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What is a Video Game?

Image by Flickr user: daveoratox (cc)

What about a video game actually makes a video game? This might have been an easy question to answer back in the glory days of arcades and Atari, but in our modern era of gaming it’s a question that many of would probably rather shy away. Electronic entertainment comes in so many shapes in forms these days that even determining criteria for a definition could arguably be a task unto itself. However, this amorphous state in which gaming currently resides has presented us with a wonderful opportunity! Indeed we have set before a chance to define them ourselves, and not just games in general, but differences between game and interactive movie, where RPG ends and action game begins, or even what differentiates a “casual” game from a “hardcore” game!

There’s so much to cover here, so, from today through the first week of March, we at UWG have decided to issue a challenge to our fellow game-blogging enthusiasts: define what a video game is to you! We’re asking that they be published with the hashtag #whatisagame, so that it’ll be easier to spread the word and enable readers to find participants’ posts.

What is a video game? Right now it’s exactly what you say, and we can all hardly wait to find out what that is!

8 thoughts on “What is a Video Game?”

  1. Reblogged this on Recollections of Play and commented:

    Today I’m thrilled to spread the word about United We Game’s first ever community writing challenge! The idea is simple: we ask a question (or series of questions) and your write a response on your own blog that includes a particular hashtag so that we can catch it in our feeds and share it with our followers on social media. The challenge is open to anyone, and we mean anyone – whether you’re a full-time blogger or a part-time writer stuck with writer’s block (maybe UWG’s writing challenge will cure that!).
    Our first writing challenge focuses on the question, “what is a video game?” Click below for the particulars, and if you feel so inspired, write a answer post of your own. The hashtag to include (in the title, the post, as a tag, etc.) is #whatisagame. If you share the post on Twitter, you can also hit us up @UnitedWeGame, so we’ll be doubly sure to catch the post and pass it along. We look forward to seeing the responses to this challenge, so happy writing!

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