Which tells the better story for a game?

[The Ghost of RubangB]

Reasonable said:

Non Sequor said:

I think there's a bit of film envy among gamers. Film is the most respected medium to develop in the 20th century and gamers want games, an even newer medium, to have that sort of respect. So I think that people have this idea that in order for games to be respected, it must emulate film.

While it's good to borrow elements from one's predecessors, I think that games have to do things that film can't in order to gain wider respect. If games don't do things that film can't, people will only focus on the things that film can do that games can't.

Two good posts guys... said the film fan.

Thinking about it, the key challenge, I feel, is for games to justify why you'd pick that medium to tell a story vs a film or a book.

In the end if videogames never evolve (as film did) as a medium in their own right, then they will simply ape other mediums conventions to convey a narrative.

Of course not all games need a narrative, but for those that chose to, I hope one day to see a creative lead who really looks for the way to use the medium in a way that film/books couldn't match fully.

Great posts gentlemen.  We're all on the same team here.

@bolded: This is exactly what film had to do!

Early on it was treated as a way to take a play on tour.  You could film a play and show it on screens around the country.  All the first actors, directors, and writers went from theater to film.  For film to really evolve we had to wait a few generations for people to grow up with the medium and study it in film school and then have radical new film-only ideas.  (Exceptions to this were the guys who really early on started playing with special effects like Georges Melies.)

Now people think of games as movies that you play.  Now we're having people grow up with the medium and study it in game school and have radical new game-only ideas.  So games should actually be getting crazier, but most of them are getting more boring.

What's weird is that this history is kind of backwards for games.  Early games were very original and amazing and not comparable to anything else, from Pong to Donkey Kong and the rest.  Aside from originaly games, there were games inspired by pen-and-paper games, board games, and interactive books.  It wasn't until the graphics got good enough for 3-D visual storytelling that everybody started hopping on the cinematic bandwagon as if it was the only way to play.