I'm way too old for computer gaming so this is a serious question - or at least a semi-serious one. If there are interactive gaming equivalents of blockbuster movies, are there also interactive equivalents of other kinds....Gone With the Wind... Chinatown... Brief Encounter.... Pride and Prejudice? If not, could I be on to something here... make me a billionaire?!
I guess a quick answer is that there are games with a high level of emotional and narrative sophistication, yes but the need to gamify the content can limit that. If you can figure out a way to square that circle, then yes it could definitely make you a billionaire… but you’d need a billion first to get started in development. GTA 6 will cost around 2 billion to make.
A lot of games have sections that echo an epistolary novel because they tell a narrative through notes and documents with the added context of the physical setting.
The Fallout games take place in the United States generations after an apocalyptic nuclear war. This leads to areas with artifacts of the pre-war society, such as emails left behind on an old computer, notes left behind in a desk or a carefully arranged room.
My favorite is Vault 11(I think?) in Fallout: New Vegas. The designers of a nuclear fallout shelter set it up to be a social experiment which demanded the residents sacrifice one person a year. You find out what happens to them while explore the vault. There's also narrative elements in the environment. The descent into civil war is told through barricaded hallways and looted security offices. The walls are covered with posters for political campaigns targeting certain residents for sacrifice. Old emails show blackmail and betrayal.
More to your actual question, LA Noire is essentially a video game version of Chinatown. You play as a 1950s detective with a main gameplay loop of interrogating suspects and investigating crime scenes. You can use facial expressions and evidence to determine who is lying.
One issue with games imitating non-blockbuster movies is that there's a limitation in what the actual player can do. Goals need to be clear and any attempt to gamify the romances you're describing is going to seem stilted. The relationship between mr. darcy and Elizabeth wouldn't work reduced to some sort of relationship score (-50 pts for insulting sister, +80 for providing letter). Even when the goal is clear - like solving a mystery - games are held back by what the actual player is able to do. Like what happens in Chinatown if the player behind the controller isn't able to figure out the water conspiracy? Therefore, the limitations of the medium prevent games from telling many stories that don't center around action, with clear concrete goals like "shoot this person" or "go to that dragon lair".
I've always enjoyed the artistic and storytelling elements of games, but it's a lonely experience. It's unfortunate that you're typically better off bingeing Netflix rather than playing absolutely banger games like the Witcher if you want something you can talk about with your peers.
It’s interesting. I can’t remember whether I mentioned in the article but “a pleasant sense of loneliness and isolation” is one of the things games introduced that I think is unique to them as an art form
I'm way too old for computer gaming so this is a serious question - or at least a semi-serious one. If there are interactive gaming equivalents of blockbuster movies, are there also interactive equivalents of other kinds....Gone With the Wind... Chinatown... Brief Encounter.... Pride and Prejudice? If not, could I be on to something here... make me a billionaire?!
I guess a quick answer is that there are games with a high level of emotional and narrative sophistication, yes but the need to gamify the content can limit that. If you can figure out a way to square that circle, then yes it could definitely make you a billionaire… but you’d need a billion first to get started in development. GTA 6 will cost around 2 billion to make.
Thanks....I guess I'll just stick with my Substack then! https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/
Who really wants to be a billionnaire anyway?.....sounds horrible.
A lot of games have sections that echo an epistolary novel because they tell a narrative through notes and documents with the added context of the physical setting.
The Fallout games take place in the United States generations after an apocalyptic nuclear war. This leads to areas with artifacts of the pre-war society, such as emails left behind on an old computer, notes left behind in a desk or a carefully arranged room.
My favorite is Vault 11(I think?) in Fallout: New Vegas. The designers of a nuclear fallout shelter set it up to be a social experiment which demanded the residents sacrifice one person a year. You find out what happens to them while explore the vault. There's also narrative elements in the environment. The descent into civil war is told through barricaded hallways and looted security offices. The walls are covered with posters for political campaigns targeting certain residents for sacrifice. Old emails show blackmail and betrayal.
More to your actual question, LA Noire is essentially a video game version of Chinatown. You play as a 1950s detective with a main gameplay loop of interrogating suspects and investigating crime scenes. You can use facial expressions and evidence to determine who is lying.
One issue with games imitating non-blockbuster movies is that there's a limitation in what the actual player can do. Goals need to be clear and any attempt to gamify the romances you're describing is going to seem stilted. The relationship between mr. darcy and Elizabeth wouldn't work reduced to some sort of relationship score (-50 pts for insulting sister, +80 for providing letter). Even when the goal is clear - like solving a mystery - games are held back by what the actual player is able to do. Like what happens in Chinatown if the player behind the controller isn't able to figure out the water conspiracy? Therefore, the limitations of the medium prevent games from telling many stories that don't center around action, with clear concrete goals like "shoot this person" or "go to that dragon lair".
Thank you....that's one hell of a reply! (Chinatown is my all time favorite film by the way.)
I've always enjoyed the artistic and storytelling elements of games, but it's a lonely experience. It's unfortunate that you're typically better off bingeing Netflix rather than playing absolutely banger games like the Witcher if you want something you can talk about with your peers.
It’s interesting. I can’t remember whether I mentioned in the article but “a pleasant sense of loneliness and isolation” is one of the things games introduced that I think is unique to them as an art form