The Video Game as a Medium, Part I

In the first part of this article I elaborate on Video Games as a medium with its own unique characteristic. My claim in this series is that calling this medium "hybrid" or "difficult to categorize" does not reflect so much the nature of the medium as it reflects the confusion of those who try to understand it. The video game is, despite all the complexity that it is associated with, a medium that can and should be defined without thinking of it as a hybrid of all media that preceeded it.


Introduction: Some Initial Definitions

Just at the beginning of this article, I would like to suggest the term mediated games to address those games that depend on the mediation of a human or a machine in order to be played.


Human-Mediated Games

A well known example for human-mediated games are Fantasy Role Playing games, in which players are positioned in and guided through the game world and story by a narrating mediator, the so-called Dungeon Master (or DM). As someone who delivers us information from a world that we as the 'ordinary' players cannot directly access, the DM really deserves to be called a "Medium". She is no different from those people that claim to establish contact with the dead and bring us news from them. As such an omnipotent "Medium", the DM is in control of the game world and the ways in which event unfold. It is her narration that situates the players within the game and creates meaningful context for play. It is through this mediation that players become able to analyze their situations, make their decisions and take their actions.


Machine-Mediated Games and the Video Game

Machine-mediated games reached unexpected heights with the advent of digital technologies and the use of computer hard-and-software. For sure, the personal computer is today one of the most popular of these mediating machines when it comes to games. Game consoles, handhelds, the internet and mobile phones can now be listed as other computer hard-and-software-depending platforms for mediated games. Seen from this perspective, the video game, being an software artifact which can be designed for all of these platforms, could be defined in its broadest sense as a mediated game built upon and around computer hard-and-software.


The Video Game: Nature of the Medium

Video games are software artifacts. They are mediated and played through software-aided media, which involve computer technology as a central component in the process of this mediation. These media have been often described as hybrid or trans-medial because of their complex configurations. The palette of available platforms such as personal computers (workstations, laptops), game consoles (often used with a TV set), mobile phones, the internet (requiring a workstation and a browser application, but recently also accessible through game consoles and mobile phones), and handheld devices, as well as the various types and formats in which these platforms appear in the markets, is quite impressive. And as impressive as it is, it is also difficult to cope with their variety.

The category 'computer-mediated games' seems to be helpful to overcome this confusion. It also allows us to address particular configurations of this category, which can be thought of as "instances" of a general "prototype". Once these instances are configured, they will show differences which form the basis for unique possibilities and limitations in creative use, although they would not transform into a totally different category of media.

Video games are software artifacts that are mediated through these uniquely configured media-instances. It’s important to understand the relation between a software artifact and a particular media-instance. This is central in assessing the creative potential that is present in a given pairing.


In the coming part of this article I will elaborate further on media-instances and focus on what makes up the "raw material" of video games. Until then: take care!


Was this article useful? Do you think the term "media-instance" can help to overcome the problems in categorising the various platforms that are associated with video games? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts with us.
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