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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Who hates Interactive Movies/Novels and love Video Games?

 

Who hates Interactive Movies/Novels and love Video Games?

I do. 32 19.88%
 
I don't. 19 11.80%
 
You're nuts. 37 22.98%
 
This thread is a steaming pile... 58 36.02%
 
You're misguided but you're on to something 15 9.32%
 
Total:161
iLLmaticV3 on 09 February 2010
MontanaHatchet said:
This is trolling.

Basically, all games are interactive movies since they present you with environments and graphics and characters and you can interact with these things (if you choose to be that literal). However, some of the best games ever are what you'd consider interactive movies. Hell, Mass Effect 2 is such a critically acclaimed game not just for its strong storytelling and dialogue, but its great gameplay and mechanics.

If you really choose to stay away from those types of games, you're limiting yourself and really only robbing YOURSELF of possible enjoyment. I won't sit around worrying about it though, I'll just keep playing whatever fun games I want.

This.



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Hisiru on 09 February 2010

Heavy Rain and Ace Attorney are Point and click adventures (this genre was popular in the past with games like Monkey Island and nobody called it "interactive movie" before). These games are usually good for people who like puzzle games, exploration, good storyline etc. You really need to use your brain, so I don't know how can it be an "interactive movie" just because it has a good focus on the storyline.

Alan Wake is an action game and Lost Odyssey is a modern JRPG but it has exploration, the system is similar to any other RPG (of course, there are enchancements)

I don't understand your list, I think that what you are trying to say is: "I hate games with too much text or cutscene" because there is no interactive movie in your list (even Heavy Rain has a lot of exploration and you need to use your brain, did you played the demo?). 

I know 1 interactive movie ("428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de" for the Wii), that's what you can call "interactive movie" because there is no action/exploration/puzzles, all you have to do is make some choices.

-Edit-

Ok, I take back what I said, MontanaHatchet gave a good argument.



gansito on 09 February 2010

*looks @ game collection, sees huge collection of nintendo games, then looks at op's game list*

*Conclusion: Credibility = 0 *



Kasz216 on 09 February 2010
Smeags said:
Kasz216 said:

Eh, you know what cutscenes bother me even more then the "this looks so cool I wish i was playing this!" cutscene.

Yeah, those are usually the only types of cut-scenes that bug me. Man, the one that comes to mind would be the battle between Raiden and Vamp in MGS4. Now that would have been awesome to be part of... but nooooo!

But yeah, I like games that I enjoy... not much more to it than that.


i just had one in FF12.  vossler decided it was worth an entire cutscene to say "hit the lazers and guards will come."

 



famousringo on 09 February 2010

I see what you're getting at, and I can understand why some people wouldn't want to sacrifice interactivity for narrative.

But I loves me some interactive novels!



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Carl on 09 February 2010
rocketpig said:
SmokedHostage said:

I do.

When I say Interactive Movies/Novels, I mean "games" in which the movitation for progression is the story, whether it's told through boxes, cutscenes or in game dialogue.

Examples of Interactive Movies.

Heavy Rain
Mass Effect 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Most Modern Console JRPG's
The Ace Attorney Series
Alan Wake
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Final Fantasy VII
Resident Evil 2

*cracks knuckles* This is going to be fun.

Heavy Rain - Congratulations for starting this list off with a game you haven't played nor even seen in real life. On the other hand, it does resemble an interactive movie on some levels. Despite that, most of us prefer to actually, you know, SEE a game before judging it.

Mass Effect 2 - You follow up a list that started with a game you've never played and continued it with another game you've obviously never played because no one I've met would put Mass Effect 2 on the same list as these other games. It radically changed how a player can interact in an environment and drastically change a game's outcome without relying on some cheap gameplay trick that only alters the last five minutes of the game.

MGS4 - I can see your point here. The MGS series has some of the greatest boss battles in gaming history and Kojima just bogs it all down with twenty minute (!) cutscenes that made me want to kill myself.j

Most Modern Console JRPGs - I don't even really know what you're talking about here but I guess you hate the entire genre. Okay, personal preference. Good for you. I prefer to judge individual titles on their own merit.

- The Ace Attorney Series - It's a quirky DS title that has a niche audience. Lots of people don't like this series because they don't buy it. Or maybe it has more to do with most people not knowing it exists.

- Alan Wake - YES! That's three games you've never played on this list! Considering how little is actually known about this title, I think you deserve two points for this choice.

- No More Heroes 2 - I don't mean to bust out my Jump To Conclusions Mat but I'm going to take a flyer on this one and say you've never played it.

FF VII - You already mentioned how modern console JRPGs aren't really games anyway. I find this choice redundant.

Resident Evil 2 - I don't understand this choice because it's followed by Bayonetta shortly after it. Do these games really have stories? I've never really noticed a strong coherent story arc in any of the DMC/RE/Bayonetta style games that you apparently dislike. Unless you consider a boss introduction to be something bad that plagues videogames, in which case I could add about 500,000 titles to your list of hated "games" (term used loosely within the context of this thread).

