JimQuisition is a little program in which a guy rants about something in video games.
Jim Sterling holds the position that games like The Walking Dead (from Telltale Games), Stanley’s Parable and the such are video games and that our standards of what constitutes a video game is too narrow. He argues that if video games are to survive as a genre what we consider a video game cannot be limited.
Jim makes a very simple logical mis-step, a category mistake.
A category mistake is when you inadvertently place something in one category when it actually belongs in another.
A good example of this would be to say that a basketball court is a game. No, the basketball court is actually just a location where games are played. The game that is played there, is basketball.
This is the exact same mistake that Jim Sterling makes. A lot of these things may be “game” like, but they are not games.
A game is structured play with rules. So not everyone who is playing is playing a game, but everyone who is playing a game is playing.
Jim quotes the most common definition of a video game:
“A game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a television screen or other display screen.”
Note that this definition includes our “game” which in order for it to be a game requires it to have rules and be structured play.
Games like Mario he rightly identifies as most definitely being games because they have rules, scores and objectives.
But “interactive games” are not really games in the same way that a person with homophobia isn’t literally terrified of gay people. Game in that sense is being used metaphorically to indicate it is game-like, but it is not a game.
So what are these interactive games exactly? Well, they’re the basketball courts while games are basketball. They give you the place to play a game, but do not offer up any game for you to play. When you get there you can either make your own game out of it… or if it lacks enough capability it becomes just an interactive movie or movie set.
No one would argue that an Audio Book is a game. No one would argue that a television show is a game. No one would argue that a blender is a game.
So why exactly is it that people are coming to the defense of these game-like video games?
Well simple fact, they’re available on consoles and computers and some people may in the future find them fun or enjoyable.
That however does not stop them from being sold in any market place or gaining distribution. Games weren’t always popular but they were sold and we had methods of praising them. All that really needs to happen is change the way in which we label these non-game products.
As a final thought here is a review of The Stanley Parable to illustrate how badly people want these non-games to be games:
“This is one of the best walking simulators I have ever played. You get to walk around and look at things while a man with a beautiful voice narrates your actions. Sometimes you get to click on things and he calls you an idiot. It reminds me of my mother.“
TheGameGuru.Me 