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> The goal is typically less about art (e.g. The Irishman) or even editorial vision (e.g. Black Panther as part of the MCU), and more about creating an environ
by danans 7y ago
> The goal is typically less about art (e.g. The Irishman) or even editorial vision (e.g. Black Panther as part of the MCU), and more about creating an environment that audiences never want to leave ... everything is about the player, not the storyteller.
> One can debate how this orientation limits the artistic potential of the category.
The video game interaction model, which emphasizes freedom for the user within an environment, is at odds with storytelling, in which the framing, tone, pacing, and narrative have to be tightly controlled. But more practically, the artistic and narrative potential is limited because art and good storytelling aren't really what the gaming audience demands.
Before gaming "takes over" attention from storytelling media, it will need to somehow gain the narrative power of movies, TV, podcasts, and similar media, because human beings love storytelling - as we have for millenia.
Even "reality" TV, whatever one may think of its artistic merit, has a relatable narrative substructure that exceeds that of video games by a long shot.
- friendlybus 7y agoGaming has a narrative format. Moving through a series of rooms that reveal the story. BioShock, Stanley parable, half life, the witness, max payne, spec ops the line ect have been doing this for a while. From a semiotics perspective the story format is to move a player character through a series of rooms that reveal the story to you via characters and world. The game designer has near total control over space, pushing players through portals and dropping them from heights into new worlds. Worlds must be constructed in near complete 3d. The game designer has limited control over time. An increase of time pressure has to be applied carefully. The player controls movement through time. Film controls time with near complete control via cuts. Film can easily lose track of space and geometry. They only have to film a section of space that looks realistic to a 2d camera. I'd argue the conflict you are describing is a desire for the artist to control the viewer's time whilst you are participating in the art form. Games that do that are RPGs with levelling progression that tune the player's actions to maximize synchronicity with spawn rates, item drops, refills, selling timers and more. Single player architecture and audio book simulators like BioShock do not aim at that level of controlling time. TV does, film does even more so, you give up control over time to a predetermined 24fps film.
- baby 7y agoI’m a bit tired to read this type of comments throughout this thread. I can guess that this is written by people who never have enjoyed a good experience playing video game and then produce a theory that video game are just a bad medium. I’d say whoever is reading this: Play “the last of us” and understand how video games can be a much greater medium that movies and tv cannot emulate.
- danans 7y ago> I can guess that this is written by people who never have enjoyed a good experience playing video game You'd be wrong - I grew up playing them, and specifically gravitated toward RPGs, the closest genre of video games to storytelling. > and then produce a theory that video game are just a bad medium. I didn't say they are a "bad medium". I said the medium has chosen a trade-off in it's interaction model that makes it more challenging to tell stories as coherent and powerful as found in traditional narrative media, and furthermore that there is limited demand for that sort of narrative in games in the first place.