Editing Video game (section)

===Definition===
While many games readily fall into a clear, well-understood definition of video games, new genres and innovations in game development have raised the question of what are the essential factors of a video game that separate the medium from other forms of entertainment.

The introduction of [[interactive film]]s in the 1980s with games like ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'', featured games with [[full motion video]] played off a form of media but only limited user interaction.{{sfn|Perron|2013|pages=259–280}} This had required a means to distinguish these games from more traditional board games that happen to also use external media, such as the ''Clue VCR Mystery Game'' which required players to watch VCR clips between turns. To distinguish between these two, video games are considered to require some interactivity that affects the visual display.<ref name="wolf medium chp1">{{cite book | last = Wolf | first = Mark JP | title = The Medium of the Video Game | publisher = [[University of Texas Press]] | year = 2001 | chapter = Chapter 1: Video game as the medium | pages = 13–33 | isbn = 9780292791503 }}</ref>

Most video games tend to feature some type of victory or winning conditions, such as a scoring mechanism or a final [[boss (video game)|boss]] fight. The introduction of [[walking simulator]]s ([[adventure game]]s that allow for exploration but lack any objectives) like ''[[Gone Home]]'', and [[empathy game]]s (video games that tend to focus on emotion) like ''[[That Dragon, Cancer]]'' brought the idea of games that did not have any such type of winning condition and raising the question of whether these were actually games.<ref>{{cite web |last=Clark |first=Nicole |date=11 November 2017 |title=A brief history of the "walking simulator," gaming's most detested genre |url=https://www.salon.com/2017/11/11/a-brief-history-of-the-walking-simulator-gamings-most-detested-genre/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824042010/https://www.salon.com/2017/11/11/a-brief-history-of-the-walking-simulator-gamings-most-detested-genre/ |archive-date=24 August 2020 |accessdate=12 September 2021 |work=[[Salon (magazine)|Salon]]}}</ref> These are still commonly justified as video games as they provide a game world that the player can interact with by some means.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Zimmermann | first1 = Felix | first2 = Christian | last2= Huberts | title = From walking simulator to ambience action game | journal = Press Start | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | date = 2019 | pages = 29–50 }}</ref>

The lack of any industry definition for a video game by 2021 was an issue during the case ''[[Epic Games v. Apple]]'' which dealt with video games offered on Apple's [[App Store (iOS)|iOS App Store]]. Among concerns raised were games like ''[[Fortnite Creative]]'' and ''[[Roblox]]'' which created [[metaverse]]s of interactive experiences, and whether the larger game and the individual experiences themselves were games or not in relation to fees that Apple charged for the App Store. Judge [[Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers]], recognizing that there was yet an industry standard definition for a video game, established for her ruling that "At a bare minimum, video games appear to require some level of interactivity or involvement between the player and the medium" compared to passive entertainment like film, music, and television, and "videogames are also generally graphically rendered or animated, as opposed to being recorded live or via motion capture as in films or television".<ref name="pcgamer epic case def">{{cite web | url = https://www.pcgamer.com/videogame-definition-legal/ | title = Epic v Apple judge grapples with the big question: What is a videogame? | first = Joseph | last = Knoop | date = 10 September 2021 | accessdate = 10 September 2021 | work = [[PC Gamer]] | archive-date = 15 September 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210915140722/https://www.pcgamer.com/videogame-definition-legal/ | url-status = live }}</ref> Rogers still concluded that what is a video game "appears highly eclectic and diverse".<ref name="pcgamer epic case def"/>