What is a video game?

OXO was the first video game created on a computer, back in 1952 by Alexander Douglas for his PhD at the University of Cambridge, based on the interaction between human and machine. It's basically an interactive 3-in-a-row, using a phone dial as an interface.

To develop it, he used this huge computer, the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator). It had 3 CRT screens with the information displayed in only 35x16 pixels. But is OXO a video game?

For many it is, for others it isn't. There are interactivity and graphics, but these have no movement and interact with the player... At this point, we asked ourselves one question: What is a video game?

Line Wobbler by German artist Robin Baumgarten is a "one-dimensional dungeon crawler" that uses its own controller interacting with a strip of LEDs and with a surprising variety of levels in a minimalist narrative design.

Pong Knock Out (Dave & Busters and UNIS) is the recreation of the Atari classic (Pong) but in a physical, electromechanical format. It allows for a showdown between 4 players and, again, without a screen.

AR Sandbox (collaborative project) converts a sandbox into an interactive topographic map using Kinect (XBOX), scratch and Unity 3 technology, interacting with the sand arranged by the player in the form of augmented reality.

We've named some of the arguments that encouraged us to launch a campaign aimed at the entire video gaming community: a (re)definition of the concept of video game in an open, participatory, and plural way. We're looking for a definition for what we're passionate about.

To do this, we've held talks that you can find on definiendoelvideojuego.oxomuseo.com, and we've received the backing of major players in the Spanish video game industry, such as DEV, AEVI, Arsgames, DIGRA, IndieDev Day, and the Fundación ONCE.

"At DIGRA Spain, we understand that our purpose is complex and that our definitions change which aspects of that complexity are addressed or ignored. That's why we want to engage in these conversations and see how we use video games."

"Everything is changing and so is the video game. We work on our projects because video games are for everyone, and we believe that the current definition doesn't represent this and doesn't represent us. Therefore, we will form part of this campaign."

"Definitions not only describe reality, they also generate it. It's important that we generate it together."