When do you call a Visual Novel a video game?

[Graves Ruinwalker]

I would say that it is and isnt a videogame .

It depends what the visual novel brings to the table to be more a videogame or more as audio-visual book .

Is there alot of interactions and decisions inbetween to interact with the game-world than it is a videogame. But if its just a story to be more passively taken with decisions that alters the situation of the story then its just like a more storytelling form .

I think it is a genre that isnt overall resulting to be a videogame but can be one .

 

[TallGrass]

I think for something to be a game, there has to be a "win" condition and a "lose" condition.

So Tetris isn't a game, since you can't win?

 

[nathman]

So Tetris isn't a game, since you can't win?

You can win in Tetris by getting the highest score.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

So Tetris isn't a game, since you can't win?

You can technically reach the maximum level in various modes.

In arcade games it was you vs the Hi-Score.

 

[Questless Knight]

When do I call a Visual novel a game ? Well when it has actual game play mechanics. Take the Rance games heavy text base visual novels with RPG elements or Like Sengoku rance which is a Turn based game.

So I call it a game when it has more than just text and simple response box. Visual novels are more like does chose your adventure books so I call them interactive books. And I call them games when they have game play mechanics.