After playing through Stanley Parable which I mentioned yesterday and having a bit more of a think about Swordquest, I started to reflect on what a game can be.

The more I learn about computer games (and indeed board games) as a medium, the harder it is to accurately define what a game actually is.  Even the notion that a game requires a specific win condition is starting to get increasingly hazy.

Many games now no longer resemble anything remotely game like and are often more accurately described as digital interactive experiences that in many respects are introspective explorations of the self rather than anything else.  In a similar way that comics in larger and longer formats tend to be called graphic novels, I can see that video games in some cases are going to lose the game part of their description in the future.

I foresee that playing a game pretty soon will often feel less and less like an actual game.  We already see this in the sense that high scores haven’t been a core aspect of games for a very long time.  Many games of course still have them, but many more don’t and even when they are present, they are rarely a driving force for playing, mainly being included because it just feels like they should be there.  Outside of online multiplayer, games are now story driven as opposed to skill driven.

At its core, a video game is not like a traditional game.  A traditional game played with cards or boards has a specific win condition and (with a few notable exceptions) is a competitive event.  A computer game however is where you do something followed by the computer reacting in a manner prescribed by the designer.  A computer game is actually no more than an incredibly elaborate choose-your-own-adventure book with all the limitations that entails.

This description is probably doing a disservice to the medium and actually sounds rather derogatory, but that is not my intention at all.  The way in which creator and player can interact is becoming increasingly diverse with the developments in web technologies, the inclusion of metrics and even the creative ways in which games are created.  No two Minecraft worlds will ever really be generated in the same way for example leaving an apparently simple set of game rules open to infinite diversity in action-outcome gameplay.

We are yet to see the full potential of computer games in general, but keep your eye open for them starting to describe them as something other than games.  The word instantly brings up an image of a board and dice and probably some Monopoly money in most cases, which your average computer game is getting further and further away from.