Here I am, just running through the last dungeon on Hunted: The Demon's Forge, and I am finally able to answer this mind blowing question, "What are Video Games?". Lets start my saying, some people may feel offended by this, but that just means it is the truth. :P anyway. What are video games? Video games to a very minor low level are a game. But Gamers like me and yourself reading this blog, probably believe video games are a bit more then just a "game". Game by definition is "a competitive activity involving skill, chance and/or endurance. There is a bit more definations of the word game but I found the one that might best suit video games. Video games, as we have seen from Call of Duty series and the Halo series are competive games, whether your a fan of them or not, the games do have a competitive edge to them. But not all video games are competive, some don't even require skill chance of endurance, so does this mean we should still call them video games, are prohaps video games more then just a game? We look at this defination of game, and only find very few video games have all three of these characteristics, the best one I can think of off the top of my head is Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden compbines the elements of skill, chance and endurance to create a really hard but addictive experience to the game. Ninja Gaiden is not a game where you can go the whole game with spamming the same move over and over. You will probably die many times if you tried that. However a game like Final Fantasy X, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Little Big Planet don't really have the elements of a game besides the fact they are fun..... well then what is something we could call video games that talk about the video game media as a whole? Answer: ART. The moment we call video games an art, the word "gamer" starts to have much more importance then just the people who play video games. Now we are expereincing a video game like how someone would experience a great novel. Games like BioShock and Shadow of the Colossus tell us stories through the gameplay, but just stringing together cutsceans to make it moreof an interactive movie, not that itis a bad thing, but gameplay is the key element of a video game, it is what seperates video games as art from Fourie's Requiem (if you havent listen or hear of this look it up, it is a beautiful piece of art). So in conclusion if I were to answer what a video game is, I would have to say, video games are an experience. From Sonic the Hedgehog realesed in 1991 on the sega genesis to Mass Effect even to Duke Nukem Forever , all video games are an experience. Prohaps next map you play in Call of Duty, or next time you explore the world of Cyrodil or Cacoon and Gran Pulse, think about the experience the game creator wanted you to have when you emersed in the video game. Any way love to hear comments about this topic