Miyamoto: 'What can games learn from film? Nothing'

[Mr Khan]

Mnementh said:

SanAndreasX said:

He's exactly right on this one. The industry is loaded with wannabe filmmakers and game companies that wish they were movie companies *cough*Ubisoft*cough* They should go make movies if that's the way they feel about it, but the fact is, if their movies were written like their games, they'd be sodomized by film critics.

This. Games have very bad stories and wouldn't stand a chance in the movie business. Usually I don't care much, because the game offers something else - gameplay. Entertainment tries to produce emotions in the consumer. There are different ways to do that: story, images, music and so on. Some try to get fun, some sadness, some empathy, but all try to create emotions. That's true for literature, games and movies. This is that they have to succeed at, and so far, games are not very successful to reach that goal through story, but successful in creating emotions through gameplay.

Just as an example: the Tomb Raider restart tries to be a story-driven game. Some people die in the course of the game, that the heroine Lara Croft is caring about. In movies or books it is mostly important, that the reader/watcher gets the emotions the hero has, to be able to tune into the story. So we usually should care about people that the hero cares about. And Tomb Raider fails at that. Lara is crushed about the death of Conrad Roth - and I didn't care. I didn't know the man, and the game does nearly nothing to make him important for us players. I care even less, because I can do nothing about his death. I control Lara, but he dies in a cutscene. It would be much more emotional, if I had been able to save him, if my skill at playing the game would be better. But I have no chance at all.

Let's take a look at Deus Ex: Human Revolution in contrast. Faridah Malik is with us in many scenes so that we feel we know her better. Even more, I have a chance to make a sidequest for her, that illuminates her backstory. That alone makes me care more about her, than about Roth. But to top it: I have the chance to save her, if I'm fast enough. That all makes me caring if I fail at saving her. Does Deus Ex:HR has a good story? Not at all, it would be horrible as a movie without changes. But it still is able to put an emotional bond to characters in a way a movie never could.

More so: Pikmin. I do care if a Pikmin dies. Why? They make cute noises and work hard for me. They SCREAM if a bug eats them. They have total trust in me and do everything I say. And if they die it is always my fault as a player.So a game with a barely existing childish story is able to make me care more about creatures that don't even have individual names than Tomb Raider is able to make me care about Lara's father figure.

So why shoudl I pay $/€ 50 for a wannabe movie with crappy story, if I can purchase a proper movie for $/€ 20? But I'm willing to pay said $/€ 50, if I get more than a movie.

I agree very much with this post except that...

killing Pikmin is not always the player's fault

(damn bridges!)