To the internet-list aficionado, the end of the calendar year is the time of greatest bounty. You like lists, chances are you like pop culture, and nothing gets the pop junkie going like ranking all the crap that came out in the past twelve months. Top ten movies, top ten books, top ten celebrity nip-slips, top ten Billy Mays products, and, yeah, top ten games of the year. We are no stranger to the list here at 61FPS, as you well know from reading our scintillating, thought provoking top tens, and you can imagine how we’re gearing up to deliver all sorts of meaningless judgments on the year known broadly as 2008 (4706, 4705, or 4645 to the Chinese. They seem to be confused.) Over the past few weeks, Derrick and I have had a number of conversations about our mutual contenders, but these dialogues have always ended in a conundrum: what counts as a videogame? Derrick’s smitten with Wii Fit, but is it anything more than a Nintendo-upped Sweatin’ to the Oldies that comes with a snazzy scale? We’re both fans of the Korg DS-10, but, even though you play it on a videogame system, it is an actual musical instrument, not a new sequel-ready game franchise. Does an instrument go on a top ten games list?
My personal definition of a videogame has been a work of interactive digital media wherein you follow a set of rules to achieve a goal. Wii Fit, Korg DS-10, and the many other games like them belong in the broader videogame discussion at this point and this is making me re-evaluate just what a game is.
Leave it to Shigeru Miyamoto to lay down the single best definition of videogame I’ve heard to date. When asked about Wii Music as a facilitator for creativity, Miyamoto replied:
Videogames are a unique form of entertainment called interactive entertainment. Players are given the opportunity to make their own decisions and plans, and that’s how this interactive nature can generate circumstances in which players can become creative.
And just like that, the noun “game” is removed from the equation leaving “videogame” to properly become its own thing. As the coming decade looms and all of the unknown factors, like casual gamings’ growth and the standardization of user-generated content, continue to change discussion of the medium, I’m sure that definition will keep changing. But for now, gaming’s godfather has laid down, accidentally, a good rule of thumb.
Read the whole interview here. Because it is great.
Related links:
Wii Music: A Rare Miss For Miyamoto?
Miyamoto Says Something Was "Missing" From Zelda: Twilight Princess. We Know It, Too.
Miyamoto Is Concerned About Excessive Violence in Games
Shigeru Miyamoto, the Heartbreak...Man
Miyamoto Says, "It Would Be Great If Music Education Started With Wii Music."