Video Games

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Video Games

CUT SCENES AND POINT OF VIEW
DIGITAL ANIMATION
NARRATIVE AND PARTICIPATION
REMEDIATION AND SYNERGY
FURTHER READING

The field of computer game studies is a relatively new one, especially in terms of detailed textual analysis of the forms of games themselves (as opposed to studies based on assumptions about their social or psychological effects). A number of different theoretical paradigms are in potential competition in current efforts to map the field. Cinema might seem a logical point of reference for many games, especially with the movement of adventure-style games from text to animated graphical form, and subsequently to three-dimensional graphics, a process that began in the early 1980s. There are a number of ways that games borrow from, or can be understood in the light of, aspects of cinema. What must be avoided, however, is an "imperialist" venture of the kind feared by some game theorists (for example, Espen Aarseth's Cybertext points out fallacies in the application of literary theory to games). Perspectives drawn from the study of film offer one set of tools with which to approach computer-based games (although not all games or all types of games), tools that might be more useful in highlighting some aspects of games than others.

A number of areas of broad similarity, or overlap, between games and cinema can be identified. Direct movements from cinema to game are found in some titles, including the games that have become obligatory among the spinoff products from contemporary Hollywood blockbusters and animated features. But many games draw on cinematic resonances more generally in their use of audio-visual conventions.

If some games are based directly on films, or franchises that include films, others are associated with genres or subgenres, particularly in areas such as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Many games draw on iconographies and audio-visual styles that can be linked to particular film titles but that have become more widely prevalent: the Blade Runner or The Lord of the Rings look, for example. Some games draw on more specific and localized cinematic devices. A well known example is the "bullet-time" mode used in the Max Payne action-adventure games (2001, 2003), based on slow-motion bullet effects used by the Hong Kong action director John Woo and especially its translation in The Matrix (1999). One mission in the game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002) includes a Normandy beach-landing sequence that follows almost exactly the initial moves of the film Saving Private Ryan (1998).

It is important to acknowledge that there are major differences between games and cinema, even in the case of games with which cinema has the most in common. Games clearly need to be studied on their own terms, the criteria for which often diverge considerably from those most relevant to cinema or any other media. The act of comparison should not involve reduction of one medium to the terms of another; it should, instead, be a way of highlighting factors specific to each.

CUT SCENES AND POINT OF VIEW

The use of cinematic cut scenes in computer-based games is one of the more obvious connections between cinema and games. Cut scenes are short, pre-rendered sequences in which the game player performs a role closer to that of a detached observer than is the case in more active periods of gameplay. Cut scenes tend to employ camera movement, shot-selection, framing, and editing similar to that used in cinema. Many games use cut scenes to establish the initial setting, character and background storyline. Opening cut scenes frequently employ the same expository devices as cinema, using a combination of long shots, medium shots, and close-ups to provide orientation into the game-world for the player. Cut scenes are also used at varying intervals throughout many games to forward the storyline and to entice or reward players with sequences of spectacular action, connect disparate spaces, and provide dialogue between new playing characters. They may be used to provide clues or to establish enigmas that have a bearing on the narrative trajectory of the game. Critics of the use of cinema as a reference point for games often suggest that cut scenes provide the only formal connection between the two because such scenes are freer than interactive sequences to use the particular formal devices associated with film (in sequences in which the camera is able to break its usual connection with the visual perspective of the player/character). Cut scenes have, historically, been clearly marked by higher visual qualities than interactive sequences, although this has steadily been reduced with the advent of increased graphics processing resources.

The point of view structure of games can also be examined from a perspective informed by approaches to the study of cinema: the specific ways, for example, in which particular first- and third-person perspectives operate from moment to moment or from one game to another. This is a complicated area that involves some major differences between cinema and games. Pre-rendered camera angles are used during gameplay in some third-person shooter games, including Dino Crisis (1999) and the Resident Evil (beginning in 1997) games made before Resident Evil 4 (2005). Predetermined framing of this kind departs from the point of view of the player/character and functions like that of film, to some extent, directing the attention of the player and creating visual diversity though shifts in perspective. The point of view that results is not anchored to the perspective of the character played, however, and comes at the expense of player freedom.

Pre-rendered framing is not found in first-person games or in games designed to be playable in multi-player mode (such as Quake [1996], Half-Life [1998], EverQuest [1999] and World of War craft [2004]). Framing that shifts perspective within gameplay sequences is perhaps more cinematic than that found in most other types of games, although important differences remain.

