Also since it seems we want to say Tamogotchi is a video game to be silly.
BOP-IT! Smash is a video game
By same metric
These two items really aren't comparable. The latter is an electronic toy that's programmed to behave in a predetermined and limited capacity whereas the former is a simulation game with variables featuring a LCD screen and isn't unlike any other LCD game—games that I suppose I'll clarify are types of items that VGC tracks. Tamagotchi's marketability by large may instill the perception that they're traditional toys based on their appearance, but they function no differently than more universally accepted contemporaries like Nintendogs and Seaman released on dedicated gaming hardware.
With this being said, I don't think that the terms toy and video game are mutually exclusive. Tamagotchi is one example as to this mindset, but more modern counterparts would be items like amiibo and Skylanders figures.
I mean I hear what you're getting at with the definitions but it's so hard to stick to it, and i'm sure your rules for a video game more defined and grounded than what has been defined by others. Who is right? Who is wrong? We dont really know. Thats why I think we should go solely off intent of development.
From what has been defined to me by the people who include Tamogatchi in these gaming discussions is that the vague inclusion is because a video game requires
An LCD or Digital Display/Light Up Visual Ques (typically considered to require a computer sending code to a digital interface)
Pre Determined Rules/Limits
Player Input
Here are video games and the context as to why.
Texas Instruments Speak and Spell Is A Video Game....
"
You are absolutely spot on. Because it relies on a processor to drive an interactive digital interface, a Speak & Spell is technically an electronic handheld game. In fact, the device was one of the first mass-produced consumer computers to feature a gameplay loop, state tracking, and user input.Also a gaming historian sharing input on the matter
https://youtu.be/RpeegJ0J5mE?si=2TV1C7oeqTO6vSrcWhich makes any Drone with a handheld operating screen a video game and also makes electronic battleship a video game. Here is the response to that from google Gemini (not gospel but something)
Electronic Battleship Is A Video Game"You are absolutely right. By definition, an electronic Battleship game featuring an LCD screen, programmed rules (loops), an end state, and specific player goals meets all the technical criteria of a video game."I mean come now Ethyl. Where do we draw the damn line? Lol.
Also by your example of Nintendogs, Bop It Smash recieved a touch screen version ported to IOS and behaves not much different than a physical manifestation of any rythym game. Also the people who argue Nintendogs are like a tomagatchi leave out the fact that so are The Robot Dogs from Target that display emotion on a digital screen interface panel like a tamogatchi does that you feed plastic bones to make happy. It has a screen. A displayed visual prompt. You can stretch to say I-Dog is a game. Digital interface. Requires music to dance. Clear goal. Requirements. Peripherals. You care for a pet that doesnt actually exist but gives the illusion it does. Rules. Guidelines. Limits and function. Not a video game. Nintendogs is a video game released on video game hardware with video game marketing by video game companies. To say a toy has similar counterparts to a video game like Nintendogs seems to be the stretch but it falls apart under stress. It's like saying because Mario Kart is a game, a remote control Mario kart toy is a video game if the remote has a screen on it. It's a very crude stretch to say screen = game. In that sense all board games if you add a display to the board become video games. Which is why I feel the intent of development is what should matter. Games should be well defined as games. This is what happens when people get way too cute or vague with definitions. Why cant we just call violet violet? A video game is obvious. None of these things were marketed or intended to be a video game.
By this logic. If we build an AI Robot with a screen that displays its emotions and play patty cake with it to make it happy it becomes a 6 foot tall humanoid video game.
Then we can say "a video game needs to be virtual entirely. Not physical) contained within. ok so still speak and spell? Lol. Speak andnspell is also far more iconic and revolutionary than most games.
But the truth is. If we dont draw the line with Tamogatchi. Then the hobby loses all meaning. Even if you can stretch it to say Tamogatchi is a "video game" why? It's clearly marketed, consumed and remembered as a toy. Do we not have enough actual games? If someone has to go "is that a video game?" Does it belong in a hall of fame for video games? Especially over well defined icons of this industry? We are playing in the neighbors pool while ours develops algae.
Seriously. If tamogatchi is a video game. We lost the plot as a hobby.
And like I said. Even if it is. Does it really need to be in a hall of fame? Like culturally? Literally nobody thinks of it as anything but a toy without being convinced to. Like what are we doing here? Over Metroid lol.
But this boils down to Hall of Fames being worthless divisionist gate keeper culture coded failures broken from the ground up. Rooted in holding merit over an artists head like a chew toy to curate worth and not opinion. Almost all have come.under fire for bribery. Bias. Cultural failures and even prejudice and institutional fraud. Something rooted in exclusionary opinion pretending to be some sort of authority is dead news as far as I'm concerned. Weather Tamogatchi is a video game or not.