I can understand why you would hate several games you listed but almost every game has a story to it that is told "through progression".

Really, you just created this list and added random titles to each section to get people fired up (more commonly referred to as trolling).

Although I do find it somewhat amusing that it only took a 15 second scan of your profile to see that you gave a Pokemon game a really good rating (8.9).

DAMN THAT PROGRESSION! It's easily a 10.5 on a scale of 10 without it.

Excellent post right there.

Basicly sums up my thoughts.

Oh, and this post too. http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/post.php?post=3136255&page=1&postnum=5



                            

SmokedHostage on 09 February 2010

The working up over someone's opinions is massive in this thread. Then again, that's the story of VGChartz's forums.

I really wish I could respond properly to everyone to but I can't.

Let it be known that I don't think that there should be a finite definition of what a game should be. At the same time; I love to play games, not watch or read them. As I can see, plenty of you love that format but It's not one I particularly appreciate. If that means I support regression of what the medium is, so be it.

rocketpig and several others, no need to be rude about it or attack me.

MontanaHatchet, my intention was never to troll.

I'll admit that my choice of words weren't the best.. Please forgive me for this.

I'm glad I made the steaming pile option to the poll.



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theprof00 on 09 February 2010
The Ghost of RubangB said:
theprof00 said:
The Ghost of RubangB said:
theprof00 said:
I just want to point out that all games have a story or cut-scenes. It's just that the presentation is different.
When you're watching a boss die in Super Metroid or reading text boxes in Mario Galaxy, it is the same as us watching laughing octopus die in mgs4, or having dialogue spoken to us in a scene rather than reading it.
The movie games may take a little bit longer, but you can always skip a cutscene anyway. I really don't understand all the bitching that occurs over games with video production.

Whoa whoa whoa.

Some of the best games of all time have NO story whatsoever.  Space Invaders.  Pac-Man.  Tetris.  SimCity.  Wii Sports.

 

Super Metroid has minimal story, but is very cinematic.  It feels and plays like a movie at parts, but there's not much of a story there.  Some films and some books are all about mood and feelings and not actual events and twists and decisions.  Like Eraserhead or Catcher in the Rye for that matter.  Some games pull that off very well without shoving hours of story down your throat.  Could be Super Metroid, could be Out of This World, could be Shadow of the Colossus, could be No More Heroes 2 (the game is full of cutscenes but they don't tell a story at all).

My problem is when a game uses cutscenes to just tell me what's going on, instead of showing me what's going on, or letting me play what's going on.  If I wanted to hear a monologue explaining everything I'd listen to a book on tape or watch a really good classic James Bond film.

 

It's not a crime to like both at all, and I'm not saying it is.  But it's a crime to say that ALL games need a story.  That leads to the path that says MGS4 is the best game of all time and Wii Sports is the worst game of all time, and that's madness.

all of those games you listed have uncontrollable cinematic parts. In pac-man you have level introductions, death animation. Tetris has the rocket ship, simcity has the picture and explanation showing up when certain things happen etc etc.

The difference is the level of production. You can always skip cutscenes too, so it's not like it's such a big deal. I'm not saying all games need a story. I'm saying there is always a certain level of uncontrollable gameplay which is used to illustrate what is happening with your character or some story element.

Uncontrollable cinematic parts are not automatically a story.

Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Tetris, SimCity, and Wii Sports have no story.  There is no narrative because there is no beginning, middle, and end.  Some times they throw in a little bonus video for no reason other than to celebrate your high score, but are you seriously going to argue that the goal of Tetris is to launch a rocketship?  Does your space pilot character have a name, or motivation, or a backstory?  A bonus video is no narrative.

The animations in Pac-Man tell you nothing about the next level, or about anything.  They are completely random movies of the characters partying or chasing each other back and forth.  And Pac-Man has no ending.  You play for hundreds of screens until the game crashes.  It was intended to be played forever.  It wasn't until stuff like Donkey Kong where there was an actual intro cinematic and ending cinematic, and a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

And Wii Sports... I have no idea what you're talking about.  There's no intro videos or bonus videos for high scores or anything.  You just play and compete for high scores forever.  No ending, no story.

let's go back to the beginning rubang and re-read. "a story OR cutscenes". I'm flabberghasted by your continuance of this debate after I tried to reclarify in my reply. Perhaps I should've quoted myself then, because you didn't get what I was saying. All I'm saying is that there is some kind of uncontrollable scene in every game that is not considered gameplay. Wiisports also has little intro videos to all the games. Again, to point out an ironic argument, movie cutscenes cna be skipped, and in-game cutscenes cannot (for the most part, although they can be hurried sometimes). I just think it's interesting that people complain about skippable movies when they have their own unskippable events in their own games. The time-delay in returning to gameplay is not so vast when one considers skipping.



outlawauron on 09 February 2010

Yeah, this is trolling.


