Time To Stop Calling Them Games? 220
GamePolitics wonders aloud about our use of the term game to describe electronic entertainment. In the author's view, referring to videogames as 'games' is inhibiting their adoption by mainstream society (who relates gaming to children's activities). From the article: "Things have changed, of course. Video game content now runs the gamut from kid-friendly titles like Curious George and LEGO Star Wars to adult-themed offerings such as GTA San Andreas and Black to the highly socialized online communities of World of Warcraft and Second Life or the largely adult-populated casual game scene of Pogo. Over the years, gamers and game designers have recognized the artistic and expressive potential of videogames, along with their power to enlighten and entertain players from four to ninety-four. But there are also millions who missed that particular cultural bus."
So what's better? (Score:2, Funny)
My Preference (Score:3, Interesting)
You know who I mean. All those parents and commentators who open their yappers without ever having actually played one of the G@mes they're bitching about. We can insist on some stupid pronunciation just to make them sound really dumb when they're talking about them... and hopefully, this will cause them to stop talking about G@mes.
Alternate spellings:
Gam3
G4me
Ga/\/\e
and any combinations of the above
Re:My Preference (Score:2)
Re:So what's better? (Score:2, Insightful)
In other news, we should call dogs "Canine Americans"
Re:So what's better? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So what's better? (Score:3, Funny)
If you disagree with this statement, I'll fucking kill you.
Sincerely,
-Jack Thompson
Re:So what's better? (Score:2)
Good idea! (Score:5, Funny)
(Tongue firmly stapled to my cheek.)
You forgot (Score:2)
I thought we could leave "Myst" out of this... (Score:2)
Games still carry the stigma.... (Score:5, Insightful)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:MOD PARENT UP (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Games still carry the stigma.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bridge, poker, chess, pool are all games played by adults.
And if the adults aren't playing the games of football, basketball, hockey, baseball, etc. then they are watching other people play those games.
Games don't carry a stigma. They are at least as old as mankind.
Re:Games still carry the stigma.... (Score:4, Insightful)
What stigma?
You are partly right, but your statement reveals that you have, in fact, never met my father.
I believe he is in good company. To explain: In a way, what you are saying is like saying that sex doesn't carry a stigma. It is at least as old as mankind.
The truth is that certain kinds of sex carry a stigma, and all sex is viewed as having some sort of specific purpose and level of appropriateness for a given situation.
Likewise, you will find that my father does not mind playing Sequence or Skip-Bo during Christmas, but the same man viewed my dozens of hours roaming through King's Quest (during my younger years) as wasted time.
Part of that is because he did not receive the same enjoyment out the activity that I did, but another part is because he felt that there were more productive ways to spend time, each one of which involved more a) physical activity (preferably outside), b) social interaction, c) potential for earning a living, or d) any combination of the above.
I think you will find that most people who are non-gamers (electronic) would share the same view. This is called a stigma.
This situation reflects a social view that is held on almost any subject. Most activity is acceptable under certain circumstances, but not when that boundary of benefit and/or appropriateness is crossed. For example, if you were to gamble at a casino as much as some of us play Counter Strike or WoW, you would be considered compulsive and be recommended to seek treatment. Even a nightly bridge club is considered excessive by many.
Any activity that one does not understand/enjoy/deem-to-be-of-value bears the burden of disapproval. This is a view that we all carry, as the GP proved so eloquently by stating that he views his parents' TV-watching as wasteful.
Re:Games still carry the stigma.... (Score:2)
Re:Games still carry the stigma.... (Score:2)
And of course there's the fact that most of what's on TV is utterly worthless crap, while you're at least interacting in some way or another with the game. Be it discussing the politics behind the 12-year-old noob who's complaining that you're hac
Re:Games still carry the stigma.... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm reminded of a time when I was about 10 years old, riding from a gas station/bait & tackle shop with my grandfather. I had just purchased a comic book. He asked, "Why are you wasting your money? Don't you have enough of those comic books?" To which I replied, "You just bought a fishing lure, and you already have a box full of them. Don't you have enough of them?" He didn't say another word to me for several hours.
New name!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:New name!! (Score:2)
game doesn't fit (Score:2)
But, what one word fits better. Yes, game isn't perfect, but it is close and everyone understands it so why change it?
Re:game doesn't fit (Score:3, Insightful)
The only ones that might depart from that might be open ended simulation games, like SimCity or a flight simulator. In which case "simulation" is fine.
