Thursday, September 10, 2009

Videogames?

The English language is no longer defined by Webster. If you ask people whether they look up words at all, how many would actually use a dictionary and not dictionary.com? Why look something up if you have a fail-safe red squiggly line bringing all your mistakes to your attention? There is no discernible difference between videogame and video game, save for one. That red line only underscores one version of the term. So when people choose to refer to the medium as videogames, what are they really doing? I have a feeling it's essentially a colloquial choice. As I said, there's really no difference. It's not like some say video games, while others say interactive entertainment. The latter in that example is what mean old people say. It's like refering to a skateboard. Those tightpants kids (tightpants is apparently an acceptable word according to Firefox, by the way) refer to their chosen medium of transportation as a board or deck. Only their parents or their parents' parents would call it a horizontal bipedal wheeled trasportation tool. I think people consciously choose to use the term "videogame" instead of "video game" is to simply make the medium their own. Eliminating the space is their way of describing a hobby using their terms. I still prefer video games, though. I like spaces.

No comments:

Post a Comment