Moon and Hari Public Relations
We live in a time when the word ‘game’ has taken on a negative connotation thanks to the proliferation of ‘online’ game companies that want players to bet money and play with their ‘skills’. I’m here. There is another category of games, traditional video games, whose creators put a lot of effort into creating them and treat them as art (well, for the most part).
My first exposure to video games was as a kid in the 90’s when Mario and “Duck Hunt” were very popular. These were accessible games, very novel and fun for their time. But eventually the novelty wore off and life took off.
Decades later, I recently got a new laptop. This was probably good enough for “games”. Out of curiosity, I searched for a cheap game I wanted to try and found one named “Disco Elysium”.
And I was hooked. This is a murder mystery game where you play a detective in charge of an investigation. And like any murder mystery worth salting, the focus slowly shifts as the game progresses, revealing that the murder mystery is just the tip of the iceberg and that the game is trying to uncover larger issues about society. And as we get closer to the endgame, we discover that the protagonist’s psyche and his turbulent past has been a real mystery from the start. When the game was over and the credits started rolling, I felt the same satisfaction I felt after watching a moving movie.
Disco Elysium sparked my interest in exploring the medium of video games as a story and a device for telling stories. And then I realized that there are a lot of games out there that can rival good novels and movies for that money. What makes video games unique is the element of interactivity. Because the player can “control” the narrative, and in some games the user’s choices affect the final act, the ending on the second playthrough may differ from the ending seen the first time.
Video games also lend themselves well to the interesting concept of an “interactive movie.” There is a game called “Her Story” where you also play an investigator and the gameplay is just searching for video clips by tag. Each video plays for a few seconds, and watching more of these clips tells a story. Effectively, this is just a movie, but one in which each player sees a different sequence of scenes. I played this game and asked my partner to play it too. And we reached the same “climax” through different routes. It wasn’t until near the end of the gameplay that it became clear that I understood it, but my partner figured it out shortly after it started, and her subsequent searches (hence the corresponding video clip) were different from mine. I was very fascinated by how this game/interactive movie was planned and executed (he is the only actor throughout).
One of the things that BR articles often point out is that a good film is a presentation that cannot be reproduced in books or other media (such as visual grammar). There is a game titled “Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons” that does something similar in the medium of video games. There’s a very moving part in the end of the game that can only be experienced by actually playing the game. This feeling cannot be replicated in any other medium, neither in movies nor in books. Saying what it is would ruin the whole game, but for the curious, Google is your friend.
Of course, there are all kinds of video games, just as there are all kinds of movies. Games with stories are my fascination, but some are just mashing buttons and battling AI enemies, while others are famous for “microtransactions” (in-game purchases intended to give you money). A game that aims to satisfy gameplay rather than narrative.
Video games today are like the movies they were decades ago, and video game “Citizen Kane” may not be too far off. Let’s see how it goes. But for now, it’s an attractive alternative to books and movies in the entertainment media arena.
