We’ve gotten to a point now in video games where the sheer cinematic aspects of them border on those of the highest budget Hollywood films. As a child I remember some of the most entertaining books I read were the “choose your own adventures”. I would read through a section, get to the decision, and then mark it with a finger so I could quickly go back and redo the choice if it led somewhere I didn’t want to go. With video games you get that same excitement, but with objects that move and talk on the screen in front of you.
I think this is part of the reason why video games are becoming more popular and accepted as art. You can now look at something like the “Mass Effect” series, or the “Half-Life 2” episodes and really get into them. I think this is because because not only are the games visually stunning, but they also give the viewer/player the ability to interact with the narrative even more.
People like having input on the world. They like feeling like they are creating something special and video games are now a way for them to do that. Not everyone can sit down with a paintbrush and paint van Gogh’s “Starry Night” or Hopper’s “Nighthawks”. It’s much simpler for them to sit down, pick up a controller, and begin to paint their own unique narrative in the virtual space. You can get much more bang for your buck when you buy something like a video game. A game like “Mass Effect” or “Red Dead Redemption” or “Fallout 3” has about 60 hours of play time for just the main story line alone. Add in all the extra side missions, downloadable content, and just general exploring, and you get a game that can be played for over 100 hours.
To add to that, games are now including multiple endings depending on the choices you have made. This is giving your $40 game re-playability and just adding even more to your experience. We like things that can end many different ways, just take a look at the cult classic “Clue”. The movie had three different endings, and depending on the theater that you went to a different ending was shown. This gave the moviegoers a different experience each time.
Video games are also starting to use motion capture to really get the facial motions of the voice actors, as well as for the characters actual motions.
These games are also putting the ability to create in the hands of the user. With games like "Little Big Planet" (and it's sequel), Halo: REACH, and extras like "Gary's Mod" for "Half-Life 2" you, as the gamer, have the ability to create their own content. Media Molecule in particular has been very up front about the fact that, while their programmers can come up with some amazing things, there are just some amazing ideas that they could never come up with. They just provide the tools for people to create new worlds and art in an entirely new way.
The art wold is always changing, who knows what will happen in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment