Why gaming is still inferior to film (and books)

Discussion in 'General Gossip, Troll Wars & Game Development' started by Eclectic, Apr 8, 2009.

  1. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/04/08/why-gaming-is-still-inferior-to-film-and-books/

    Why gaming is still inferior to film (and books)

    April 8th, 2009 | Opinion
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    Gaming has the three vast technical superiorities of interactivity, non linearity and connectivity. Yet still people are making films and writing books, despite them being outdated media. So why do the public continue to be prepared to put up with this? Here are a few very inter-related reasons:
    • Suspending disbelief. This is the total immersion that a good movie or a good book gives you. True belief in the events as they unfold. This is an art to achieve and sometimes the movie industry fails. For instance using great plots and acting the original StarWars trilogy (episodes 4 to 6) were believable when being watched. However the subsequent episode 1 had you laughing at the improbability and studying the CGI.
    • Multi dimensional characters. This is an immense failing of games. Virtually all game characters are very simple and one dimensional. Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid being possibly about as good as we have achieved thus far. Hollywood gives us vastly complex characters as a matter of course, so do books.
    • Emotional involvement. Many millions of people have cried or laughed out loud at the movies or watching television or reading books. Video games are miles behind. They are not crafted sufficiently well to engage powerful emotions as a matter of course. The movie industry employs masses of gag writers just to insert humour, something we would do well to learn from.
    • Handling adult themes in an adult manner. Especially sex. Books and films are full of it as a normal part of human behaviour. The video game industry is a bit like the Taliband, lots of violence but don’t involve the women in anything meaningful. Maybe too many of us are too geeky to have the life skills necessary to get it right.
    • Story lines and plots. Video games are very caught up in the skills/tasks/rewards cycle and so often fail to create a great overall context that progresses. Books and films do not have this mechanism so rely far more on the quality of the underlying plot. We can learn from this because the game mechanism combined with a good plot has already resulted in some of the best output from our industry.
    • Creative talent / technical talent. A big one this. The movie industry has masses of highly skilled and creative people at every level. Screenplay writers, sound, directors, cameramen, stunt men, special effects, lighting etc etc. The very best are still far more likely to be attracted to movies than they are to video games. This is changing with the upcoming generation but we still have a massive skills gap to cross.
    • Graphics resolution. When you watch a movie it is real people (usually) having their images caught by camera as they act. We have a lot of difficulty achieving this level of visual reality in gaming. We will one day, but not just yet.
    • Heritage. This is important. Written fiction has hundreds of years of tradition and writers stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before. The movie industry is around 100 years old, so they know what they are doing. They have evolved and learned their lessons. Whilst commercial video games have been with us for about 30 years most of that time has been as a niche entertainment media. It is only recently that we have got our act together sufficiently to go mass market. So a lot of time we don’t really know what we are doing. Look at all the shovelware on the Wii or all the failed MMOs, for instance.
    • Commentators and critics. This is immensely important with creative output. It is only from critical input from experts that you can learn and progress. Books and film both have a vast and sophisticated critical industry. Just listen to how often they are mentioned on the radio as one small example. Video gaming is still in the dark ages here, we desperately need far more and far better critical journalism to help us improve what we do.
    Of course the video game industry will get there eventually and non interactive media will decline into being a sideshow. It was always strange expecting humans to be passive receivers of activities imposed upon them, which is what films, books and TV are. If you work in the industry there is still massive scope to gain competitive advantage by looking at the above list and applying the lessons contained within.
     
  2. inpHilltr8r

    inpHilltr8r Guest

    Massive, massive fail in basic assumption.
     
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  3. Borsato

    Borsato One sexy mofo! One Of Us

    It's Eclectic what do you expect? Erudite commentary? :)
     
  4. Klinker

    Klinker In police custardy One Of Us

    Films and books have better marketing.
     
  5. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    Very true.
     
  6. Going-grey

    Going-grey Grumpy bastard One Of Us

    One word: 'Ico'.
    Possibly the exception that proves the rule, but it flies in the face of 90% of your points about games.
     
  7. plaf

    plaf Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    In other news: green (still) inferior to blue and yellow
     
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  8. Going-grey

    Going-grey Grumpy bastard One Of Us

    One word: 'khaki'.
    Possibly the exception that proves the rule, but it flies in the face of 90% of your points about colours.
     
  9. Dredge

    Dredge Doomsayer One Of Us

    I also disagree that books and films are full of 'normal' sex. Complete bollocks. Unless its specifically part of the plot and well written, sex in films is just as unrealistic as games or books. Its shoehorned in to lots of films where you could have no sex, and the quality of the film would improve.
     
  10. blueeyedboy

    blueeyedboy Will Wright One Of Us

    Films/books are fundamentally different to video games. It is an apples to oranges comparison.

    With films/books you are watching/reading someone else experiencing the adventure. You are not a character in the story. You are an external observer.

    However, with video games are about you experiencing the adventure. You are the character. You don't observer, you control.
     
  11. Zax

    Zax Eaten by a Grue One Of Us

    I disagree whole heartedly. Green is at least as good as blue and yellow put together.
     
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  12. Klinker

    Klinker In police custardy One Of Us

  13. plaf

    plaf Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    oh I am so fed up with you and your colour-centric views, khaki is just another form of yellow so now fuck off goddammit!!!

    :)
     
  14. dan_olson

    dan_olson Totally anonymous One Of Us

    Gears of War is superior to Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

    The General (1926) is superior to Petz: Dogz 2.

    I am confused as to whether film is better than games or games better than film.

    I only read the title of the thread, sorry. :(
     
  15. Going-grey

    Going-grey Grumpy bastard One Of Us

    Colourist!
     
  16. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

  17. Kaelic

    Kaelic Guest

    Stopped reading here, glad he made it clear how moronic he was so I didn't have to continue reading.

    Can you believe people still write books despite vastly superior films being made? Oh wait...
     
  18. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    It amazes me that so many people in the game industry cannot see the wood for the trees. For 30 years I have experienced this and it never changes.

    Print and moving picture media are so different to each other that they both do different jobs and thus compliment each other in the world.

    Interactive, connected media can do everything that print does, everything that moving picture media can and a massive amount more.

    The key hardware devices will be in the smart mobile phone/netbook area. When there are a few billion such devices in use all connected via the web it will radically shift what gaming is and does to become more important than all other entertainment media put together. As well as taking over education. And we are only a few years away from this happening.

    And you are self evidently the moron for not reading on and opening your mind to a different informed viewpoint.
     
  19. Unsurprised Jack

    Unsurprised Jack Industry God One Of Us

    The general public have shown that they don't want games that are like movies. They want games that are games. Sure some games can have good stories with emotional content, or very high production standards and blockbuster style action sequences. But a huge part of our audience would rather do something simple and fun.
     
  20. plaf

    plaf Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    would you just face it: games are games, games are not books nor are they movies.
    I can't believe we keep having this stupid discussion ... do you want chess to tell a story?
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2009
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