When you watch a movie, or listen to music, you press play and wait for the magic to happen. There is a finite time for the experience, be it 3 minutes and 20 seconds or 1 hour and 56 minutes. It does not matter whether sound is muted or you look away, an external driver makes sure the show goes on.
Reading a book or solving a crossword puzzle does not have this feature. The moment you look away from a book, the reading stops. You may only rely on an internal driver, motivation. Having an external driver makes consuming content much more efficient.
I consider this analogous to the difference between video and tabletop games. Generally, video games are highly graphic, even cinematic, and require the player to perform the right action at the right time. Even if actions are not bound by time, there is an algorithm, a storyteller, an external driver pointing somewhere, taking the player’s hand, or opening a door for them. Tabletop games consist of rules and components. You must learn the rules, and after that, you are in charge. There is a possibility to break the rules (and components), without any external party telling you this is happening, or even being able to stop you.
Of course, there are so many different video and tabletop games being made that this distinction is not clear. There are all out video game versions of tabletop games, where dice rolls are hidden and game actions animated. There are also sandbox-type video games with no clear objective, that heavily encourage finding your own way.
Right at the border between video games and tabletop games are tabletop simulators. These are computer applications that provide you the components of a tabletop game in a physics engine. The application helps you shuffle a deck of virtual cards, roll a virtual dice, and makes sure the components do not break. But it does not give and force you the game logic. There is no external driver.
Even for people who are not gaming enthusiasts, it is already superficially evident that physical, analog board games are different from digital video games. Seeing the same difference between two computer games is not as obvious, and requires understanding the content. For the player, it changes the mode of consumption and the experience dramatically.