A game doesn't become a movie because the story is told in a box.



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The Ghost of RubangB on 09 February 2010
theprof00 said:
The Ghost of RubangB said:
theprof00 said:
The Ghost of RubangB said:
theprof00 said:
I just want to point out that all games have a story or cut-scenes. It's just that the presentation is different.
When you're watching a boss die in Super Metroid or reading text boxes in Mario Galaxy, it is the same as us watching laughing octopus die in mgs4, or having dialogue spoken to us in a scene rather than reading it.
The movie games may take a little bit longer, but you can always skip a cutscene anyway. I really don't understand all the bitching that occurs over games with video production.

Whoa whoa whoa.

Some of the best games of all time have NO story whatsoever.  Space Invaders.  Pac-Man.  Tetris.  SimCity.  Wii Sports.

 

Super Metroid has minimal story, but is very cinematic.  It feels and plays like a movie at parts, but there's not much of a story there.  Some films and some books are all about mood and feelings and not actual events and twists and decisions.  Like Eraserhead or Catcher in the Rye for that matter.  Some games pull that off very well without shoving hours of story down your throat.  Could be Super Metroid, could be Out of This World, could be Shadow of the Colossus, could be No More Heroes 2 (the game is full of cutscenes but they don't tell a story at all).

My problem is when a game uses cutscenes to just tell me what's going on, instead of showing me what's going on, or letting me play what's going on.  If I wanted to hear a monologue explaining everything I'd listen to a book on tape or watch a really good classic James Bond film.

 

It's not a crime to like both at all, and I'm not saying it is.  But it's a crime to say that ALL games need a story.  That leads to the path that says MGS4 is the best game of all time and Wii Sports is the worst game of all time, and that's madness.

all of those games you listed have uncontrollable cinematic parts. In pac-man you have level introductions, death animation. Tetris has the rocket ship, simcity has the picture and explanation showing up when certain things happen etc etc.

The difference is the level of production. You can always skip cutscenes too, so it's not like it's such a big deal. I'm not saying all games need a story. I'm saying there is always a certain level of uncontrollable gameplay which is used to illustrate what is happening with your character or some story element.

Uncontrollable cinematic parts are not automatically a story.

Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Tetris, SimCity, and Wii Sports have no story.  There is no narrative because there is no beginning, middle, and end.  Some times they throw in a little bonus video for no reason other than to celebrate your high score, but are you seriously going to argue that the goal of Tetris is to launch a rocketship?  Does your space pilot character have a name, or motivation, or a backstory?  A bonus video is no narrative.

The animations in Pac-Man tell you nothing about the next level, or about anything.  They are completely random movies of the characters partying or chasing each other back and forth.  And Pac-Man has no ending.  You play for hundreds of screens until the game crashes.  It was intended to be played forever.  It wasn't until stuff like Donkey Kong where there was an actual intro cinematic and ending cinematic, and a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

And Wii Sports... I have no idea what you're talking about.  There's no intro videos or bonus videos for high scores or anything.  You just play and compete for high scores forever.  No ending, no story.

let's go back to the beginning rubang and re-read. "a story OR cutscenes". I'm flabberghasted by your continuance of this debate after I tried to reclarify in my reply. Perhaps I should've quoted myself then, because you didn't get what I was saying. All I'm saying is that there is some kind of uncontrollable scene in every game that is not considered gameplay. Wiisports also has little intro videos to all the games. Again, to point out an ironic argument, movie cutscenes cna be skipped, and in-game cutscenes cannot (for the most part, although they can be hurried sometimes). I just think it's interesting that people complain about skippable movies when they have their own unskippable events in their own games. The time-delay in returning to gameplay is not so vast when one considers skipping.

Okay.  Sure.  I'll give you that.  Most games have some microscopic unskippable animation to count your lives or score or to watch you or a boss die.  Even the first arcade games needed to boot up.  But I hope I wasn't accidentally arguing with you about that this whole time.  That's not what I or anybody else (I assume) have been complaining about.  Those tiny events are mandatory for gameplay, and I wouldn't even call them cutscenes.

I see people complaining about the long videos in Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy games.  The problem, for some people, is that the focus on the story takes away from the gaming experience.  Not in all stories, but when it takes so long you have time to put the controller down, make a sandwich, and eat the whole thing, before it wants you to start playing again.

And making them skippable isn't enough for me.  Skipping a cutscene is for the 2nd playthrough.  If they're going to waste my time telling me a story, I'm at least going to sit it out the first time.  It just pisses me off that I need to put the controller down and wait.  I want fast gameplay and fast stories.  I think games can still be epic and cinematic and never slow you down like that.  Portal comes to mind.  Basically, I wish all games could be more like Portal or Out of This World or X-COM.  All those games have stories that don't get in your way, and some of the best gameplay ever.



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