I don't feel that I'm in the minority when I say that I have become tired of the lack of originality and storytelling in the movie industry. Hollywood continues pumping out countless sequels and adapting everything from old tv shows to comic books to the bigscreen. So, what is left for originality in storytelling? Sure, there are some major exceptions to this; movies are being produced all the time with orginal stories and ideas, but how many of these can you find among the myriad of sequels and unimaginative drivel out there?
I am not a large player of video games. I get bored rather quickly with the repetivity of most of the games out there, but recently I have noticed the games becoming more and more engrossing; not with amazing special effects (though these have become almost awe inspiring) or more bloodshed, but simply with the pure originality of some of their stories. Sure, there are still plenty of hack and slash games out there, but one thing I have noticed is how invested some of these games have become in telling an original and imaginative story.
This is nothing new of course and there have been plenty of original games in the time since I have started playing games, but I find it remarkable just how dedicated some of the games have become to not simply how the game plays but the story it is telling. I find myself drawn into the game and the characters in the game more than the gameplay, feeling myself emotionally invested in the characters and their struggles.
The first example of this storytelling I can think of is in a video game called "Metal Gear Solid 4". This was the first game of this series that I actually played and I was amazed at the detail of the story. It was not simply go here and do this and kill this badguy, there was a plotline, there was a history, there was emotion and drama. It drew me in from the first moment I started playing.
It began as most games do, with some explosions and some nasty gunfire as you're thrown into a hectic battlefield, but it quickly became apparant to me that this was not just some simple shoot em' up game.The main character was a grizzled and hardened battlefield soldier who has seen more battles than he cares to. While the game could have stuck to this simple and time tested formula it progessed into something much more substantial. The soldier himself questioned the reasons for his involvement. What was it to be a soldier? Can one escape what one was created for; created for tireless and interchangable conflicts that lead from one to the other?
From the opening lines of the game one could tell that there was something more to it
than just the normal fare: "War has changed. Its no longer about nations, Ideologies, or ethnicity. Its an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War-and the consumption of life-has become a well oiled-machine."
These lines of thoughts and philosophy did not stop there at the beginning put continued on throughout the game.It became more intense and more real as you played this tired soldier, who searched for meaning and value in what he did and who fought with the idea and knowledge that what he did and his identity as a soldier was uncertain. What is the value of the soldier when the battles that he continued to fight seem to hold no meaning?
Crisis of identity and harsh realities of war are not something that you would expect from a video game. In some ways video games like this have more value then so many of those movies produced by Hollywood today. The games are asking deep moral questions while the Hollywood fare pumps out mindless violence without a hint of philosophy.
The video games no longer relegate themselves to mindless violence but are actually attempting to pose serious moral qusetions, delving into questions of life. Sure, there are games out there like "Grand Theft Auto 4", which adhere to mindless violence, but even that game tried to wax philisophocal. The protaganist is constantly expressing the horrible violence and suffering that he was trained to do in the russian army. There is even one point in the game where he delivers a long and dramatic speech of the horrors that he experienced and how it changed him inside (this all occurs of course while your driving down the street running over hookers) but still the idea is there. No longer are the characters simply mindless two dimensional creations, but are living breathing beings with backstories and emotions. More than I can say for alot of the hollywood movies out there.
The last example I will give is a game I played recently called "Heavy Rain" the entire game is dedicated to having video games used as drama. In the game you play four different characters, all of whose life's are intertwined amidst the search for a serial killer called The Origami Killer. From the opening scene you are thrust into a world that even some of the best hollwood movies cannot rival. Full of suspense and drama, this is not a typical game, with moments that have you cringing or sweating on the controller.
The game revolves around a very simple idea; each decision you make impacts the way the story is told. The opening scene finds one of your characters, a father of two and a husband, taking his family out for a stroll in the mall. Your son gets lost and you must push your way through a crowd of people in a desperate search to find him. You smash buttons to call out his name and crane your neck over the crowd to find the red balloon that your boy is holding. You become emotionally distressed and frantic as you try to find him in the mall and this was just in the opening scene.
The drama unravels from there as you use all four characters in an attempt to discover the mysterious identity of the killer.
The choices are not simple ones either. One scene found me playing a detective searching the house of a crazy man for clues to the possible identity of the killer. It ends in a standoff between the crazy man, who the detective is sure is not the killer, and the detectives partner, who appears to be a dirty cop. You try to calm down the crazy man as he points a gun in your partners face, using your words to try to diffuse the situation, but also knowing at any moment the man could pull the trigger and kill you partner. What do you do? Another scene found me as the father being asked the question, "Would you kill a man you never met simply to save the life of your son?"
The rest of the game played out as intensly as any Hollywood movie I have seen in recent years, with me yelling at the screen as the character leans over to hear the name of the killer whispered into their ear, while you the player dont hear the name yourself, but are only allowed to read the reaction on your characters face. see the another review here.