The first-person perspective used in many games is a rarity in film in other than brief sequences (the major exception is the 1947 noir film Lady in the Lake). This point is highlighted by the limited extent to which it is used even in the combat sequences of Wing Commander (1999), a direct adaptation of the game. Third-person cinema, by comparison, usually involves a much greater and more fluid range of point of view orientations between camera, protagonist and viewer than is found in games. The intermittent fixed views offered within games such as Resident Evil and Dino Crisis have a rigidity that creates a very different, sometimes frustratingly limited, perspective on the action, although they can function to create suspense by enabling the player to see what awaits at a location not yet visible to the character. By contrast, role-playing games (RPGs) and "God" games such as The Sims (2000), Civilization (1990), Black and White (2001) or Settlers (2005)—in which the player creates a world or presides over a society—are among examples that demonstrate little cinematic association in terms of formal strategies. In the 1990s some "God" games, real-time strategy (RTS) games and RPGs, such as the early entries of the Final Fantasy series (beginning in 1990) and Baldur's Gate (1998), displayed the field of battle or action in aerial mode. This fixed view is opposed to the more varied shots found in cinema and the restrictive tracking, point of view, and eye-level shots that characterize first- and third-person games. In later incarnations and with greater graphic processing resources, players are able to "zoom" in and out of the action. This enhanced facility accords with the pragmatic value of the various viewpoints required to direct and manage gameplay, and in moving from a fixed aerial or three-quarters point of view to a more fluid and playerled arrangement, greater cinematic resonance comes into play. But the important difference is that the players make the choice of "shot" to suit their situation.

Even where there are some cinematic resonances, different devices of visual orientation operate in games because of the relationships established between players and the space-time coordinates of game-worlds. Mainstream cinema has developed well established systems of spatial orientation, especially the continuity editing system, to avoid confusing the viewer during shifts from one camera position to another. Many first- and third-person games permit the player to look and move throughout 360 degrees (as far as obstacles permit). This is possible with less disorientation than would usually be expected in a cinematic context because the player-character moves through a particular virtual space in real-time with the camera-view often anchored to a single viewpoint. Even so, the exploration of 360-degree space in games can become disorientating, especially when done under pressure or in a rush (hence the frequent inclusion of maps and compasses in games that require players to explore large spaces). Games are far less likely than films to use ellipses to eliminate "dead" time. Time in games may be spent exploring the available space or interacting with objects that do not have any significant bearing on the main set tasks. Most films give screen time only to what is deemed essential to the storyline or the building of character or mood. Action-adventure-type games operate mainly in something closer to real-time with ellipses occurring primarily at the end of levels or chapters. This creates a significant difference between the pace (and length) of games and that of films. Thus despite the shared use of some aspects of framing, miseen-scène, dialogue, and music, the structuring of point-of-view, time, and space are quite different.

DIGITAL ANIMATION

Some important developments in technologies, and the formal capacity they offer for rendering versions of new fictional worlds, are also shared between cinema and games, most obviously in the area of digital animation. The fact that new standards of realism in computer-generated graphics are offered as one selling point of games and animated films creates a point of crossover between the two media. This is especially the case in a film such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), based on the successful Final Fantasy game series. The crossover between more overtly "fantastic" digital special effects in live-action cinema and those used in games, such as the morphing effects in Primal (2003) and American McGee's Alice (2000), is another prominent point of contact. Similar representational capacities are drawn upon by the two media, a fact of significance to the libraries of images, image-textures, and devices available to each. The availability of particular kinds of effects might in some cases encourage particular types of production. Horror and fantasy, for example, lend themselves especially well to the spectacular display of fantastical morphing effects in both films and games.

This is another area in which differences are in play, even when such fundamentally similar building blocks are involved. The level of surface, visual realism attained in the film version of Final Fantasy is higher—more detailed—than that found in the interactive segments of games contemporary with this film, mainly because priorities other than graphical realism have an important call on the hardware resources available during game processing. The same goes for the morphing effects in Primal as compared to their equivalent on film. A similar kind of transformation might be present in some films and games, creating similar potential for the development of narrative or spectacular effects. But the quality of resolution—and, arguably, the importance of this factor among others—remains different. These differences, driven by substantially different priorities and agendas, have various implications for effects produced in the name of both realism and spectacular attraction for its own sake.

Developments in graphics processing are closing the gap, however, a promise that figures largely in advance publicity claims for forthcoming products (software and hardware), as is evident in each new generation of games and games designed to take advantage of the capabilities offered by new processing technologies. The development of new generations of graphics technology contributes to the ability of games and cinema to create increasingly spectacular audio-visual effects (realistic-looking water and fire or dynamic lighting/shadows, for example). And as processing power increases, animated characters in tie-in games become more like the actors who originally played them—in terms of both facial features and movement (as is the case with the player/character in Constantine [2005], composed from motion-captured movement, the recorded voice, and digital-mapped face of the actor Keanu Reeves).