Re:game doesn't fit (Score:2)
Comic Books have the same problem (Score:5, Insightful)
As impatient as well all are to reshape society, the solution isn't to change the name. New names would only get used by academics and the like. You really have to wait for people to gain their own personal respect for games. Yes, it may take multiple generations, or it may happen as more mainstream oriented and casual games increase the audience, it probably won't happen by trying to give games a new name.
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:5, Insightful)
"Graphic Novel"?
New name invented to cover an aspect of the genre that felt trivialized by the epithet of "comic book".
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:2)
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:4, Insightful)
"Graphic Novel" = term used exclusively by fans of the genre, particularly signalling something that purports to be more serious and adult-themed.
"Comic book" or "comics" = term used by the other 95% of people to refer to test publications in which the huge majority of page space is pictures, rather than text.
Ironically, the industry agrees wholeheartedly that they should be called graphic novels, because people will spend $10 on a 'graphic novel' when they wouldn't even consider $3 for a 'comic book'.
Personally, they're still comic books, despite the extraordinarily high quality artwork and compelling stories (cf. Neil Gaiman, among many others) that they contain.
But I'm still not paying $10 for a comic book.
Comic Book: medium, genre, or format? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't bring myself to call anything made up of 22 pages stapled together a "graphic novel," no matter how serious, but a 150-page hardcover or trade paperback? Maybe. I'm more inclined if it's all one long story, especi
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Names mean things to certain people. Everyone calls a Q-Tip a Q-Tip, n
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:2)
At a guess, the term came about when people 'ported' novels into a comic book style novel -- ie; a graphic novel. It may have been someone like Gaiman, but going back to the late 80's even authors like Peirs Anthony had their novels ad
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a comic book.
A brilliant, fantastic, literary comic book.
"Graphic novel" sounds like it's a Stephen King paperback.
Oh, and in answer to the question "Time To Stop Calling Them Games?"
No. They're games. You play them. Stop living in denial.
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:2)
I do think graphic novels are an acceptable term though. Comic books imply a storyline in serial form. I pick up a comic book from the middle of a series and I might not have a clue what's going on and I only have a "chapter" of the story. I pick up a graphic novel like Watchmen and I have the whole story. Sure, maybe they could have called in non-serialized(?) comic book, but they didn't.
Re:Comic Books have the same problem (Score:3, Informative)
No, they really don't. Just because the two biggest producers of comics (DC and Marvel) did things that way doesn't mean that it's the only way.
I pick up a graphic novel like Watchmen and I have the whole story.
You do know that Watchmen was originally published in 12 serialized issues, right?
Most of the paperbacks that people like to call "graphic novels" and buy in bookstores are just bound reprints of multiple issues.
Stepping up for a punch in the throat (Score:2)
While 'graphic novel' sounds to me like it was dreamed up by some comic books writers make their medium more legitimate by making it sound 'artsy', the watchmen is in it's current format a graphic novel. here is why:
A comic books tend to be serial in nature, while novels tend to be self-contained stories. While you c
Dominate Media Type (Score:3, Funny)
Interactive Billings Wireless Map [billingsbulletin.com]
Eh. (Score:2)
In reality, everybody will still call them games. I mean, I still snicker when I hear "graphic novel". Why? It's kind of stupid, IMHO -- changing the name doesn't really change the thing, and I identify "graphic novel" (vs. comic book) more with the people who insist on calling it that than with the thing itself. Same with people who insist on differences between "film" and "movie".
How about instead of changing the name, people change their associations? (Wh
Re:Eh. (Score:2)
Re:Eh. (Score:2)
That point would be 1977, when Star Wars came out.
And I've yet to see anybody else successfully market little dolls as "action figures" since then. G.I. Joe is a "toy." Barbie is a "doll."
Re:Eh. (Score:2)
Re:Eh. (Score:2)
That expression was coined because in the late 1970s, it was still considered rather odd for young boys to be "playing with dolls" by a large part of the American culture, and so the Star Wars dolls had to be marketed under another, less-gay-sounding, name.
