I really want to see that rant – I’m not militant about it, but ‘games’ like Xenosaga have really lost their appeal for me recently.

OK, that one in particular made me laugh.

I disagree that this is the whole point. But that’s also a rant for another time.

Actually I think it’s much HARDER to find a game that rises above pure formula than it is to find a movie that does. There are movies released that are meant to be Oscar worthy, that are meant to be thought of a praiseworthy and to bring a studio prestige, if not much money.

There are quality films made simply to appease a major star, so he’ll do the sequel of franchise. (Of course Daikatana didn’t work so well, so maybe that’s why we don’t see that too often.) An actor like Tom Hanks or director like Francis Coppola can make a great script into a movie simply because they love it and think it’s a good thing to do. There are maybe 4 game design guys who can do the same with their ideas.

And, as you mention, there are the “indie” films as well.

It doesn’t mean these films are all good, and we all know how boring certain “made for Oscar” movies can be, but you do get a sense that they’re at least trying.

I don’t know how many games are done that way. Can you imagine EA spending millions of dollars to prove to the public and each other that their games are worthier, made to a higher standard, and carry more artistic merit than Valve’s? This happens every year in Hollywood.

Where are the cool, interesting or worthy games supported by studious with the blockbuster hits? (Ok, Portal, what else you got?) Its utterly commonplace in film and publishing and scarcely seen in games.

Can you imagine certain periods in the game world’s calendar being thought of as “art” release dates, where the game studios proudly display something they think of as a cut above the rest? (And pray it breaks even.)

And while the games industry seems quick to claim a place at the table with grown up media, when did you last see a Hollywood A-List release that:

Had utterly poor lighting.
Had large stretches of unintelligible dialog.
Consistently pointed the camera away from the action.
Featured more than five 2+ minute plus monologues filled with nothing but tedious exposition.
Stopped in the middle of the movie and restarted at the beginning.
Stopped in the middle of the movie and didn’t restart.
Repeated the exact same scene over and over and over to increase runtime.
Featured tons of driving, riding, running or flying simply to increase runtime.
Kept cutting away to show the contents of the heroes glove compartment.

All this to say, “A” releases may be preposterous, tedious and trite, but they’re rarely buggy, broken, or unfinished. (I won’t say “unwatchable” cf “The Hulk”.)

I love games, but I hope the industry will actually grow up, rather than just talking about it. (And that doesn’t necessarily mean making “Berlin Alexanderplatz – The Game”.) As it stands now, it’s an adolescent industry – with all that implies.

I think what we’re really dealing with here is just that the vast majority of popular art, regardless of medium, has always been crap. My personal favorite example of this is the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, that genius of his day, the man remembered forever for his skill as an author, Sir Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton. We don’t so much produce quality as select it. Which requires that we have a lot of material to select from – I’d be willing to bet that the ratio of crap to quality in indy games is as high as in mainstream games. It’s just when we think of indy games, we tend to think of indy games that have already been endorsed by enthusiasts.

Eli,

I think that one of the headaches we’re dealing with here is just your standard ‘new medium’ problem: people try to borrow from old media, and there’s still this Siliwood idea running through a lot of game producers that they’re producing novels. If I want to read a novel, I’ll read a novel, it’ll generally take less time than playing the game would.

I’m starting to think that we should think about games as sort of interactive museum pieces – this is the strength of games like Half-Life and Portal, and (to a lesser, but still significant extent), BioShock. There isn’t a lot of non-interactivity, and you have the option to ignore that material and continue your explorations. Being railroaded through a plot doesn’t make a hella lot of sense when the entire appeal is being able to control yourself through the world.

Now that I think about it more, perhaps the greatest thing about Uncharted was that it did NOT feature a “dark, brooding” hero. I’d kind of forgotten what that was like.

And on a side note, I’d wager that one reason it’s hard to find a smart game is similar to how it’s hard to find a smart _Hollywood_ movie. They’re both focused on the blockbusters and popcorn games/films. If I want something a little different, that’s where both the indie movie and indie games scenes branch out. Not always, mind you, and indie doesn’t inherently mean “better”, but there are some neat things out there.

In summary…what psu said

Actually, now that I read your post again…what you say about “tacked on characters” is spot on – a lot of games try too hard to have gripping stories and believable characters, when the simple mechanics of the game would have carried it much better by themselves (*coughassassinscreed*).

For my money, Valve are the only big company who have really copped on to how to use the game form to tell a story. The usual suspects for great narrative in games are fine and dandy, but they still tell that story with borrowed techniques (exposition, cut-scenes) whereas HL and Portal rely purely on the strengths of the medium.

(And to clarify on one point…by literary merit, I basically mean “a good story told well”. “Artistic merit” is in my opinion far too nebulous a term to be used in any serious conversation.)

In my opinion, video games are like most other forms of art; whether talking about books, movies, or games there are significantly more pieces of crap each year than shining gems.

Games are games. I play them to have fun, relax a bit, or challenge myself. I’m perfectly fine if games have no story at all; I don’t want some tacked on characters in Burnout or even in a majority of shooting games. As long as I enjoy ‘em, that’s fine by me. And every one else is welcome to their own opinions.