What Is A Video Game (Actually)?

If someone asked you "What is a video game?", what would be your answer? I asked myself the same question, and was, at first, unable to provide a simple, clean answer. The reasons behind the inability to bring forth a single straightforward answer to the said question are both internal and external. Therefore, I decided to investigate those reasons in an attempt to provide an answer to this very important question.

Everyone Is A Gamer!

The primary reason why we don't ask ourselves the mentioned question is because it's highly probable that the person we are conversing with is a gamer. Not necessarily a hardcore gamer, or even a casual gamer, but simply a person who has at least once in a lifetime played a game.

In the real world, a conversation between to two gamers would go like this:

A: Hey, what's a video game?

B: ... (sigh)

A: What?

B: Nothing

Why? It's because two gamers need not a definition of what a video game is. They'll gladly talk about video games, but not reach a certain conclusion or make a point. Instead, gamers talk about games because they like games; it's that simple.

Fundamentally, everyone is a gamer. If you had to explain what a video game is to your grandparents or a time-traveling man from the 3rd century AD, you would by analogy be able to explain the fundamental concepts of a video game.

Foo instance, you may say that video games are much our old school games like "Hide & Seek" or "Chess". 

How would that work? For starters, each game has rules, which determine various things. Furthermore, each game has a player or players. Some games, like "Hide & Seek" or "WoW" are generally more enjoyable when a larger group of people plays it. Games like chess are almost often played 1v1 (unless it's a simultaneous exhibition, of course). Alas, we could say that each game, video or non-video, may or may not involve strategy, skill, tactics, luck, victors, losers, and other common elements.

But having said all this, we didn't really answer our primary question. The only thing we said was: "Video games are games." Just look at how Wikipedia defines a video game:

"A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a two- or three-dimensional video display devices such as a TV screen or computer monitor."

Seriously? "Video game is an electronic game..." 

What Is A Video Game?

To save you the trouble, I've come up with the purest definition of a video game: "Video game is life." Why? Well firstly, life itself is a game. In fact, everything is a game. Going to work, paying taxes, starting a family; these are all games.

To clarify, when I say that life is a game I'm not devaluing the life itself. Instead, I'm merely suggesting the idea that life is much like games, and consequently, much like video games. In fact, life might even be THE video game, but we won't go into that right now!

Why can we say that? Well first of, life has rules. For instance, gravitational acceleration on Earth is 9.8 m/s2; that's a rule. There are of course more immanent and personal rules. For example, "If you stop breathing, you'll die." Simple. As our species progressed and developed, we've created a bunch of rules for our game.

The same thing can be said about video games, for Dota 2 is much more complicated than 1st Atari games. Furthermore, the old mantra of "practice makes perfect" applies to both life and video games (generally speaking). 

The Purpose Of Video Games?

Video games are manifestations of life, just as we are. What makes video games unique, however, is that they embody elements we enjoy individually, including art, music, writing, drama, suspense, pain, struggle, grind, frustration, victory, loss, learning, teaching, and so forth. 

It meshes thousands and thousands of individual factors into one element and performs them simultaneously. That is, I believe, the essence of video games. It brings people together, builds communities, and most importantly, it's potential is limitless. Why? Because a video game is a manifestation of our imagination, which to my best knowledge has no boundaries and is infinitely variable. 

Its effects are still unexplored, but I believe that video games will play a critical factor in the development of human beings, but individually and collectively. Video games inspire programmers, artists, musicians, writers to give their best. They also give birth to players, without whom the game itself would be valueless. And with the rise of Esports and streaming services, video games are creating entirely new communities, audiences, and industries. 

I do intend to expand upon this article and talk a bit more about the future of the video game industry and the challenges it'll have to solve in our near future. And btw, how would you answer the question? What do you think is the best definition for a "video game"?