In a multiplayer online context, limitations of telephony still have an impact on levels of graphical realism, more detailed graphics creating a slower rate of exchange between server and PC. Action-adventure-type games and some types of cinema also share an investment in the production of intense sensational experiences that impact forcefully on the player or viewer. Varying combinations of rapid editing and unstable camerawork are used in contemporary Hollywood action cinema to create maximum sensation. Games sometimes mimic devices used in Hollywood—the fireball impact effect, for example—but they also take this a stage further, requiring a frenzied response on the part of the player.

NARRATIVE AND PARTICIPATION

One of the most important points of difference between film and games is the aspect of player participation. If games can offer something like a cinematic experience, it is made more complex by the fact that games are played, engaged with, in a manner that is much more active and formative of the resulting experience than is the case with watching a film. However, opposition between game-playing and film-viewing as a distinction between activity on the one hand (games) and passivity on the other (cinema) is not that simple. Film-viewing is far from a passive experience; it involves a range of cognitive and other processes in the act of interpretation and emotional response.

Games, however, place a central importance on the act of doing that goes beyond the kinetic and emotional responses that might be produced by a film. To use the term "interactive" to describe this dynamic is problematic, however, as Espen Aarseth suggests. Taken literally, the term can be applied so widely that it no longer has the power to distinguish between the interactions that occur between users and texts of all kinds, such as literature or cinema, with which games are often compared. Aarseth proposed instead the term "ergodic" (derived from the Greek ergon and hodos, meaning "work" and "path"), to identify forms in which "nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text" (1997, p. 1), meaning an effort greater than that involved in reading a novel or watching a film.

The player of video games has to respond to events in a manner that affects what happens on screen, something not demanded of readers of books or viewers of films. Success often depends on rapid responses, effective hand-eye coordination and learned moves or skills made through the use of devices such as keyboards or game-pads, or puzzle-solving skills. Games are demanding forms of popular audio-visual entertainment, requiring sustained work that is not usually associated with the experience of popular, mainstream cinema. It is possible for players to "fail" a game, or to give up in frustration, if they do not develop the skills demanded by the particular title, a fate that has no equivalent in mainstream cinema. Games are a participatory medium; the game-world is left undiscovered, character capabilities left locked, and story arcs do not unfold unless the player is actively willing to build the specific skills required to progress through a game.

Another key point of difference that is often highlighted between games and other media is the role of narrative. Narrative, generally, plays a less important role in games than it does in films, despite the widespread claim that narrative has become attenuated in contemporary Hollywood cinema. Narrative remains a central component of even the special-effects driven Hollywood blockbuster. Narrative is also present in many games: narrative progress is sometimes offered as a reward for successful gameplay, or provides a general context within which gameplay is conducted; and in multiplayer games many small narratives delivered in a range of ways provide the mythology that gives added meaning to a virtual world. But, generally, narrative plays a role secondary to engagement in more active gameplay.

Narrative rationales tend to disappear into the background during much of gameplay. Jesper Juul suggests that there is an inherent conflict between interactivity and narrative: "There is a conflict between the now of the interaction and the past or 'prior' of the narrative.… The relations between reader/story and player/game are completely different—the player inhabits a twilight zone where he/she is both empirical subject outside the game and undertakes a role inside the game" ("Games Telling Stories."). Narrative is preset, built into the fabric of a game, available to be discovered or realized, in whole or in part—or, in some cases, in one version or another, depending on the paths taken by the player. Narrative has happened, or been created, while "playing" is always happening, a particular realization of the potential offered by a game, the precise shape or outcome is indeterminate.

The ideal suggested by the game designer Richard Rouse is to achieve a balance between narrative as predetermined and structured into the game and the variable "player's story" generated in each individual experience of the game. The player's story "is the most important story to be found in the game, since it is the story that the player will be most involved with, and its is the story in which the player's decisions have the most impact" (pp. 216–217). Carefully predetermined narrative structure is necessary, however, to games in which dynamics such as variable pace, tension, foreshadowing, and building towards a climax are important or desirable. The extent to which narrative dimensions are experienced as separate from, or part of, gameplay is also determined by the kinds of storytelling devices used by individual games. The sense that narrative is essentially separate from gameplay is encouraged by the prevalence of what Rouse terms "out-of-game" narrative devices, such as cut scenes, that put gameplay on hold temporarily. Strongly favoured by Rouse is the use of "in-game" devices to provide story: signs, written notes, nonplaying character (NPC) dialogue or behavior, and the design of levels. In Half-Life, a first-person shooter with a narrative more complex than similar games, information important to the trajectory of the plot is provided within the game-space. NPCs speak of what is happening without the game shifting into a cut scene, the player-character remaining free to move around as usual. The effect is a sense of seamlessness close to that which might be expected of mainstream cinema, even though created in a different manner.

