Thursday, July 24, 2008

Movies vs. Video Games: By the Genre

This post will discuss which medium has the expressive advantage in each common genre, movies or video games? I'm going to go by the genre, with possible other matchups in later posts.

Horror: Adv. to Video Games
In my opinion, video games have a slight advantage from the interactive nature of games. There is horror in asking "Why the hell are you goin' in there?" to characters in movies, but there is perhaps more horror when you know that you have to go in there, and you probably won't like what you find. Also, game cutscenes can use movie techniques to control where the camera can see if that's better. Oh, and in games you CAN actually die, while movies pretty much have to keep at least the main character alive.

Comedy: Adv. to Movies
Comedic timing is theoretically impossible during regular gameplay in a video game. Games can still use jokes and have funny cutscenes, but the expression is somewhat limited. The only redeeming factor is the extra hours of entertainment games give you and branching storypaths that can make a second time through better.

Action: Adv. to Video Games
Would you rather watch some badass cop on the edge shoot an explosive barrel between two terrorists that blows them up and directly into the dump next door, or would you rather be that badass cop? I think games win that one.

Documentary: Push
Right now, movies definitely win in the documentary category. However, games could make a better point by actually making a simulation of their situation and allowing players to simulate to better understand what's going on, sort of like Darfur is Dying.

Romance: Er... Movies
I'm just going to let movies have this one, both for balance and because I don't think Japanese dating sims really count.

Clearly, this blog has a bias, but I think I argue the points.