In video games, a ghost is a feature included in time attack

Time attack

A time attack is another term for time trial. The term is commonly used in Japan for individual time trial events for motor vehicles that involves a vehicle running around the circuit in lieu of a qualifying lap and the term is widely adopted outside the country for tuner event and...

 or time trial

Time trial

In many racing sports an athlete will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. In cycling, for example, a time trial  can be a single track cycling event, or an individual or team time trial on the road, and either or both of the latter may form components of...

 modes allowing the player to review their previous rounds. In racing game

Racing game

A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...

s, for example, a ghost car may follow the last or fastest path a player took around the track. In fighting game

Fighting game

Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...

s, the ghost is an opponent that the computer AI

Game artificial intelligence

Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters . The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence...

 player can train against outside of normal player versus player

Player versus player

Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between two or more live participants. This is in contrast to games where players compete against computer controlled opponents, which is correspondingly referred to as player versus environment...

 or story mode.

Ghosts in racing games

Ghost cars in racing games generally appear as translucent or flashing versions of the player's vehicle

Vehicle

A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....

. Based on previously-recorded lap times, they serve only to represent the fastest lap time and do not interact dynamically with other competitors. A skilled player will use the ghost to improve his time, matching the ghost's racing line as it travels the course. Many racing games, including Gran Turismo, F-Zero

F-Zero series

is a series of futuristic racing video games originally created by Nintendo EAD with multiple games developed by outside companies. The first game was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 and prompted Nintendo to create multiple sequels on succeeding gaming consoles.The...

, and Mario Kart

Mario Kart

is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games...

, offer a ghost function. Some also show ghosts set by staff members and developers, often showing perfect routes and lap times.

Ghosts in Rhythm Games

On Elite Beat Agents

Elite Beat Agents

Elite Beat Agents is a music video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It was first released in North America, and has since been released in Europe and South Korea . It is the spiritual sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, a Japanese rhythm game...

 and Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! games multiplayer mode, you can choose to use your saved replay data instead of playing the game yourself.

Academic criticism

Philip Sandifer, in a conference paper, looks at the phenomenon of ghost data as an example of the demo in video games. He argues that the demo, generally speaking, represents a "pure act of play" that creates a pseudo-player Sandifer calls Player ε — the null player. This allows a hypothetical dynamic of play, as opposed to one that is bound up in an actual physical contact between a real player and a real video game controller.

In the case of ghost data, Sandifer argues that the game uses ghost data to create a Player ε who exists at the exact threshold of the actual player's ability and the theoretical "ideal player" that all video gaming fantasizes about being. When the ghost character is finally overtaken, Sandifer claims that it gives "the feeling of breaking through the constraints of a particular and flawed performance of the implied player into a sense, albeit a false one, of perfect harmony with the game. This perfect harmony is then, at the end of the race, literally encoded into the game as the next Player ε when the player’s run becomes the new ghost data."