I saw an article on GamePolitics.com called Schindler’s List - Would You Play the Video Game?. One of the responses to the article suggested that it was an insult to make a 'game' about the Holocaust or other serious, heavy topics and that it would hardly be a game at all. I have to agree with that; a game is by definition is about amusement, competition and fun in general. It seems to me that calling a serious experience about sad, terrible or other topics not compatible with the descriptions of "game" would be inaccurate. We must, however call these things something. The way the situation is now it's like calling all movies "comedies", which is of course absurd. I think the term "serious games" is equally inaccurate. In the other direction, I think "Interactive Media" is not specific enough because this covers pretty much anything that takes input from the user which includes things that do not necessarily have an emotional component to them. I haven't seen a hierarchy of the taxonomy of terms used to describe games before, so I'm going to go out on a limb and create one:
Obviously this is not a complete list - in fact I think Interactive Media defies hierarchical categorization in some ways - the point is to recognize that Interactive Experiences are conceptual siblings to Games & Entertainment. They are usually thought provoking, dramatic experiences that people may find worthwhile despite the fact they are not "fun", much like movies that portray historical dramas, philosophical quandaries or emotional subjects.
Interactive Experiences aren't for everyone, much like how certain genres of movies aren't for everyone. It's part of the spectrum of types of Interactive Media though, and deserves recognition for being what they are. Or will be. I haven't yet seen any Interactive Experiences of significance yet, but I think this is likely because we are still at the very beginning of the development of Interactive Media and this is one of the uncharted areas.
I feel the need to make another parallel to the early movie industry; we are just now starting to get to the point where the spectacle of what Interactive Media can do is becoming less interesting than what creative people actually produce with these new tools. Kind of like how early movies we successful merely by showing car chases and other things rarely seen in everyday life - the mere spectacle of seeing stunts was enough to capture the audience. Interactive Media is slowly getting to the point where it takes more than a spectacle to interest everyone, especially the jaded among us where it sometimes seems every new game is just another rehash of games we've already played. We as customers are increasingly critical of games that don't have believable stories, most people who play games already know this. Like action movies, there will always be an audience for fresh new action content so long as the special effects are 'better than last time' and the plot has some reasonably new and believable or at least entertaining idea behind it. However if movies were to try to make "Rambo" over and over again, with new special effects and the same exact story each time, they would obviously be commercial failures. Much like some video games that don't evolve aspects of their creative design (read: story) with each sequel. For some reason, this hasn't always been so obvious to people who make games. But it's the same situation, just with a different type of media.
I think that this demand for believable stories in games will one day translate to demand for believable Interactive Experiences similar more similar to dramatic or historical movies than to video games we've seen so far. People can only watch so many action movies before feeling the need to watch a comedy. Or a drama. The same is going to be true for Interactive Media, at least once we actually have Interactive Experiences that are on par with the production levels found in traditional video games - and the story quality found in successful movies. Once there are products that are the interactive equivalent of Oscar award winning dramatic movies, people will make them part of their entertainment experiences. And we'll all forget there was ever a time that "video games" were the only way to experience compelling Interactive Media.