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There is something about story telling.
There are some stories that only works for books, but doesn't work as movies.
Other stories, works as movies but do not work as a book.
Simply due to the differences of the medium. Books are a written medium, allowing you to enter thoughts and feelings of a character. Movies are a visual medium where you can use camera ankle, lightning and music to get across different points and emotions.
Video games, the mysterious third medium... A medium of interaction!
There is a joke going around, that there are no good video game movies. Probably due to the nature of many video games that they tell MASSIVE expansive stories, and to fit all that into a movie you have to cut 60 hours content and stories down to two hours.
There are other factors as well. There are games out there that truly take advantage of the medium, the fact they are a game and thusly tell unique stories only possible because they are games.
I think one obvious example of this is a game called. "nine hours, nine persons, nine doors, the nonenary games."
This game has a plot a bit similar to saw, you as a main character alongside eight other people making nine total is caught in "The nonary games." a game of life and death, where you enter rooms, solve riddles and if you manage to do it in time you get to survive, how-ever as tensions rises the characters turn on each other and no matter what you do, you are going to die.
How-ever! When you die, you are returned to the beginning of the game, only this time... not only the player but the main character you control REMEMBERS what happened in the previous time line, so you can actually use the knowledge you gained in the first time line to change things in the second time line.
You can then jump and skip through time lines, often needing the knowledge you only get in one time line to unlock another one. The smart thing about this one is that suddenly the player and the character you play as is on the same page.
Of course you as a player is going to remember what happened before, how-ever that the character you play as acknowledges this is very unique to this game series.
Another and COMPLETELY different example is the first "Bioshock." game.
I feel like, the big twist and reveal we all remember in this game, only works BECAUSE it is a first person perspective you play as.
The entire game, becomes about the illusion of choice. Which is great, because that is what most linear games are all about, giving you the illusion of choice.
Of course the further we move into game development, the more such games as Far Cry and Red dead redemption will attempt to give the players actual choice... How-ever, even games that offer us actual choice, it will still only be a set number of choices and thusly it will still only be an illusion of freedom.
That is the games job though, create the illusion so we believe we have a choice and is a part of the story. Bioshock acknowledges this aspect of gaming itself and completely goes. "You you thought you had a choice in any of this? Pff, the moment you put in this disc, the story was only going to go one way stupid."
I really feel like this big twist would not have worked nearly as well on a movie, it worked because you played AS this character, you saw the world THROUGH his eyes, you shot all the big daddies, you think you are the one controlling the game when really you never were.
Third and last example.
Journey.
Journey to me... is the game coming closest to feel like a classical symphony.
It throws out any ideas and notions of dialogue we have come to depend on in books and movies, and has made their way from movies to the games, and instead it is about exploration and how you interact with this game.
The game has a plot... kind of. But the plot is told through your senses and how you explore.
Perhaps this could work as an art animated movie, all though I feel like if you didn't control the character and felt its struggle as it slows down and gets weaker and weaker in the snow, a lot of the impact would be lost.
So... You guys has any other completely different games you think only works exactly because they were games?
I felt tempted to talk about "Steins gate." as well, which is a funny piece of work to me because the first thing you realise is that you are seeing this world through the world of an unreliable narrator. The main characters narration is absolutely unreliable, so you will never be able to tell what is real
How-ever as it happens, that game is more like a visual novel... and it has an anime, and that anime is quite good. I will stay say the game has the edge because we see the event THROUGH mr mad scientists eyes, and you will never know if it's true or inside his own head. While in the anime, it is a third person perspective so we can assume everything is true.
I am sure there are other games out there I know nothing about that takes this entire concept to very interesting levels which could only be reached because it was a game.
There are some stories that only works for books, but doesn't work as movies.
Other stories, works as movies but do not work as a book.
Simply due to the differences of the medium. Books are a written medium, allowing you to enter thoughts and feelings of a character. Movies are a visual medium where you can use camera ankle, lightning and music to get across different points and emotions.
Video games, the mysterious third medium... A medium of interaction!
There is a joke going around, that there are no good video game movies. Probably due to the nature of many video games that they tell MASSIVE expansive stories, and to fit all that into a movie you have to cut 60 hours content and stories down to two hours.
There are other factors as well. There are games out there that truly take advantage of the medium, the fact they are a game and thusly tell unique stories only possible because they are games.
I think one obvious example of this is a game called. "nine hours, nine persons, nine doors, the nonenary games."
This game has a plot a bit similar to saw, you as a main character alongside eight other people making nine total is caught in "The nonary games." a game of life and death, where you enter rooms, solve riddles and if you manage to do it in time you get to survive, how-ever as tensions rises the characters turn on each other and no matter what you do, you are going to die.
How-ever! When you die, you are returned to the beginning of the game, only this time... not only the player but the main character you control REMEMBERS what happened in the previous time line, so you can actually use the knowledge you gained in the first time line to change things in the second time line.
You can then jump and skip through time lines, often needing the knowledge you only get in one time line to unlock another one. The smart thing about this one is that suddenly the player and the character you play as is on the same page.
Of course you as a player is going to remember what happened before, how-ever that the character you play as acknowledges this is very unique to this game series.
Another and COMPLETELY different example is the first "Bioshock." game.
I feel like, the big twist and reveal we all remember in this game, only works BECAUSE it is a first person perspective you play as.
The entire game, becomes about the illusion of choice. Which is great, because that is what most linear games are all about, giving you the illusion of choice.
Of course the further we move into game development, the more such games as Far Cry and Red dead redemption will attempt to give the players actual choice... How-ever, even games that offer us actual choice, it will still only be a set number of choices and thusly it will still only be an illusion of freedom.
That is the games job though, create the illusion so we believe we have a choice and is a part of the story. Bioshock acknowledges this aspect of gaming itself and completely goes. "You you thought you had a choice in any of this? Pff, the moment you put in this disc, the story was only going to go one way stupid."
I really feel like this big twist would not have worked nearly as well on a movie, it worked because you played AS this character, you saw the world THROUGH his eyes, you shot all the big daddies, you think you are the one controlling the game when really you never were.
Third and last example.
Journey.
Journey to me... is the game coming closest to feel like a classical symphony.
It throws out any ideas and notions of dialogue we have come to depend on in books and movies, and has made their way from movies to the games, and instead it is about exploration and how you interact with this game.
The game has a plot... kind of. But the plot is told through your senses and how you explore.
Perhaps this could work as an art animated movie, all though I feel like if you didn't control the character and felt its struggle as it slows down and gets weaker and weaker in the snow, a lot of the impact would be lost.
So... You guys has any other completely different games you think only works exactly because they were games?
I felt tempted to talk about "Steins gate." as well, which is a funny piece of work to me because the first thing you realise is that you are seeing this world through the world of an unreliable narrator. The main characters narration is absolutely unreliable, so you will never be able to tell what is real
How-ever as it happens, that game is more like a visual novel... and it has an anime, and that anime is quite good. I will stay say the game has the edge because we see the event THROUGH mr mad scientists eyes, and you will never know if it's true or inside his own head. While in the anime, it is a third person perspective so we can assume everything is true.
I am sure there are other games out there I know nothing about that takes this entire concept to very interesting levels which could only be reached because it was a game.
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