What does Videogamey mean to you?

[WizarDru]

TBut it needs to be something that comes from human creativity and emotion, something no algorithm and no set of rules generates by itself.

Well, I grok what you're saying, but these games ARE made by people. Even the most randomly generated quest game still is designed, in some capacity.


Most of the things you describe here can be found in video games NOW. And have been for several years...although certainly there are plenty of games where you can't find them. People remember characters like Bastilla from Knights of the Old Republic, any major character from either Mass Effect, Andrew Ryan or Atlas from BioShock, Lambert in Splinter Cell and so on and so forth. Compelling, moral choices are present in many games, like the 'little sister' dilemma of BioShock, the choice to shoot Lambert while deep undercover in Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Mass Effect has so many such choices that I don't have time to discuss them (such as killing the last of a race that was a universal galactic threat, exposing a viral weapon that limits the reproductive capacity of a violent species or exposing a spy, knowing a friend will kill her if she finds out?

What Video Games DON'T have and never will have that pen-and-paper games do have is instant adaptability. A DM can change everything on the fly (location, NPCs, stats, monsters, story) based personally on their skill level. A game like Grand Theft Auto IV will NEVER be able to let you enter a generic building on the fly. In Mass Effect, you'll never be able to find a way to the docking bay...until the game says you can, if at all. In an RPG, it's a trivial task to add a new NPC, new planet, new anything. In a video game, it's NEVER trivial. (Though Neverwinter Nights made a damn good showing off it).