The fact that their clothing was molded as part of the toy, as opposed to being separate cloth pieces, probably also helped avoid the stigma. They looked more like bigger, multi-co
Slow news day????? (Score:5, Insightful)
A "game of chess"
"Gaming"
"Wargames"
Oh yes, the word "game" has way too much of a childish connotation. :-/
Re:Slow news day????? (Score:2)
Game Theory (Score:2)
I think it safe to say that "game" is a very old word, which means it has probably had many meanings over time. I fully expect that trend to continue. Those things we cal
Re:Game Theory (Score:2)
of, although a few are nifty like vacancette (little vacation) for weekend. While I learned of the naming
restriction from an old text book too, it was dropped sometime ago.
Re:Game Theory (Score:2)
Re:Game Theory (Score:2)
Source: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JohnnyLing.sh
English is a complex language. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've long held the belief that the total complexity of language (which would be a meas
Re:Slow news day????? (Score:2)
Sure... (Score:4, Insightful)
/me puts on lawyer hat. (Score:2)
Re:/me puts on lawyer hat. (Score:2, Insightful)
These arguments are kinda weak when applied to somethign not called a game.
Re:/me puts on lawyer hat. (Score:2)
If it looks like a duck... (Score:2)
Frankly, I see no reason to be embarassed that I play video games. Everyone my age knows what an Atari was (though, I had a kick-ass ColecoVision with the Atari adapter). If they forgot why video games were fun, it's not my problem.
Re:If it looks like a duck... (Score:2)
You missed the point. (Score:2)
I play Warcraft. It's not a medieval-themed, social-centric, combat simulator (which would be a subset of video games designed for more mature audiences). It's a [i]video game[/i] and calling it something else gives credence to those who would portray a "typical" one as juvenile.
How about... (Score:5, Insightful)
Then we can watch the big GAME on TV.
We still on for the poker GAME Thursday night?
The problem isn't the word "game". It's the term "video game". People still associate that with adolescents in dark arcades playing Pac-Man. We need to simply drop "video" when refering to an adult-oriented game and people won't think twice about it.
Re:How about... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it's the image of bleary-eyed youths, sitting locked into a video game, feeding agression, spending hours playing continuously, wasting their lives, that puts people off - rather than the fact that it's a game.
If you call it something like 'Interactive Media Entertainment', at least for a short time people should feel better about
Re:How about... (Score:2)
The problem isn't the word "game".
The problem is not any words at all; words are not problems, stigmas attached to words are problems. Maybe.
Personally, I don't lose much sleep wondering what people think of my computer use or how much time I spend playing games. It simply doesn't matter to me, and whether they get a vision of a pimply-faced teen (I'm 22 by the way) sitting in a dark basement or not doesn't phase me a lot either.
That said, if there is any problem with the stigmas associated with th
Re:How about... (Score:2)
Well, if you want to get picky...the problem with some people has nothing to do with the word game. Better? :)
I'm a 28-year-old gamer. I own and regularly play an XBOX, but most of my gaming is on the trusty old PC. I regularly have LAN parties at my house. Games--primarily FPS and RTS--are my primary source of entertainment; I spend five hours gaming for every one hour I spend watching TV.
(enter
Chess (Score:2)
Games are shouldn't be considered childrens activities, they improve the mind. More sophisticated games have never been primarily children's activities. I remember I was recently in Atlanta's Chinatown and two people in a Chinese restaurant were playing Xiangqi [wikipedia.org] (these were adult men). I believe Hiroshi Yamauchi himself is a top ranked Go player, and lest we forget, Nintendo got it's start manufacturing HanaFuda [wikipedia.org] cards, especially profitable because the Yakuza insisted on a fresh deck
Re:Chess (Score:2)
Huh? (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php [theesa.com]
The average player is 30, 43% are women, 18% are over 50 and revenues exceed that of movies.
How much more mainstream does gaming need to be?
I'm also wondering who thinks "games" are just for kids? Not many kids playing Bridge, Shuffleboard, Bingo, etc....
"kid-friendly titles like Curious George" (Score:2)
Great Idea! (Score:2, Funny)
What about "plays"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyway, don't we already have our euphemisms lined up? E3 could just be GE, but they decided "electronic entertainment" sounded more professional than "games". I've also heard "interactive entertainment," "multimedia experience," and so on.
They're all dumb. And frankly, any
What's wrong with this paragraph? (Score:5, Interesting)
Books are containers for written content.
Games are containers for interactive content.
I don't see the problem here other than to separate the "good" stuff from the "bad" stuff to help offset political restrictions.
