In some alternate universe, video games are called each of these things.

What did games become in those realities? Does everyone think they should be “fun”? Are there Congressional hearings about how they’re corrupting the youth? Are they thought of as undignified and unsophisticated? Are they violent, sexual, creative, for the young, the old, the smart, the stupid, men, women, the rich, the poor?

• Video games
• Software toys
• Interactive stories
• Experience engines
• Emotion tweakers
• Boxed worlds
• Borrowed lives
• Button movies
• Computational choose-your-own-adventures
• Emergence systems
• Software contests
• Screen sports
• Digital wars
• Electric entertainers
• Machine players
• Livable stories
• Funware
• Feelware
• Loveware
• Digital parties
• Generated shows

How many assumptions spring from a name?





crossposted from tynansylvester.com