Would AAMFP be better if it would NOT be considered a game, like Dear Esther?

[GregorusPrime]

Right, here's the thing. People are saying that it's not a game because the vast majority of the interactivity has been removed. It's an interactive experience only in the barest sense of the word, in that your ability to interact with the environment is incredibly limited and your ability to actually affect your environment is thus incredibly lacking. I don't think "is it a video game" applies as much as "is it a GOOD video game" does, and I would argue that no, AAMFP is definitely not because it has no challenge, and with no real challenge the tension is diminished, and with the tension diminished I'm not scared at all, I'm just bored as hell an hour into the game and have no desire to continue. There's no mystery because I'm only allowed to interact with objects that advance the plot, a plot that is so far extremely predictable. (The first line in the game is "Daddy please don't kill me." Gee, I wonder what happened to my kids? And it's such a mystery how the guy on the other end of the phone knows everything about me and sounds exactly like I do. I wonder who that could be.)

Oh, and for the record, no, Proteus is not a game. Add a randomized movement algorithm and set up a trigger to launch it after ten minutes of inactivity and it becomes a screensaver.