Moments of the most heightened and intensively interactive gameplay often entail features such as cause/effect relationships and linear progression (although the latter, in particular, is far from guaranteed: it is quite possible to regress, to lose ground, during activities such as combat or the negotiation of difficult terrain). These are qualities often associated with narrative, as, for example, in David Bordwell's influential formulation of "classical" Hollywood narrative. By themselves, however, they are not sufficient to constitute narrative or story, unless defined at the minimal level. Moment-by-moment developments gain narrative resonance through their position in a wider frame that is largely pre-established. Games often balance player freedom with narrational devices that shape and give structure to the player's experience, including the provision of cues that guide the movement of the player-character or music or sound effects that warn of approaching danger, as is often the case in the Silent Hill horror cycle (beginning in 1999). One of the major dynamics of many games is the oscillation between these different modes of engagement, the rhythm of which often varies from one example to another.

REMEDIATION AND SYNERGY

Where games do borrow from cinema, this is for reasons that are far from arbitrary. "New" media tends to borrow from older equivalents more generally, as suggested by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin's concept of "remediation." As they argue, the experience of playing computer games that offer cinematic milieu might be understood in terms of a move "inside" the world of the cinema screen. The immediate thrill produced by direct engagement in the interactive experience is often based on a sense of "hypermediacy," of awareness that the world occupied virtually is akin to that of other forms of representation. Film-based or film-related video games are sold at least partly on the basis of the attraction of an occupation of worlds the contours of which have been established in other media—most directly, in film, but often also in literature, comic books, or television. The player can, at one remove, become the central figure in a cinematic milieu, following and extending the experience offered by a film. Aliens vs. Predator 2 (2001), for example, can be played from the perspective of either marine, alien, or predator; here, the world of the game is extended in terms of player participation and variation of perspective/allegiance. A novelty offered by the game's sequel is the ability to inhabit the life cycle of the alien, something not available in the film. The cinematic dimension, in this case, is a substantial component of the specific experience offered by the game as a game, and not merely something imported externally.

An incorporation of elements of the "cinematic" can be a substantial component of some games. "Cinematic" needs to be understood in terms of both textual devices and intertextuality. Games draw on other media, including television in many cases, but cinema is the remediated form to which attention is most often drawn by the industry. The reason for this is the greater cultural prestige enjoyed by cinema (as institution) and film (as a medium of expression). Often publicists and reviewers claim that a game is very "cinematic," which is meant as a positive assessment of quality, even if such hierarchies of taste are resisted by some gamers and game theorists. Visual iconography regularly crosses the boundary between cinema and games, as do genres designed to invoke kinetic experience, such as horror and action-adventure. Audio styles associated with cinema have also been used in games, including "cinematic" orchestral music used to contribute to the "epic" quality sought by some fantasy titles (portions of the soundtrack from The Lord of the Rings films [2002–2003] are used in World of Warcraft, for example). The function of such devices is to provide additional atmosphere for action, to add resonance and meaning to the process of participation in the game-world.

Cinema and games are often produced and distributed by the same media corporations. Game spin-offs offer substantial additional revenues to the Hollywood studios. The Sony Corporation is the most obvious example, home to both Sony Pictures and PlayStation. In the year ending March 2004, sales and operating revenue accounted for $7.1 billion from pictures and $7.4 billion from games. In addition to such earnings, tie-in games are also valued by Hollywood as a way of attracting new audiences for major properties such as the James Bond franchise. The development and production process required by games has also come to take on some of the characteristics, and scale, of the film business. Very much on the model of contemporary Hollywood, the games industry has become a hit-driven business. The games industry also share with Hollywood the continued use of "author" names, in some cases to sell products within the anonymous corporate context.

A number of games, such as Tomb Raider (2001,2003) and Resident Evil (2002, 2004) have been turned into films, but these have generally not been very successful and they tend to ignore the formal characteristics of games (even if their protagonists might, on occasion, face tasks similar to those in which the game player is engaged). The same is true of films that have used games, or imagined versions of future gaming, as part of their subject matter, such as eXistenZ (1999) and Avalon (2001). Films that draw on games at a formal level are few and far between, the most cited example being Lola rennt (Run Lola Run, 1998), which features a structure of repetition-within-difference and a climactic time-out device, both of which can be seen as a more substantial remediation of some game characteristics than anything found in the game tie-in examples cited above. Games are also cited by the director as an influence (but one among many) in Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003), the bulk of which is composed of a lengthy series of tracking shots in which the camera follows from behind the movements of characters in an overlapping narrative structure leading to a Columbine-style high school massacre (the film also includes one fleeting shot during the massacre that directly mimics the perspective of a first-person shooter game played previously by the killers). Films provide ready-made characters and narrative resonance that can carry over and play into the experience of a spin-off game, even where the dimension of character and narrative are not greatly elaborated in the game itself. This is an effect that is harder to achieve in reverse, as the case of Super Mario Bros. (1993) shows. Computer games are not a form of interactive cinema; the way games interpolate players into their own spaces and engage them in a particular range of tasks is very different from the experience of watching a film.