and/or loss condition

Not really. Do simulator games have victory/loss conditions? There are also several games where you cant die. Are they not games?

Death is not necessarily a loss condition, nor does a game necessarily require a loss condition if there is a victory condition. (Play until you win)

Still, a simulation game often has neither. You can't "win" Windows Flight Simulator.

 

[Full]

snip

Spunkgarlger of Wee-Wees sounds a tad pretentious, it implies that they spunkgargle wee wee and you don't so they're better than you. A wee-wee Spunkgarler, however, could work. Or just for short, a Spunker, or a Gargler.

No offense but as soon as i saw the title, i thought of pretentiousness.

Why do we call them video games? Because it is a short, self-explanatory and common name.

Unfortunately, the second I posted this I realized this was the reality, but it was too soon to change it. Anyway, the replies have been good, so whatever.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Cause we don't need to go around using more specific terminology that makes us look like we're trying to be more important than we are.

If the terminology makes sense, then don't object to it. Admittedly some games are less on the game aspect, but why do we need to make things more complicated?

 

[zehydra]

A game is a type of activity meant for enjoyment and friendly competition and serve no direct productive purpose. An example of a game is chess or poker.

There is a "sub-genre" of games that are typically played on a computer or a special console, these games have no physical presence and instead give feedback through a video display, typically a computer screen or a TV. This type of game is therefore called a "video game" to distinguish it from traditional games.

The name still works.

A game has to have a victory condition and/or loss condition

Not really. Do simulator games have victory/loss conditions? There are also several games where you cant die. Are they not games?

Death is not necessarily a loss condition, nor does a game necessarily require a loss condition if there is a victory condition. (Play until you win)

Still, a simulation game often has neither. You can't "win" Windows Flight Simulator.

Then it's not a game.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Games ARE Stories. The two are solidly connected.

If you don't believe me, you have never played the right board games, sports or any other kind of games.

 

[DasDestroyer]

A game is a type of activity meant for enjoyment and friendly competition and serve no direct productive purpose. An example of a game is chess or poker.

There is a "sub-genre" of games that are typically played on a computer or a special console, these games have no physical presence and instead give feedback through a video display, typically a computer screen or a TV. This type of game is therefore called a "video game" to distinguish it from traditional games.

The name still works.

A game has to have a victory condition and/or loss condition

Not really. Do simulator games have victory/loss conditions? There are also several games where you cant die. Are they not games?

Death is not necessarily a loss condition, nor does a game necessarily require a loss condition if there is a victory condition. (Play until you win)

Still, a simulation game often has neither. You can't "win" Windows Flight Simulator.

Then it's not a game.

Before whichever patch it was, Minecraft had no victory condition, and most people don't consider the one it has now as a true victory condition, are you saying Minecraft isn't a game?

 

[Something Amyss]

They're still games. That's why. The Walking Dead is still a game.

 

[Something Amyss]

Before whichever patch it was, Minecraft had no victory condition, and most people don't consider the one it has now as a true victory condition, are you saying Minecraft isn't a game?

Minecraft certainly wasn't a game at one point.

I hate to use a Yahtzee point (because people latch onto him as gospel around here, etc), but he was right when he said it wasn't really a sandbox game, so much as a sandbox. And there's no shame in that.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

The thing that bugs me the most is that my brain always tells me video games should be one word. 'Videogames'

It just looks better.