This thought came to mind when looking at the newly-added games to Completionator which included a listing for Butts. http://www.completionator.com/Game/Details/24814

I have watched Butts. It is basically a brief, amusing CG video which was designed with virtual reality viewers in mind. You can watch through a Gear VR/Google Cardboard/Rift/etc and it's a funny video to 'prank' friends with if they go into VR cold.

With that said, it is basically a short film. You have no interaction with it. This is one reason the subtitle is "The VR Experience". My question then is, is it still classifiable as a game? There are many videos being added to Oculus Rift and HTC Vive because it is cool to watch Pixar-like short films and actually "be" in the scene. Henry on Oculus Rift is one such cute video. But again, I don't personally feel they should be classified as games.

Although I personally would love a site like this with regard to keeping track of my movies/short films watched (IMDB is too simplistic in my opinion), I don't think that is an intended use case for Completionator :P. Just something that was on my mind.

This is almost like an extension of the walking simulator (ie: Dear Esther, etc...) vs real game argument, only in this case, I think that walking simulators at least have some level of interactivity to them beyond "press play." Sure, all you do is walk, and sometimes read things, but you have to at least press some buttons.

Butts on the other hand, has absolutely zero user interactivity. Nothing you do will alter the course of events that transpire throughout this piece in any way shape or form. Games require user input, even if it's minimal. Just looking around while everything unfolds is not interactivity.

So in my opinion, no, Butts is not a game. It's no different than going to Newgrounds and loading up a flash cartoon from the Movies section. Those are not games.

Side note: If you're looking for a site to keep track of what movies and such you watch, check out trakt.tv

It's designed to automatically keep track of the stuff you watch if you use programs like Kodi and whatnot... but it's flexible enough that you can manually add things as well.

I'm kind of seeing the whole VR thing much like the introduction of Full Motion Video to gaming. There were quite a few FMV "games" that were such in name only. But there were also great games.

The tech itself isn't going to be a game for lazy "game" makers. But it can be a great tool for real game makers.

I agree Dhobo, walking simulators offer something to do. Even if it is fairly minimal, at least exploring the environment, reading stuff, potentially discovering neat little aspects off the beaten path/etc, mean there's at least something there in regards to interaction. I mean, I play visual novels all the time and consider those games since they at least generally offer a few dialog/story choices throughout.

Butts lists itself in the gaming category on Steam, but yeah I really don't consider it one. The video is only 2 minutes long and you can just sort of move your head around to get slightly different angles on the scene but cannot walk around the thing. My concern is how to handle this going forward, as no doubt there will be more video-only films appearing and listing themselves as VR "games." I guess we need to be vigilant about ensuring the VR stuff added here is actually a game - even in a very minimal capacity.

PS: This made me realize I have a trakt.tv account from 2012. The site seems quite slick and I do not at all recall it, so will try messing around with that soon.

Hmm..I didn't even realize Butts was a passive experience. I generally look at the screenshots and tags on Steam when determining if it needs to be added and that one didn't trigger any flags for me. I think Back to Dinosaur Island is another one that's like that.

I'm a little torn on whether they belong or not. If these were physical releases, then I'd say they definitely belong since we already have some of those like the GBA video release. I don't plan on adding the UMD movies for PSP since I think those cross the line, but the GBA ones were specifically marketed as GBA exclusive things, whereas the UMD movies had DVD releases and such.

But given that these VR games are (likely) digital-only, I could see the argument for not including them on the site. I agree with what you guys have said as far as you have these non-interactive "games", then walking simulators / visual novels (both of which are definitely games and belong here), and so on.

Something else to keep in mind is that I've added things like encyclopedias and such from the Sega CD / 3DO era. These were official releases and I guess are considered edutainment, but they're definitely not games in the traditional sense...though they are interactive. Again, I think being a physical release on a home console / handheld carries a bit more weight from a collector standpoint and thus why I ultimately included them. In fact, I have a bunch of 3DO / ESPN instructional...things that are queued up for being loaded. I'm not sure they're interactive or just videos. But apparently you can learn how to play golf, tennis, and volleyball :P

And another thing that I've thought about posting before and now seems like a good time is the matter of demo discs and other random things. I don't mean like PC Gamer discs, I mean officially released game demos, like Panzer Dragoon on Sega Saturn. Or the Bootleg Sampler that came with my Saturn. I'm torn on these because they DO have a collectible aspect to them and generally contain interactive bits (some are just videos, I suppose). The only one I can think of that's been added so far is Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, which was basically just a demo. There's also Christmas Nights, which was essentially a demo, though it did have some exclusive content.

I think all of these are fringe cases in the grande scheme of things (considering we have 17,000+ games as of right now) and can vary wildly, but this is good stuff to consider.