Videogame or Video Game?

One of the things I am doing for my research, is having to decide whether I am going to use the term ‘videogame,’ or the two words ‘video game’.  Personally, I have always used one word, I am not sure why I started doing this (although the spell checker in Office wants me to use two words.)  So, further investigation is necessary for the resolution of which is to be used in my PhD thesis.

                According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the correct term is video game, which is defined as being ‘a game played by electronically manipulating images displayed on a television screen’ (OED, 2012) which is basically correct.  However, according to the Videogame Style Guide it is a one word term, with the following caveat attached to it ‘Always write as one word.’ (Thomas et al, 2007, p65)  There does not appear to be much consensus in practical use for either version though; a Google search shows that there are a lot of people using the two word version, whilst most of the academic literature I have been reading progressively uses one word.  Juul for example in Half Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, published in 2005 uses video game; by 2009 however, Tavinor asserts that the term videogame ‘dominates current usage.’  (Tavinor, 2009, p17) Personally, I prefer the single word ‘videogame’ when I am discussing the medium, for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, the term ‘video’ seems a million miles away from the original use of the word, which was (in my simple, non-technological mind) a pixel based method of projecting images onto a raster screen, which was also where ‘bits’ and ‘bitmaps’ come into play; a bitmap was the rectangular grid of pixels on which the bits - single coloured pixels - were imposed to build up a coloured image, which was then transposed onto the raster screen.  The term ‘game’ intimates that the video game is merely an extension of the non-electronic games of which the video game is a descendent.  However, I feel that the videogame in the 21^st Century is so much more than an extension of older games; playing Skyrim on an Xbox 360 is not comparable to playing Dungeons and Dragons as a board game, despite the commonality of both their origins.  Furthermore, the basis of my thesis is that videogames are no longer just games in the traditional sense; they can be experiences and large encompassing narratives which involve playing games as part of the interaction with a diegesis culminating in an immersive and potentially cathartic experience for the player of such a title.

                The term videogame acknowledges the way that the field has grown from this beginning without detracting from its individuality and status as a medium in its own right.  This is not a new thing – films have been (I seem to recall from earlier studies) called both Movies and Talkies as they evolved, reflected their ancestry as moving and talking pictures.  The term also acknowledges the fact that playing a game is part of the experience of 21^st Century gaming, but that is can be just part of the experience.  I suppose though, I could always do away with both terms and use the cringeworthy ‘interactive entertainment’ – but I won’t!

video-, comb. Form Second edition, 1989; online version December 2011. <http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/view/Entry/223262>; accessed 16 February 2012. First published in A Supplement to the OED IV, 1986

Tavinor, G (2009) The Art of Videogames; Chichester Wiley-Blackwell

Thomas et al (2007) The Videogame Style Guide; Melbourne: Power Play Publishing