Video *space* games declared victor
by Christopher Grant 
{ Dec 22nd 2005 at 4:30PM }
It was a close match, and with the margin of error it's really anyone's guess who the victor is; however, for the sake of closure we will declare video-space-games the winner. The Joystiq crew wasn't as evenly split, tallying with 6 in favor of "video games", two in favor of "videogames", and one write-in vote for "immersive interactive virtual video and audio simulation simulator." Even Google comes down strongly in favor of "video games."
There were plenty of great comments (and as usual plenty of bad ones). Read on for a selection of some of both.
- Sean wrote, "We have 'book' 'movie' and 'TV,' So why 'Video Game?'... When we take our medium seriously enough to give it a name of its own, then it is legit."
- Our very own Dan Choi wrote, "I'd prefer it to read 'video-game' when modifying a noun (as in 'video-game studies')."
- Brandon, a graduate of the prestigious Yale University, humbly submitted, "I'm a Yale graduate, and I say let's call them 'videogames'. English is a totally f***ed up language anyway."
- gjd wrote, "'Video games' just looks weird to me. It deserves its own word like newsstand, newspaper, flowerpot, thumbtack, or sandstorm. Look at the way you say it. The stress is clearly on the first word, video. Now look at the difference in the way you say "green house" vs. "greenhouse," or "blue bird" vs. "bluebird.""
- Mullinator wrote, "In case you havn't noticed the english language is very dynamic. It is always changing. In fact it is one of the great strengths of english."
- DG enlightened us with, "'Videogames' is not a word! If you think it is, you're stupid, and that's the only correct description."
- 32_Footsteps wrote, "The French keep it two words - un jeu vidéo or les jeux vidéo (not that anyone cares, but video games actually breaks the rules of French - the adjective does not pluralize along with the noun)."
- DG once again graced us with this thought, "Joystiq is the pain-in-the-ass (compound adjective, therefore hyphenated) weblog that made an issue out of nothing. This is very similar to Fox News and their Christmas nonsense."
- Benny opted for neither contributing, "videogames/video games sounds wrong to me anyway when describing them. I call them computer games or such."
- gmrc politely wrote, "This is a great, and tough, question. But the word is Videogames, just like Basketball and Baseball."
- DG, not sated with only two obnoxious responses, offered this final comment, "Even asking the question has made us all dumber."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vince UK @ Dec 22nd 2005 4:38PM
Hurrah, video games it is, as it should be :)
32_Footsteps @ Dec 22nd 2005 4:45PM
Sadly, this issue isn't going to go away. I know a few people out there who righteously claim that unless video gaming creates its own distinctive word for itself (aka videogames, videogaming, etc.), it can't be taken seriously.
This, of course, is completely counter to the fact that any endeavor that obsessed with semantics shouldn't be taken seriously.
Rare Hare @ Dec 22nd 2005 4:54PM
yes, it's "video games". it always has been.
you don't say "playingcards" or "tradingcards", so why would it make any more sense to say "videogames" or "boardgames" or "cardgames"?
Vince UK @ Dec 22nd 2005 4:54PM
Hurrah, video games it is, as it should be :)
Daryl @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:05PM
But it's also true that at first, video( )games had no sound. Even though I voted for videogames, "videogames" is a made up word, and Video Games is a term just like Card Games.
gmrc @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:12PM
You go Rare Hare!
Just like 'website', 'paperweight' and 'nutshell'
oh whoops ... I just proved the opposite.
Earthstrike @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:20PM
The spelling of a word is defined by the frequency of usage of those spellings. Since both appear often, one can say "video games" is just a word with alternate spellings, this difference of course being the space.
Teh_Cramanator @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:23PM
Why are we even trying to keep the 2 words, "Video", and "Games"? if we REALLY want to be taken seriously we have to make a completly NEW WORD. I mean:
"Movies" as opposed to "Moving Pictures"
"TV" as opposed to "Television"
"Novel" as opposed to "Long-ass-book-nobody-really-cares-about"
so how about...Vidmes (VIDeo gaMES)?
J B Cougar @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:30PM
Has anyone consulted a Speak and Spell on this one?
Einhanderkiller @ Dec 22nd 2005 5:34PM
OFF-TOPIC
~~~~~~~~~
Sending tips does not work.
At least for me, it doesn't.
mrk @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:03PM
"This is a great, and tough, question. But the word is Videogames, just like Basketball and Baseball."
...that second sentence doesn't exactly work, does it? Maybe there should have been ellipses after "question?"
...
_>
Wuddersup @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:10PM
You can't just type videogames and Video Games into Google.
You have to type "videogames" and "video games." Otherwise, you'll recieve hits that may contain only the word video or the word games, or just both words not used together.
Here is the correct Googlefight :P
http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=%22videogames%22&word2=%22video+games%22
"Video Games" still wins, but not as badly.
scott @ Dec 22nd 2005 6:31PM
Yay! Proof that the majority of gamers actually know how to spell!
gmrc @ Dec 22nd 2005 7:04PM
mrk:
Starting a sentence with 'but' IS bad form; that's true. The sentence still made sense though, it just wasn't perfect.
Also, the editor of this post took certain liberties - cut up and re-did our quotes a tiny bit.
Good looking out though, you keen-eyed reader, you. ;-)
PS ... it's Videogames. COME ON GUYS! Look how much cooler that is!
mercatfat @ Dec 22nd 2005 7:45PM
Americans love to combine words. So do the Japanese.
The British, as a general rule, do not.
however, the fact that "board game" has retained its space for all these years basically nulls the debate. games on a board or games on a video screen, it is still a game. this is, of course, proof positive that the British still do it best.
"videogames" does not look cooler. to me, it looks big and awkward... just like the jocks that most gamers detest.
finurlig @ Dec 22nd 2005 9:05PM
The general rule in Swedish is to combine words when they constitute a single noun entity. One advantage of this method is that it makes disambiguation easier.
E.g. phone company vs phonecompany -- am I supposed to phone the company or am I talking about a company which proveds a telephone service?
Of course such examples are more common in Swedish since we use more suffixes when using nouns.
Sergio @ Dec 22nd 2005 10:23PM
gmrc: it's Web site. It's been dumbed down to website, much like email. Videogame is a dumbed down version of "video game".
Rx @ Dec 22nd 2005 10:54PM
There's nothing wrong with concatenating frequently paired words in English. I prefer it written with a space, but both are correct. This is a breathtakingly irrelevant issue.
Kendal @ Dec 23rd 2005 2:16AM
I don't call it Video Games or Videogames. I just call them games.
Shad Genki @ Dec 23rd 2005 8:35AM
Check your dictionary!
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=videogames
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/videogames
"Videogames" is not a word. "Video games" is the proper spelling. I'm sorry, but just because 45% of the pollers can't spell doesn't make them right. Feel free to continue to spell it incorrectly and look like dumbasses tho, by all means.