Trashos
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2015
- Messages
- 3,413
(this thread needs a warning at the beginning, but I am not sure what the warning should be.)
Ask any serious cinephile about the crowning achievements of cinema, and you will invariably get Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey among the answers. Space Odyssey may be an acquired taste, and may be a movie that is hard to understand. But there is no doubt that it is real *cinema*. It could not have been a great book, for example. As a matter of fact, there was a book written for the movie by Arthur C Clarke, but it is not considered a masterpiece or of much importance. The book was just another book. The movie, now the movie was a freaking masterpiece of cinema.
But what makes me say that Space Odyssey is "real cinema"? What is "real cinema"? Real cinema is movies that are movies, and could not have been books, games or anything else.
So let's explain this important concept. I am going to borrow Milan Kundera's ideas on what is a real novel (or, in Kundera's own words, what is an "ethical novel") and extend them to other media. According to Kundera, an ethical novel is a novel that does what only a novel can do. In other words, if there is something a writer can do with a novel that a director cannot do with a movie, a musician cannot do with music, a developer cannot do with a game, then that is exactly what he should be doing.
So let's get back to Space Odyssey. Do you think you can describe what it is about and do it justice? Do you think it could have been a book as important as the movie is? Or take one of the masterpieces of literature, say Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude. Try to make a movie out of THAT without making a fool of yourself. Yeah, good luck. That is an ethical novel, a real novel. Try to transport it to another medium, and it will fall apart.
So now let's talk about gaming. Gaming has writing, sound, it has moving images, it has gameplay. GAMEPLAY. That's the distinguishing characteristic of gaming. In real gaming, in ethical gaming, you are supposed to be interacting with the content in ways that you cannot achieve in other media! Now, you can have writing, you can have sound, you can have impressive images, but they all should be in the service of gameplay.
Cinematics in games, on the other hand, make games that would rather have been movies. In light of my argument (or Kundera's argument rather) above, cinematics in gaming are UNETHICAL.
TL;DR: Novels are supposed to be doing what only novels can do. Movies are supposed to be doing what only movies can do. Games are supposed to be doing what only games can do. Take your cinematics and stick them up your ass.
Ask any serious cinephile about the crowning achievements of cinema, and you will invariably get Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey among the answers. Space Odyssey may be an acquired taste, and may be a movie that is hard to understand. But there is no doubt that it is real *cinema*. It could not have been a great book, for example. As a matter of fact, there was a book written for the movie by Arthur C Clarke, but it is not considered a masterpiece or of much importance. The book was just another book. The movie, now the movie was a freaking masterpiece of cinema.
But what makes me say that Space Odyssey is "real cinema"? What is "real cinema"? Real cinema is movies that are movies, and could not have been books, games or anything else.
So let's explain this important concept. I am going to borrow Milan Kundera's ideas on what is a real novel (or, in Kundera's own words, what is an "ethical novel") and extend them to other media. According to Kundera, an ethical novel is a novel that does what only a novel can do. In other words, if there is something a writer can do with a novel that a director cannot do with a movie, a musician cannot do with music, a developer cannot do with a game, then that is exactly what he should be doing.
So let's get back to Space Odyssey. Do you think you can describe what it is about and do it justice? Do you think it could have been a book as important as the movie is? Or take one of the masterpieces of literature, say Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude. Try to make a movie out of THAT without making a fool of yourself. Yeah, good luck. That is an ethical novel, a real novel. Try to transport it to another medium, and it will fall apart.
So now let's talk about gaming. Gaming has writing, sound, it has moving images, it has gameplay. GAMEPLAY. That's the distinguishing characteristic of gaming. In real gaming, in ethical gaming, you are supposed to be interacting with the content in ways that you cannot achieve in other media! Now, you can have writing, you can have sound, you can have impressive images, but they all should be in the service of gameplay.
Cinematics in games, on the other hand, make games that would rather have been movies. In light of my argument (or Kundera's argument rather) above, cinematics in gaming are UNETHICAL.
TL;DR: Novels are supposed to be doing what only novels can do. Movies are supposed to be doing what only movies can do. Games are supposed to be doing what only games can do. Take your cinematics and stick them up your ass.