Computar Games

To further pick up on what we can do by not starting from a traditional theory like narratology, I’ll sketch a possible answer to a previously asked question: How are computer games different from non-computer games?

If you think of computer games historically, they can be described as introducing four main characteristics compared to the non-computerised game. Time, automation/complexity, replay, and levels. The first two are pretty obvious, and more or less quantitative. The last two are more subtle.

It was recently remarked to me that the popular FPS games today such as Quake have a “sport”-quality. I’m not sure how to define sport, but I think they are pretty abstract physical games. The rise of the multi player computer game, that we today consider “the new thing”, means that the computer game to some extent is going full circle and partly returning to it’s roots in the non-electronic by dropping replay and level progression. You can’t replay an identical multi player game, as your opponents will react differently. And level progression is not a central part of the popular multi player games today.