Finding a true voice

[God at play]

I was skimming the "Videogames as media" feature for a 2nd time and thought of something.

Developers talk about how early film just tried to adopt theater-based paradigms and how videogames must in turn avoid film-based paradigms to truly find a new voice.

What if avoiding game-based paradigms is just as important as avoiding film-based paradigms?

[Thomas]

Aint this what notgames is all about?

Anyway, I totally agree. It is interesting to see how people easily fall back on the "videogame should not emulate film" analogy, when perhaps, as you say, a more important thing is to avoid emulating traditional games.

[Michaël Samyn]

Some people seem to act as if videogames are something entirely new, as if games didn't exist before.
They are right that videogames are new. Just not the part where they are games. Although the computer may offer potential for new types of games, or new variations, this is nothing compared to the vast potential of computer-based arts outside of games.

Which reminds me of this slide I just made for our presentation tomorrow in Lille:

[God at play]

Haha nice, I love graphs and infographics!

Yeah I mean we've all said this kind of stuff several times before, I just thought it was interesting to apply it to the "videogames should not emulate film" line of thinking. Like "videogames should not emulate film or games."

[Michaël Samyn]

I'll make sure to mention it this afternoon at the symposium we're presenting at, about the links between cinema and video games (and more specifically, in our part of the symposium, about the links between cinema d'auteur and independent games).

[Michaël Samyn]

Many video game designers consider themselves to be game designers first. They are only interested in computer technology in as far as it helps them make games. In a way, they are similar to photographers and illustrators who also use computers as tools to produce works in what is essentially another medium.

Only, of course, many video games are not this "pure". They do use the unique capacities of the computer to improve qualities of their work that don't have much to do with the game as such. But since their designers often consider themselves to be first and foremost game designers, they would drop those extra-game features before they would drop the game aspect. So it makes sense to them to remove references to cinema, while maintaining the game qualities of their work. In short: they have no interest in thinking outside of the (game) box. Because it is games that they want to make (not some other kind of computer-based art or entertainment).