The world’s youngest form of media and entertainment is video gaming.
It is still newer and less popular in the mainstream than books,
movies, and TV. That is something we can all agree on. But over
the past few years, video gaming has caught up (if not surpassed) in
both hours and dollars spent on the industry.

Still, there is one quality that separates all these other forms of
media from video gaming. And that, my friends, is interconnection.

I don’t mean the interconnection in multiplayer gaming, although the
cooperation and competition is indeed a characteristic exclusive to
gaming. I’ll briefly touch upon this later.

What I mean is, put simply, the type of relationship and interaction required between
person and game to thoroughly enjoy and play through a video game. The
difference compared to the others is that reading a book and watching a movie or TV show is simply one-way. They each have a definitive
introduction, conflict, and conclusion, and eventually, everyone will
reach them exactly the same way. You cannot change what path you take
within reading a novel or watching a film or television show.

In many video games, this is not the case at all. Every bit of a video
game requires an action from the user- from proceeding past the start
menu, to gathering that next power-up, all the way to viewing the credits scroll
up the screen. And everyone will have a different experience in
reaching a game’s conclusion (that is, if it even has one).

Those against my argument might reason that everyone reaches the end
anyway- How is that any different than finishing a book? That’s easy
to explain: every gamer has a various skill level and therefore uses a
different thought process and makes different choices to reach that end. Scores are tallied, items
are collected, side quests are completed or neglected, enemies are
defeated, and based upon the actions that are taken those totals will
vary from individual to individual.

The input into the video game is what really creates this
interconnection. You are part of the game, not just a witness to it.
Movies and TV can’t touch that experience. There’s no skill required
in being a viewer.

And, of course, playing video games collectively creates and
strengthens friendships. This can be said of the other media, too,
but it is still different because when you are simply reading or viewing,
you still aren’t producing. Gaming friendships can be competitive
as well as cooperative, and all the while even creative. Teams create
strategies across multiple genres, such as in fighting, sports, driving,
shooting, or puzzle games. The strength of these bonds is incomparable
to, say, a book club or a few friends who routinely go to the movie theater
together. There’s no inspiration when everything is being delivered to
you. Movie making and collaborative book writing has more in common
with this facet of gaming than consuming the other products.

The video game industry is still young and has a lot of room to grow. But there
have been a number of video games already that help establish my claim. Case and point of my essay is The Legend of
Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Anyone who plays through this game will have a
different amount of heart containers (health), attainable items (not
everyone gets Farore’s Wind or the Biggoron Sword, or even come close to finding all the Skulltulas), and enjoyment. Ocarina of Time is a timeless game that never ceases to either crack a smile or a scowl.

The infamous Water Temple. Never before had a dungeon bred such
contempt in the eyes of a gamer. What made it such a pain? Ask the
gamer who plays through it with a smile. He’d be able to tell you that you probably
forgot to check that one wall on the second floor after you change
the water level. The smiling gamer would know from experience that that is the place where you can take a bomb to the wall and find the extra small key that will ease your way through the latter half of the dungeon. That one key brought so much turmoil to so many people, but that is how something so minute can vastly change the gaming experience. Each person will have varying levels of feelings and emotions based upon what they choose to do.

However, I must admit that there is one characteristic that video games, books, movies, and television all have in common: there is no one single classification of people who use them. Anyone from either gender, no matter what race or age, can enjoy a video game, just as they can a movie, TV show, or book. But the experience itself will remain unique to the individual player. That, dear readers, is the true beauty of video games.