Video games success

Film characteristics have, to some extent, influenced and converged into video games. Some Hollywood blockbusters are routinely turned into video games as part of a wider process of developing successful franchises. (King and Krzywinska 2002:1). However, how might they offer their own distinct approach and pleasures that are currently making them more successful than film?

Watching movies, we enjoy obtaining the sense of escape and inspiration from the actor’s lives, imagining becoming them in their worlds. In video games, you can become them through... “Becoming actively involved agents in the world we escape into. This is what makes 3-D virtual worlds so compelling” (Christopher cited in Vorderer and Bryant, 2006: 92). Becoming someone different to ourselves and escaping to a world different to ours, we become the actors we watch on screen, experiencing the feeling and adrenalin we can’t in film.

Video games might share the same visual features as movies but their entertainment content is quite different. Films lack the element of control (Grodal 2000 cited in Vorderer 2006:43). Control gives us the chance to make a series of interesting and important decisions while simultaneously witnessing our consequences and outcome while navigating an open-ended world (Prensky 2006:61). A large satisfaction of control is when players feel themselves improving in their decisions, while aiming to a rewarding conclusion (Prensky 2006:59). Video games are a learning process and “ The secret to why people spend so much time on them is that they are learning things they need for the twenty-first century lives” (Prensky 2006:5). Control also causes a user to identify with a character to a greater degree than is possible with characters portrayed in film because the user is the central character in the game (Vorderer and Bryant 2006:43). Becoming identified with your character through the possibility of control is what makes video games a more exciting entertainment package than film.

Video games don’t need to encourage players to blast everything in order to become popular, neither do they need to be dramatic or consequential. One of the most successful video games is Will Wright’s The Sims, scoring 17 million fans (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk 2006). Why do people thrive for the virtual domesticity in Sims when they don’t in films? According to Psychology Today, it’s not the Sims themselves that go about their day-to-day routines but the spaces they inhibit (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk 2006). People can easily mirror their real-world homes by projecting aspects of their lives into the Sims characters (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk 2006). Will Wright states, “Sims is a laboratory for understanding not only our personalities, but also our personal spaces” (Thompson, 2003 cited in Paulk). Through playing video games, people understand more about them and this is an exciting journey that makes video games more popular than film. People can always pull back from film and criticize characters when they cross certain boundaries. In video games you understand your character since it’s possibly the only medium that allows players to experience guilt over the actions of their characters because they choose what happens to them (Jenkins 2007).Through such engagement we start to understand ourselves and this is why they are more as successful than film.

We cannot contribute to the narrative in films, but rather follow and accept what’s shown. The producer has all power. It is clear then, that there is a line between producer and the consumer (Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004:153). Video games blur the boundary between author and consumer… “They are a two-way dynamic medium that have earned their own unique discourse” (Mark Bernstein cited in Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004: 153). Games don’t ask the player to interpret what the author is trying to tell them (Pearce cited in Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004:147). Instead, “The author shifts into a role as facilitator, and the audience now takes over the role of storytelling and create their own narrative” (Pearce cited in Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, 2004:153). Having this authority given to them, the line between audience and author becomes un-noticed and they are free to create their own entertainment in the game. It is clearly evident then, that having this two-way medium, makes us enjoy video games more than film.

Video games, whether designed for single or multiple players, simultaneously offer action on screen and the cooperation and friendship between the players. Video games are significant because “Players help others learn, by sharing information on strategy and technique through talk and observing the play of others.” (Newman, 2004). Movies don’t give you the opportunity of interacting with friends to that extent because you’d be missing parts of the movie’s dialogue.
Video games tend to set new goalposts or unveil more spectacular worlds that invite players to “just one more level”, making them reluctant to quitting until they’ve met their goals. (Jenkins, Henry, date unknown).This tactic is used as a reward for having survived the previous environment, making video games more attractive than films. Since video games are not finalized products like films, they are open to extension, repeatedly re-releasing upgraded versions. (Flynt, 2006:188). People who like a particular video game are sure to buy the upgraded version and therefore, video games succeed in the long run.

Time operates differently in video games then in film. (Joshua Meyrowitz 1997 cited in Cover). A video game can narrate the events of a thousand years but be played in a couple of hours. They give you no sense of knowing how long you’ve been accessing the virtual world and how long you can expect the program to continue (Kermode, 1967 cited in Cover). Time is unknowable and the situations are always un-expected. Unlike movies, you always have a sense of what’s coming in a structured time and this is why they are not as successful as video games.
On the whole, there are many contributing factors that make video games more popular than film. Firstly, you turn into a character who becomes actively involved agents while escaping to the world of your choice. Secondly, the element of control gives you power to make decisions and help you identify with your character to a better degree. Thirdly, the removal of the author gives you the freedom of storytelling. Socializing effectively and the irresistibility to play longer due to play value, along with the satisfaction of narrating events of a thousand years in a matter of hours, all contributes to an overwhelming, enjoyable experience, that make video games more popular and successful than film.




References

Jenkins, Henry, 2007 Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about video games debunked Online Available: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html Kcts Television

Jenkins, Henry, (Date unknown) Complete Freedom of Movement”: Video games as gendered play spaces. http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/complete.html

Fromme, Johannes (2003) Computer Games as a Part of Children’s Culture (1. The cultural and pedagogical relevance of electronic games) (Online) Available: http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/fromme/ GameStudies

Drucker, Steven, Li-wei He, Michael Cohen, Wong, Curtis, Gupta, Anoop (Date unknown) Spectator Games:A New Entertainment Modality for Networked Multiplayer Games (Online) Available: http://research.microsoft.com/~sdrucker/papers/spectator.doc Microsoft Research

Cover, Rob, (2006)Gaming (Ad)diction: Discourse, Identity, Time and Play in the Production of the Gamer Addiction Myth (Online) Available: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/cover Game studies

Paulk, Charles, 2006, Signifying Play: The Sims and the Sociology of Interior Design. (Online)Available: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/paulk Game studies

Vorderer, Peter, Bryant, Jennings (2006) Playing Video Games (motives, responses, and consequences) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers London.

Prensky, Marc (2006) “Don’t Bother Me Mom-I’m Learning” Paragon House, Minnesota

King, Geoff, Krzywinska, Tanya (2002) Screen Play (cinema/videogames/interfaces) WallFlower Press, London and New York

Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, Harrigan, Pat, 2004, First Person (New Media as Story, performance, and Game) MIT Press, London, England.

Newman, James, 2004 VideoGames, Routledge, London

Flynt, P John, 2006, In the Mind of a Game, Thompson Course Technology PTR.