...because there is no gaming involved. (Score:2)
Re:...because there is no gaming involved. (Score:2)
Sure. (Score:2)
Because we all know that adults don't play games (Score:3, Insightful)
Although in some cases you might be tempted to call certain entertainment software "sports", and stuff like The Sims might most accurately be called a "software toy", "game" is probably the most accurate and neutral term to cover most things that are sold in that particular isle of your local computer store.
Re:Because we all know that adults don't play game (Score:2)
Virtual doll house.
But I've been... (Score:2, Interesting)
It's a freakin game, folks. Stop trying to legitimize it and make it into an "industry" like Hollywood or the music industry... just have some damn fun playing a game. Instead of arguing over if it can display 1.2 million or 1.3 million polygons, and mortgaging your home for an SLi videocard setup so you can play at 120FPS (which your
Re:But I've been... (Score:2)
So, two words: Trip Hawkins.
A hole in my life... (Score:2)
Is mainstream adoption something we really need to be pushing for? I don't get this. People are either interested, or they're not. If they are, they'll find their way to video games (or whatever you feel like calling them), and if they're not, don't worry about it.
I'm sure they find other ways to entertain themselves, and I doubt there's some hole in their lives that will only be filled by an "interactive entert
Re:A hole in my life... (Score:2)
Just getting my wife to understand would be enough for me!
From the GP comments: My Post! (Score:2, Informative)
Useless. (Score:2)
Because "fun" is just so un-adult (Score:2)
Bleh. Now they want to come up with a way to more effectively market things that are fun, so as to make them seem more "adult."
I propose a new tagline for games of all sorts (video, board, etc.): "Games: Cognitive Entertainment Will Get You Ahead in Life!"
Extreem Gaming (Score:2, Insightful)
Slashdot is news, information, and recreation. Can we
In other news... (Score:2)
Let's call them... (Score:2)
I couldn't agree more (Score:2, Funny)
So NFL is for children only? (Score:2)
Then then there are people play 'card games', such as Black Jack or Bridge, but then again maybe that is also known as gambling
And of course there are computer games and board games.
In the end people play a certain type of game because it suits their sort of challenge. The truth is the issue with many compu
but they are games! (Score:2)
I say sod any "adult" who thinks they are too grown up to play anymore
Kind of like Interactive Fiction (Score:2)
What are you talking about? (Score:2)
Video games are mainstream. They have been adopted. It has already happend. New video games sell as much or more than opening day for a movie. Some people just don't like them. Just like some people don't like movies.
I don't play them because I still haven't won my first game of nethack. I refuse to spend ay money on any new game until I do that.
Sounds stupid (Score:2)
Working people don't have that type of time. I know because I
The problem is not in the word 'game' (Score:2, Informative)
In the old days when they called it "Jazz..." (Score:2)
"Chess" was never taken seriously until they stopped calling it a game. It didn't take off until they started to call them "Combinatorial placement challenges."
"The movies" never caught the attention of serious critics. That's why, today, everybody calls them "Photoplays."
Yes, absolutely, what's important is not what it is, but what you
Change the Meaning... Changing the interpretation (Score:2)
Why not just adapt what people consider to be a game. We all know what games are, but they just have a general negative ora about them. A game can be many things and people need to realize it's more than playing Street Fighter in the arcade, or tetris on a GameBoy, or those handheld games that play a single game on the unit using crappy LCDs. Games have evolved and are considered
Wittgenstein on Games (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is a joke, right? (Score:2)
Way back in the mid 1980s, my computer had a good stragety game, a vocabulary game for kids, and a ASCII art strip poker game.
The only difference between games then and games today is that the games are prettier, people take them more seriously, spend more money on them, and one can make money off one's prowess.
But, even if there are professional game players, so what? Football has a professional side and it is
Yes, Games are clearly childish things... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yes, Games are clearly childish things... (Score:2)
And what is that game called? Surely it's adults only - there must be a special word for it.
Gah! what planet is this guy from? (Score:2)
How? When? Where? Video games have absolutely saturated society at every level they need to! What more adoption do we need? Play them in our sleep?
Games are children's activities (Score:2)
Come on (Score:2)
Re:"Comics" have the same problem. (Score:2)
I like animated or virtual in the name. I propose:
Animated Medias
Virtual Activities
With those kind of names, games look more uducatives, but kind of boring. :(
Re:Maybe it's not the name... (Score:2)
Rumour has it that this is the same portion that has two jiggly things on their chests and also feel like crap (or more importantly make everyone ELSE feel like crap) 1 week out of the month. Correct?