I Think Gaming Needs a Renaming....

[Vault101]

Yesterday I had to go to another city to do an assessment for a college I was applying to to try and get into their video game programming class. Since the ride was decently long, I had plenty of time to talk to my mother about how much I love video games, and the video game industry as a whole despite the many flaws that are in the industry.

Anyway after talking for a while, I realized that Video Games as a medium need a renaming. For those of you who watch Extra Credits, you'll remember them bringing this up before. Now I want video games to be as respected by people as films and books are, since they offer a unique way to explore ideas and expand our imagination that neither film nor books can do.

However, after thinking for a while, I realized that gaming as a whole will never be taken seriously as long as we keep our current name. There is so much this medium can do, but as long as we keep the name 'Video Game' there will always be a large amount of people who attribute it to nothing more than a toy.

As such I have been trying to wrap my head around different names we could give to this medium, that can describe what it is the medium does. so far the best I have been able to come up with is Interactive Entertainment. Now people who I have suggested this name to seem to think it fits. But I want to know what the gaming community thinks.

First, do you agree with me that gaming needs a rename in order to be taken seriously like films and novels?

And second, do you like my suggestion for what we could change the mediums name to? If not what would you call it if you could change the name?

I don't know....I just cant think of anything that fits without soundong pretentious

Interective experience?

ok other thna that I got nothing, plus its more of a mouthful than video games (personally I always felt more comfortable calling them computer games, video games feels like an american term)

 

[RadiusXd]

@GrizzlerBorno: Yes, I am in fact talking about changing the 'Official' name of video games. As far as I am concerned we can keep the nickname games on them. The reason I am saying the 'official' name should be changed is so that those who don't know the medium can get a better understanding of it through it's name. I know we will NEVER be able to find a name that can 100% fit all the many different aspects of gaming, but at the least we should be able to come up with something that shows people that we are a mature medium meant to be appreciated by everyone and through many different subjects. Also, yes I know it would be a ton of work to get this all done.

but the casual term is all that people who aren't inherently interested are going to hear.

Also, computer games suits pretty much everything already. Honestly don't know why you think the handful of people who are so pretentious as to look down on something with a word traditionally associated with fun things, are a demographic we should really give a flying F*** about.

 

[Romblen]

Interactive Entertainment? That's not a respectable term, that's one of those BS names that businesses come up with because they think it makes their product sound advanced.

That, and it's just not, for lack of better terms, catchy. Think of it this way, say someone(assuming some one hasn't already)started telling everyone to not use the terms movies or films. Instead we should start using the term "visual motion entertainment"

That would never catch on. Like the term movies or film, video games is a universally accepted term to mean, well video games. Giving it a different name isn't going to affect the industry. If anything, those who are out side of the industry will look at it as a pathetic attempt to look respectable.

 

[SammiYin]

It IS a toy...

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I think the term 'video games' sounds ancient, anyone for pong?, and should just be reduced to 'gaming' or 'games'

I get annoyed when even a TV series like Supernatural, which is in a sense, aimed at geeks portrays us as sad losers who are 'in longterm internet relationships' and think Dean Koontz can be compared with Dickens and Lovecraft. It's time the media grew up a bit, not us.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Nope, mediums should bow to the idiots who can't be bothered to learn about them... can you see the pointlessness yet?

Should we rename Quantum Physics into My Little Pony Physics so more people will get into it?
Or should they just fucking learn what Quantum Physics are?

 

[mikev7.0]

@GrizzlerBorno: Yes, I am in fact talking about changing the 'Official' name of video games. As far as I am concerned we can keep the nickname games on them. The reason I am saying the 'official' name should be changed is so that those who don't know the medium can get a better understanding of it through it's name. I know we will NEVER be able to find a name that can 100% fit all the many different aspects of gaming, but at the least we should be able to come up with something that shows people that we are a mature medium meant to be appreciated by everyone and through many different subjects. Also, yes I know it would be a ton of work to get this all done.

I don't know the more I think about it the more this type of PR rebranding just feels like a bad idea. Mainly because when someone wants to name change something it always makes me wonder "what's up?". Also, where it's really necessary and there is a huge difference in the types of software that a product really is, there HAS been not a change, but different names to begin with as in the case of "Educational Software." Rocky's Boots and COD are different things, and their names as they are label them that way. I also don't feel the change is very feasable, certainly wouldn't be cost effective, (PR campaigns get VERY spendy) and most of all I just don't think it's necessary. Video games works. Video games are what they are. I doubt that, or the name, will change.

Also "Interactive Entertainment" has been tried before and we just replied "What? Just shut up and give me my copy of Sewer Shark already!"

 

[Kavachi]

It IS a toy...

what are you even doing on the escapist?

 

[BrokenStylus]

My problem with the term 'Interactive Entertainment' is that it doesn't neccesarily just relate to video games. You could argue that any recreational activity with tangible or tactile feedback is interactive in some capacity- making an automated toy model for example. The term seems imprecise and/or wide-ranging, not suited to designating it towards one particular medium.

For me, leaving out the word 'game' when referring to games seem a little dishonest somehow, as if we know that they're games but that we're embarrassed by it. Fundamentally, 'games' are just that, and naming them something else seems merely to serve as a slapdash attempt to artificially elavate the respectability of the medium. I'd argue that it is the game designers who will ultimately be responsible for raising prestige and perception, by producing games that can demonstrate an ability to rival the intellectual and artistic merits of the best films and books. If something is recognisably excellent it should not need some grandious title.

If you are still desperate for a new and catchy moniker for our hobby however, might I suggest 'Dynamic Electronic Emotion and Intellect Feeback Units With Flashing Lights and Sound'.

