games and Games

I have always objected to the term 'videogame'.

Growing up in London in the mid 80's, I knew them simply as Games. My pubescent older brother had a pair of friends that exemplified the odd couple, named Merlin and Richard. Merlin had the stature and affect of a cherub gone wicked, while Richard was a sardonic mountain. Though they and my brother likely got up to all manner of trouble, my defining memories of the raucous trio surrounded their playing of (and extensive talking about) Games. Their eyes would widen as they said the word, reverently, with a capital "G", clearly a superlative realm of experience beyond the drab world of 'ordinary games'. If asked to clarify, perhaps by a curious adult, they probably would have said "computer games", and I agree.

In hindsight I have attributed this distinction to the English propensity for simplicity in casual speak. Moving to the United States at age six, I was immediately struck by the obsessive technicality of American language (a tendency some call 'Pentagon Speak'). The blunt English term 'lift' had been elaborated to 'elevator'. 'Car park' was romanticized to 'garage'. 'Hoover' was replaced with the literal 'vacuum cleaner', and the plastic superhero figurines I called plainly 'figures' had been commercialized to 'action figures'. So when a friend first dragged me into his brother's bedroom and over to the NES to "play videogames!", I got the translation, but I wasn't happy about it. After spending most of the rest of my life living in the U.S. I have lost my kneejerk imperialist's distaste for a majority of Americanisms, but not that one. 'Videogame' will forever feel cloying and infantile to me.

In a broader sense, though, I genuinely believe 'videogame' to be a misnomer. It smacks of hasty media classification in the face of an emerging trend. The 'video' refers to the display medium, implying that what sets these games apart from others is the flickering screen. By this line of logic, any televised or visually projected event has the potential to be a 'video' game, and we could have just as easily called it 'telegaming'. What I discuss in this blarg are uniquely computerized games, developed on and for computers. From the first board game simulations written for Ferranti computers in the early 50's to the Commodore 64, through the Nintendo Entertainment System, the PC Gaming explosion of the 90's and now with app games on mobile devices - these are truly computer games. And while the definition of the term 'computer' is shifting daily, it is the unique approach of computing that makes these 'virtual' games possible. There are proponents of renaming the whole affair 'digital gaming', but that is another can of worms I'm not interested in opening.

I am an adherent to 'computer gaming', and most of the time they're just games. But in my private capacity, I will always think of them as Games.