What makes a game a game?

What makes a game a game?

Well to me, a game is an experience. It's something you can interact with and be apart of it. Given the nature of the game you can control it, manipulate it to your whim. It gives your a sense of freedom in a shell, a bubble of complexity that goes behind the game. A freedom which in the real world you cannot do.

Games create a persona - be it as the main character or a sci-fi world. You are in control so it plays upon the emotions of the player. Emotions in games can be extremely powerful because of the added virtual sense of interaction with characters and environment. The most recent example of this is with Heavy Rain, it's this balance which makes the player think instead of it being Sean's son that has been kidnapped - it's your son. That's really powerful. I remember playing Metal Gear Solid 4 for the first time and some who don't understand the underlinings of the game wouldn't have been so moved when Snake is going through the microwave chamber. The button tapped creates a sense of fatigue and the gives you a will to keep going making Snake push harder and harder as you are nearly breaking the controller with the damn tapping.

Its very rare with something such as a film can convey that emotion, maybe its the fact that its being presented with real people but the fact that most films you sit down to watch you switch off, the emotional connection is gone. There have been some instances where I have been moved by a movie but its few and far between, it's simply that films do not provide the same scope and depth as a video game can.

Games are an experience where you immerse yourself in a fantasy world where you can control it in a small or large way. Video games provide a different outlet to the creative world which should be taken more seriously.