Part of the problem is that the word game is actually very generic. You play a game of football, monopoly DnD or Counter Strike. You play mind games or a game of intrigue, a drinking game. So many things that are fairly unalike are considered a game. So the fact that video games do not even have a name they can call their own just one shared across all leisure activities I think holds the medium back.

I will also add that “Interactive” is far too long. “Motion Picture” was shortened to “Movie” and “Television” to “TV” or “Telly.” I think trying to replace “Game,” a single syllable word, with a four syllable word is doomed to failure, especially since people will have something to revert back to instead of shortening it to “Intie” or something similar.

What I’m trying to say is that we cant just change the name, we need to alter the medium itself. For example we don’t just start calling them Interactive’s. We start by calling games like “Heavy Rain”, and team Ico’s “The last Guardian” Interactive’s, and leave the term ‘game’ for the more game’y games.

If we call games which are truly respectable, which the sceptics cant deny are art “Interactive’s” but still give those sceptics the FPS’s and other games to dig their disapproving teeth into then they might be more willing to accept the term, and the brand.

Most of us gamers know where the medium is headed and how important it will become in our future for cultural and artistic expression (and even in education or public awareness).

I can see how it is frustrating seeing the potential of something so amazing but being tied down, shunned or pigeon-holed by old perceptions that don’t fit the medium any more.

You’re absolutely right though, time is going to prove what we all know about this new media. But persistence is the key, and based on how much money there is in video games, I don’t think persistence will be a problem. Developers and publishers standing up for their creations will certainly help the cause as well.

Let’s go back to Daniel Floyd’s example of comics and graphic novels. The Watchmen is referred to as a graphic novel by the majority of people, but the majority of people still call those types of books as comics, even comic readers still call them comic books. My guess is that a “graphic novel” is just a stand-alone story rather than an on-going story. But my point with this graphic novel/comic example is: it’s a bad example to compare with video games and how to improve the image of the medium. Comics are still called comics, still aren’t seen as sophisticated reading material, and the skeptics still view them as kids’ books.

Back to video games, if we want to change the view of those who are skeptical of video games, a re-branding would not be the right solution. It’s like proposing some magical cure to cancer patient, when in reality, that cancer patient will have to undergo tons of chemotherapy. If you want to change someone’s view on video games, the only real way to change their mind would be to go to each one of them, explain to them what video games are and aren’t, and then try to get them to play some games themselves. And even then, it wouldn’t be a guarantee that you can convince them that video games are more than just “kids’ toys”.

To sum up, not only do I think re-branding would be too hard to do, but it really would be pointless due to it not effecting the skeptic people. The only remedy to changing public perception of video games is time. After all the people who look down on video games either die out or grow old and irrelevant, and the new generations who grow with video games have taken up the majority of the population, that’s when the public perception of video games will change.

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My only thoughts at the moment is that the one thing most common everything interactive is an “Interface” not that it’s much help.

It’s hard to come up with a word that hasn’t been invented when it’s an actual goal of discussion. Things like “LOL” and “D’oh” and even the word “Movie” seem to have been accepted as common language without much effort or discussion at all.

I know a great marketing manager, I might have a chat with her next week about how things like this can be re-branded in the real world.

that podcast was brilliant as well, one of your best.