Saturday, June 10, 2006

Another Adventure in Movie Games

I've heard entertained on several occasion, perhaps especially by my brother, about the potential for convergence in video gaming and the cinema. On some level, I suppose I can see the potential, although it's hard for me to imagine a viable setting for a bunch of people sitting down in a theater to play a video game or choose their own adventure. Thus says the father, Shigeru Miyamoto, of "the world's hottest-selling game ever," Super Mario Bros.:

[Q] You've been called the Steven Spielberg of video games. Recently, some gamers have been making movies using game software. Are games and movies converging?

[A] It's a common comparison, but I don't think it's an appropriate one because movies aren't interactive the way games are. Even so, I've learned a lot from movies. For instance, I pay attention to how movies use music to create a mood, how many camera angles there are, or how the director sets up a scary scene.

Rather, a more suitable arena for such a convergence seems to be in terms of so-dubbed new media: online, through new or current DVD technologies, or through gaming consoles, etc., etc.

Aside from movies about games (I'm thinking of Mario Bros.), game and movie convergence seems closer. On one level, games have become so intricate, they are already like movies in a way. The reference in the above quote about "gamers...making movies using game software" is absolutely correct. I've seen a few of these, when I was first redirected from a Wired article to vids like this. Many of these are created with a PC Game called The Movies (more examples here). My favorite video-game-to-movie translation comes in the form of "flash sprites" at the hands of Alexander Leon, over here.

But here's the latest iteration I have discovered in movie-game convergence. Two movie websites I've seen this summer have taken a trendy turn toward gaming. In the fray are Nacho Libre's Nacho Kung-Fu and Monster House's Thou Art Dead. Come to think of it, our local home-grown Think Tank has it's own game. Curiously, these movies have ramped up games that are a little more stylish than standard Internet-related movie website fare. They hearken to early Nintendo/ Sega/ Commodore 64 days when two-dimensional games were the way of the world.

Where do these next generation throwbacks come from? I have my suspicions. The word trendy figures prominent. I saw it first on a website that has little to do with movies, although you could argue that its syndicated animation is the best case study for this type of new media I'm talking about: Homestarruner.com. It all began with Trogdor...and then it went here and here...and then it got really out of hand here...perhaps you can see what I talk about.

My favorite recent gold find is more a personal portfolio website, but it incorporates something of a game-style play to browse. Check it here.

So where is all this heading? Who knows. But the game industry is known for being a multi-oogilian dollar industry. (I don't know the actual numbers, or I'd cite them, but I know they're up there.) Movies and games seem primed to converge in some miraculous way at some point in time.

Ultimately, I think the best movie-game combination would somehow involve a re-release of War Games.

posted by Rhapsidiomite @ 1:03 PM
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