Games are not interactive?

[Chris W]

Well, I would love to reply to every post in this thread, but let me just address the initial question more generally.

As a hard-core introvert, I find the idea that interaction necessarily requires other people to be unsatisfying and somewhat limiting.  Let's assume you are playing a game with/against an AI that is indistinguishable (from your point of view) from a real person (will happen one of these days).  In such a situation, the games will play out similarly, if not identically, to the way they would play out with a human partner.  So what is the distinction that makes human interaction necessary?  Does the other party have to be conscious?  Have a soul?  If we accept that the AI would be satisfactory, then where is the dividing line between interaction and just action?

I would take a broader view of interaction being pretty much any that, when acted upon, will produce a reaction or feedback that wouldn't exist if you were just sitting there by yourself.  This view looks at the AI/human/whatever as a black box.  Doesn't matter what it is, but it's the action-reaction that defines the interaction.  Let's take the example of an inanimate toy, like a yo-yo.  When you play, are you not interacting with it?  Your action - to throw the yo-yo - evokes a reaction from the yo-yo - spinning back up - that doesn't exist with other objects you might throw.  This fact will in turn cause you to exhibit different behaviors when acting on it than you would if you were acting on an unrelated object.  To me this feels like interaction.

I suppose another possible argument would be that a well designed (dare I say artistically designed?) system can give you a way to interact with yourself.  Especially considering how little of our minds are under conscious control, I think this is not only important, but vital in any type of interactive design.  I don't want to confuse this post by presenting too many arguments at once, but maybe I'll come back to this idea if warranted.

[Michaël Samyn]

I think one could say that when playing with a yoyo, you're interacting with physical forces like gravity, more so than with the object.

[Michaël Samyn]

But I think you missed my argument a little.

I wanted to point out that as games, single player video games are not interactive, because indeed that would require other people, or AIs that simulated other players, AIs that play a game and can interact with you on the same level.

But as simulations of a reality, video games are highly interactive! The AIs in the game usually respond to your character as creature that exists in the same reality as they do. Very few AIs would shout out "you're just an avatar, Gordon Freeman, I'm not playing with whomever is controlling you!"