So are video games the next place that we will find our originalty in storytelling? Has the once exclusivly child medium now become a place for adults to truely become involved in a good story? Finally can hollywood learn from it's media counterpart and realize that nothing will draw the consumer in like a really well told story? Lets hope so.
I am not a large player of video games. I get bored rather quickly with the repetivity of most of the games out there, but recently I have noticed the games becoming more and more engrossing; not with amazing special effects (though these have become almost awe inspiring) or more bloodshed, but simply with the pure originality of some of their stories. Sure, there are still plenty of hack and slash games out there, but one thing I have noticed is how invested some of these games have become in telling an original and imaginative story.
This is nothing new of course and there have been plenty of original games in the time since I have started playing games, but I find it remarkable just how dedicated some of the games have become to not simply how the game plays but the story it is telling. I find myself drawn into the game and the characters in the game more than the gameplay, feeling myself emotionally invested in the characters and their struggles.
The first example of this storytelling I can think of is in a video game called "Metal Gear Solid 4". This was the first game of this series that I actually played and I was amazed at the detail of the story. It was not simply go here and do this and kill this badguy, there was a plotline, there was a history, there was emotion and drama. It drew me in from the first moment I started playing.
It began as most games do, with some explosions and some nasty gunfire as you're thrown into a hectic battlefield, but it quickly became apparant to me that this was not just some simple shoot em' up game.The main character was a grizzled and hardened battlefield soldier who has seen more battles than he cares to. While the game could have stuck to this simple and time tested formula it progessed into something much more substantial. The soldier himself questioned the reasons for his involvement. What was it to be a soldier? Can one escape what one was created for; created for tireless and interchangable conflicts that lead from one to the other?
From the opening lines of the game one could tell that there was something more to it
than just the normal fare: "War has changed. Its no longer about nations, Ideologies, or ethnicity. Its an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War-and the consumption of life-has become a well oiled-machine." These lines of thoughts and philosophy did not stop there at the beginning put continued on throughout the game.It became more intense and more real as you played this tired soldier, who searched for meaning and value in what he did and who fought with the idea and knowledge that what he did and his identity as a soldier was uncertain. What is the value of the soldier when the battles that he continued to fight seem to hold no meaning?
Crisis of identity and harsh realities of war are not something that you would expect from a video game. In some ways video games like this have more value then so many of those movies produced by Hollywood today. The games are asking deep moral questions while the Hollywood fare pumps out mindless violence without a hint of philosophy.
The video games no longer relegate themselves to mindless violence but are actually attempting to pose serious moral qusetions, delving into questions of life. Sure, there are games out there like "Grand Theft Auto 4", which adhere to mindless violence, but even that game tried to wax philisophocal. The protaganist is constantly expressing the horrible violence and suffering that he was trained to do in the russian army. There is even one point in the game where he delivers a long and dramatic speech of the horrors that he experienced and how it changed him inside (this all occurs of course while your driving down the street running over hookers) but still the idea is there. No longer are the characters simply mindless two dimensional creations, but are living breathing beings with backstories and emotions. More than I can say for alot of the hollywood movies out there.
The last example I will give is a game I played recently called "Heavy Rain" the entire game is dedicated to having video games used as drama. In the game you play four different characters, all of whose life's are intertwined amidst the search for a serial killer called The Origami Killer. From the opening scene you are thrust into a world that even some of the best hollwood movies cannot rival. Full of suspense and drama, this is not a typical game, with moments that have you cringing or sweating on the controller.
The game revolves around a very simple idea; each decision you make impacts the way the story is told. The opening scene finds one of your characters, a father of two and a husband, taking his family out for a stroll in the mall. Your son gets lost and you must push your way through a crowd of people in a desperate search to find him. You smash buttons to call out his name and crane your neck over the crowd to find the red balloon that your boy is holding. You become emotionally distressed and frantic as you try to find him in the mall and this was just in the opening scene.
The drama unravels from there as you use all four characters in an attempt to discover the mysterious identity of the killer.
The choices are not simple ones either. One scene found me playing a detective searching the house of a crazy man for clues to the possible identity of the killer. It ends in a standoff between the crazy man, who the detective is sure is not the killer, and the detectives partner, who appears to be a dirty cop. You try to calm down the crazy man as he points a gun in your partners face, using your words to try to diffuse the situation, but also knowing at any moment the man could pull the trigger and kill you partner. What do you do? Another scene found me as the father being asked the question, "Would you kill a man you never met simply to save the life of your son?" The rest of the game played out as intensly as any Hollywood movie I have seen in recent years, with me yelling at the screen as the character leans over to hear the name of the killer whispered into their ear, while you the player dont hear the name yourself, but are only allowed to read the reaction on your characters face. see the another review here.
So are video games the next place that we will find our originalty in storytelling? Has the once exclusivly child medium now become a place for adults to truely become involved in a good story? Finally can hollywood learn from it's media counterpart and realize that nothing will draw the consumer in like a really well told story? Lets hope so.
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