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Forums - Gaming - Pixar: Games quality is catching cinema

shio on 27 June 2008
DTG said:
Smeags said:
So I just saw Wall E, and all I can say is wow. What impressed me the most was how Pixar could say so much to the audience while verbally saying so little. This, compared to the majority of video games, who say so much (text! 37,000 words! ZOMG! cutscenes!) yet say so little.

It's a shame that people think that quantity equals quality when it comes to storytelling in the video game world. That you need 30 hours to effectively tell a story. If movies can move audiences in 2 hours, then why do video games have such a hard time doing it in 15? Video games have a long way to go to reach the story telling prowess that movies have achieved. Yes, there are unique hurdles that video games must face, but I believe that with time, we may see stories that inspire us to no end.

 

The reason games need 15 hours opposed to 2 hours to tell their story is clearly illustrated by MGS. The games have much more detail and far more in depth philosophical exposition that can chalk up to hours of dialogue. Movies simply do not have sufficient time to indulge in such deep, philosophical exposition. Games fortunately do and are much more fleshed out because of it. They do not need to resort to cheap subtleties or symbolism but can tell it upfront as can literature or a text book.

Better yet, how about integrating those 15 hours into the gameplay? Instead of having 15 hours of cutscenes and 15h of Gameplay, we could have a whole 30 hours of Gameplay... awesome.

 



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Khuutra on 27 June 2008

When Pixar says that real-time images are catching up to cinema, they probably mean that the two mediums will be visually comparable at a reasonable price in a number of decades.

When they talk about narrative though, they do not mean passive narratives like movies or MGS4 or JRPGs. They mean narratives like Shadow of the Colossus, where interactivity is the entire point, where all meaning is communicated to any player who is willing to think about the import of the actions he is participating in.

Shadow of the Colossus proves that there is a market for proper storytelling in videogames.

Final Fantasy as a series (XII included) proves that the market for passive storytelling is much, much, stupidly larger.



cwbys21 on 27 June 2008
Smeags said:
So I just saw Wall E, and all I can say is wow. What impressed me the most was how Pixar could say so much to the audience while verbally saying so little. This, compared to the majority of video games, who say so much (text! 37,000 words! ZOMG! cutscenes!) yet say so little.

It's a shame that people think that quantity equals quality when it comes to storytelling in the video game world. That you need 30 hours to effectively tell a story. If movies can move audiences in 2 hours, then why do video games have such a hard time doing it in 15? Video games have a long way to go to reach the story telling prowess that movies have achieved. Yes, there are unique hurdles that video games must face, but I believe that with time, we may see stories that inspire us to no end.

 


games stories usually have peaks and valleys, build to something, little drop off, build to something, little drop off, build to the end.  Movies are usually build buid build to the end with maybe a little valley since they only have 2 hours, 3 if it is very good.  And the parts where you are running around just killing things that has nothing to do with the story just fun is where those 15+ hours come from.  Games stories could be told as a movie, but wouldn't come off nearly as good as they do in a game.



God hates console fanboys.

FaRmLaNd on 27 June 2008

For the longest of times games have been attempting to ape the cinema and its a mistake. Games like any new medium bring new possibilities, games major advantage is interactivity. Games have a long way to go before they can even approach film as a narrative medium, but hopefully in the end games wont have to compete with film in that arena (as to be frank they'll lose), hopefully and you can see it with the wii and DS gaming will continue to evolve and stand on its own merits. Gaming shouldn't be looked at as a narrative based medium, its an interactive based medium, it can have a narrative but then again look at tetris? The most amazing puzzle game ever made and it doesn't have a story. Every time the games industy tries to copy the film industry its selling itself short as an artistic medium.