video game

An electronic game with a GUI that generates interactive, visual feedback on a video game console or display such as a TV screen, virtual reality headset or computer monitor.

Historical perspective: Are video games a dangerous addiction? Prince Harry used to love video games but he fanned an international debate over video games with a call to ban the game Fortnite, said BBC.com in April, 2019. The Duke of Sussex said that he thought the free-to-play online game, which has more than 200 million players worldwide, was created to addict—an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. Harry suggested the game’s designers have been irresponsible. This kind of worry over video games isn’t new, said The Boston Globe, but evidence suggests that today’s games are harder to stop playing. Game makers have taken a lesson from slot-machine designers in developing ever more sophisticated psychological manipulations. Fortnite, in which 100 competitors fight each other on a virtual battlefield, continuously loops with a variable-reward mechanism to which the developing brains of young adults seem especially vulnerable.