Practically rolls of the tongue.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

My problem with the term 'Interactive Entertainment' is that it doesn't neccesarily just relate to video games. You could argue that any recreational activity with tangible or tactile feedback is interactive in some capacity- making an automated toy model for example. The term seems imprecise and/or wide-ranging, not suited to designating it towards one particular medium.

This is also why we can't drop the "video" and make it just "games." There's a lot of different types of game out there; board, card, tabletop, video, tag, etc. Heck, when I was a kid, "gamers" were people who played tabletop games. It didn't change until I was halfway through middle school, and the change wasn't complete until highschool.

 

[brunothepig]

I doubt it would help. Yes, there is a stigma associated with video games. I just finished writing up a 2000 word report on the issues gamers face in Australia, possibly the only time I've enjoyed that kinda work.

But changing the name won't really change the misconceptions people have over video games, and I think it comes across as us kind of defensive and desperate. It will be glorious when games are finally accepted as a legitimate medium, and we aren't all viewed as rapists in waiting, but I don't think this is the way to go about it.

 

[Kavachi]

It IS a toy...

what are you even doing on the escapist?

saying such things on a gaming-lifestyle forum seems like trolling to me

 

[tahrey]

tl;dr version of much of this thread:

"oh god, not this shit again"

I suppose, at least, it's not quite as bad as the name someone else came up with before that sounded like a venereal disease...

 

[Dyme]

Interactive Entertainment

Really bad name in my opinion. I think it encourages the thought that gaming is this passive being-entertained like movies are. But for me, that's not gaming. Interactive Entertainment could fit to RPGs and Adventures. Games that are like movies, story focussed, trying to keep you entertained, and in the end anyone, no matter how bad you are, will beat/finish/win it.
Playing Mass Effect is a whole different world than playing Starcraft or anything competetive.

Mass Effect is like watching a movie. You sit there and everything you do is fine, and if you fail it doesn't matter. For me, that is the kind of game that "wastes my time" because it is like a movie, it is like sitting on your couch and watching TV. (I am not trying to say Mass Effect or RPGs are bad, I enjoyed Mass Effect, but like watching TV, the time spent spent for it seems wasted.)

Starcraft or any "competetive hardcore gaming" is different. Starcraft is really active, and you don't even necessarily need to be entertained by it. It can annoy you, but you keep on playing to become better. And when you finally overcome sucking hard, you feel great, until you start to be/feel bad again. If you really try to improve and be faster/cleverer/better the time doesn't feel wasted afterwards.

 

[Always_Remain]

(I am not trying to say Mass Effect or RPGs are bad, I enjoyed Mass Effect, but like watching TV, the time spent spent for it seems wasted.)

You have obviously never seen Doctor Who. Or Dexter. Or Buffy. Or House(Meh). Or any shows that aren't shit. I wouldn't consider them wastes of time. But that may just be my noisy, smelly opinion. Nasty little bugger.

OT: I like "Video Games" and "Gaming" and all of the terms we have now. If it's not broke, there's no need to fix it. Plus there isn't anything that great to replace them. Unless someone makes a really good not-word. Like Zillyhoo.

And as for being viewed as childish by people who don't participate in the medium, who cares? I for one find people who get worked up and invested in sports of any kind to be just as silly as gamers.(Although I will admit to enjoying baseball. Hypocritical, I know.) But it doesn't really matter because they love what they love just like we do.

 

[Twilight_guy]

If you rename the medium and people still bear it with the same distrust then it will retain its stigma through the new name. The only way to fix this is to remove the negative views of gaming altogether which is harder then a simple re-skin.

 

[ManWithHat]

tl;dr version of much of this thread:

"oh god, not this shit again"

I think the reason these threads come up is that we see a lot of flak hitting gaming as a medium when it doesn't deserve it or when other non-gaming media (i.e. movies) are involved in a similar situation and no one thinks anything of it. Example: The game Doom was blamed when the Columbine shooting happened. The kids had played Doom, so it must be the game's fault. Not their unstable personalities; it was the game. John Hinckley, Jr. shoots the president to impress Jodie Foster after watching Taxi Driver, people consider him a nut job. They blamed guns and crazy people like him for the assassination attempt, nothing about the movie he watched 15 times.
It's stuff like that that makes us feel like it's kinda unfair.

I mean, it is getting better. Video games are now legally considered a form of art(yay!), so things are improving. Any attempt or desire the change the name I find to be merely a wish for respect where it is due. I'm sure everyone here wants that. Hopefully, one day it won't matter what it is called because everyone thinks better of it than they do now. I hope it's soon because another name would be hard to come up with and Interactive Entertainment probably won't cut it.

 

[Hamish Durie]

I like the gerneral goal of this thread to improve gameing in the eyes of non gamers but until a easy to understand, easy to say, shorst and amusing name can be found this thread ain'y going nowhere fast.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

How about staying with Video Games? We shouldnt need to change the name of our hobby to make us seem more mature. It will probably do the opposite, just making us look desperate.

 

[StormShaun]

I doubt it would help. Yes, there is a stigma associated with video games. I just finished writing up a 2000 word report on the issues gamers face in Australia, possibly the only time I've enjoyed that kinda work.

But changing the name won't really change the misconceptions people have over video games, and I think it comes across as us kind of defensive and desperate. It will be glorious when games are finally accepted as a legitimate medium, and we aren't all viewed as rapists in waiting, but I don't think this is the way to go about it.

*sigh* Australia, the country with crap internet, censored games, banned games and a annyoing govt that is pretty much against games no matter what, we need a guy in the Govt thats a gamer.