Games serve a very important role in our lives, which isn’t necessarily obvious at first glance, but they, amongst other things, help to keep us sane in an otherwise mundane world. Games and video games have brought something new to the entertainment medium, they blur the line between work and play, which creates something far more entertaining and captivating than either of those on their own. This explosive new market changed its inspirations and competition, namely television and film—when someone can play a game and make the events in a story happen, the static events in movies can lose their edge.
Video games, most obviously, differ from movies and television in that the player can interact rather than observe. When you watch movies, sometimes you find yourself frustrated with the events that unfold, and the actions that characters make. “No dammit! don’t open that door!” You know that you have yelled that out loud during at least one movie, don’t lie. This trick is called suspense, and it is the only thing holding some films together. What if you could interact with the story, and make the story unfold in a way that makes sense to you? This is exactly what video games allow their players to do, and it changes the way players think—they may no longer be captivated by suspenseful movies, but rather annoyed with them.
So, game players are annoyed with the lack of control they have other the events of films, what are screenwriters doing to fix this? I have noticed a couple of trends in films lately. One, there are many films centered on familiar characters, which perhaps don’t yet have their own epic green-screen adventures. Gamers love their characters, especially the ones with fantastic powers and abilities, and they love it when those characters act the part of a bad ass. Take the movie Thor for example: a comic book character, identifiable only by the comic-book reading, likely video game playing teenagers and adults. The main character, Thor (surprise), the Nordic god of thunder, is thrown into the modern world to save humanity. Something like that. He seeks out the bad guys leaking into the world, and kills them with a hammer. There is really no room for drama in this film, the character is simply presented with challenges, and then kills those challenges, just like a video game. Many movies are following this trend of reviving known characters, likely identifiable by the video game playing demographic, and making them beat things up and make them explode.
More generally, the increased amount of computer-generated graphics infused in movies can also be partially attributed to the attempted ‘gamification’ of films and television. Now, special effects have been in movies since the very beginning, and have been evolving over time, but they don’t have to be computer generated to look good, even in modern films. CG is obviously very similar to the graphics in video games-- in fact, the 3D models and software, as well as the techniques used by animators, basically stem from the same starting point, and often run parallel. When a film-maker can have their special effects literally be anything they want, they can make Nordic gods whack any manner of demons with his gloriously animated hammer. The same kind of thing a gamer would likely do. You simply can’t accomplish the same type of feeling through real-world special effects (not CG), because neither Nordic gods nor demons are real.
Another characteristic that video game players develop is a diminishing amount of patience. This isn’t only caused by the amount of control over events a player has in video games, but also from the Internet and its child-technologies. Today, the ability to instantly learn anything, no matter where you are, is taken for granted. You can literally read up on the battle of 1812 on top of a mountain, just because you thought it would be funny. If you told someone that you could do this 50 years ago, they would look at you funny, laugh, and then call you a pinko commie and report you to uncle Sam. Video games don’t necessarily give you instant access to information, but rather instant access to story elements. If you’re playing a game, walking through a town and suddenly decide that you want to play the evil genius and murder every single person in the town, go for it. Want to pick up that chicken and throw it at the annoying person you are supposed to save? Why not—whatever you want to do, you’re creating the story, and can change what happens instantaneously.
Another important aspect of video game design, and any electronic entertainment medium for that matter, is audio. Again, like special effects, audio has always been present and important to films and television, but video games use sound more functionally than artistically. For example, in earlier video games, where the visuals consisted of pixel art, which wasn’t always immediately obvious, sound provided the tactile feedback that the graphics lacked. Even as the graphical capabilities of video games evolved, sound was still used in a very functional sense, to emphasize actions within the game world, making them immediately obvious simply from an audio cue. This is especially important in a 3D game, where many of the actions occurring are likely out of view of the game’s camera. In films, something happen out of the view of the camera is kind of pointless, but video game like audio cues are absolutely present. Watch practically anything on film or television, and listen for when an important person, item, or event presents itself. Perhaps the music distinctly changes, or a shining metal sound happens.
Given how much influence video games seemingly have on their competitors in the entertainment arena, is it going to engulf the market? No, they are not, and not only due to the fact that not everyone plays them. Think about the things you entertain yourself with, are they all of the same medium? You probably have a favorite band, favorite TV show, favorite board game, favorite bar, and so on. We use entertainment to escape from our boring, day-to-day routines, even if just briefly, so if you entertain yourself with the same thing every day, how is it any different than the routine you were trying to break away from? We always want something new, and video games are very good at providing this, due to their dynamic story telling abilities. They haven’t eaten up the entirety of the market, nor will they ever, but they have definitely taken their fair share of it, so of course other forms of entertainment will look to them for influence and possible success, wouldn’t you?
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