Games should NOT be cinematic
How often have you heard something along the lines of...
"This game is so great. It’s so CINEMATIC."
I've heard it more times than I can count. And I would like to make the argument that this is something games should NOT aspire to be.
GAMES AS ART
Let's get some definitions out of the way so we can explore what games SHOULD aspire to be.
A GAME is a structured form of PLAY. Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction.
PLAY is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment
Those definitions are OKAY. But I think we can do better.
ART is a diverse range of (products of) human activities involving creative imagination to express technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas
INTERACTIVE ART is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some interactive art installations achieve this by letting the observer or visitor "walk" in, on, and around them; others ask the artist or the spectators to become part of the artwork...
Now that sounds like a game.
TL;DR
GAMES are a form of INTERACTIVE ART.
So...
Assuming games are an art form, what should games aspire to be?
MEDIUM SPECIFICITY AND GAMES
Each individual artistic medium, from sculpture to painting to cinema, has its own unique properties and features. An artwork’s medium is more specific if it is working in a piece in a way that only it can.
A sculpture can be more sculptural…
A painting can be more painterly...
A photograph can be more photographic...in its early history, photography struggled to establish itself as a legitimate art form. It was often compared to and positioned against painting. But many photographers argued that in order for photography to be taken seriously as an art form, it must operate on its own capabilities. It shouldn't aspire to imitate painting, it should aspire to be more photographic. What can photography do that are medium's can't?
A film can be more cinematic...as opposed to literal or theatrical or photographic, if it makes the most use of its medium’s unique features. This would be unadaptable cinema, a story that is inextricably linked with the way it’s told, a movie that couldn’t be novelized or painted without losing some or most of all of its "je ne sais quoi".
A game can be more…
For gaming to establish itself as an art form, games should make the most out of its medium's unique features. Games should not be more cinematic, games should be more “game-ic”.
What are games unique features? What makes a game unadaptable to any other art form?
How do YOU think a game can be more “game-ic”?
