Question : Why video games being treated like movies?

 Blog on video games : Dec. 16th, 2020

Based on a question (not sure who) who asked (and I quote) : Why are video games being treated/created as basically like movies? Why can't they just be simple and straightforward like their predecessors?

My Answer : Advancement of Time, I guess.

Video games had always been treated as another form of media for telling a story. Whether it is a game of ping pong, or something complex like today’s video game, there’s always some element of story behind it. I guess that is how we learn to associate ourselves with the game, by understanding the story behind it, and therefore the purpose we commit an action.

This is not something new either. I remember how newspaper comics like The Phantom, The Shadow and Dick Tracy (never mind if you don't know any of them, it probably before your time) was made into movies and had its origin from newspaper comics (particularly in 60s). By the time movies become popular, comic books adaptation to big screen had made its debut with Superman and Batman movies. By 1980s and early 1990s, video game began its streak with the likes of Tomb Raiders and Mario Brothers but remain unpopular (at least when comes to Mario Brothers) due to lack of technology at that time. 

But unlike the newspaper adaptations, video games did not fade away as others did. It held on due to advancement in Technology.

In the old days (90s) when video games first came out, the story always kept simple as possible. There’s the hero and/or heroin who faces some situation, with a common goal which is to get from point A to point B  to further his/her quest and during this time, they face obstacles such as traps, monsters and other mayhem. 

Source : 50 Most Popular 90s Video Games - PCQuest ( https://www.pcquest.com/50-top-video-games-of-90s-part-1/ )

Some games like Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Silent Hill, Parasite Eve and many more had taken a life of its own when gamers started to treat these games as if they were some entertainment media (like TV show or movies), thus promoting the game developers to stop coming out of plot-less games and start developing plots (however ridiculous they could be) for games. 

I still remember the time I took my Resident Evil 3 CD (for Playstation 1) and tried to see if I could copy it to my PC. This was in early 00s when I had my own computer lab and a lot of time in my hands. A female colleague of mine (a non-video gamer) walked in and thought I was playing a porn movie. I show her the cover of the game, and some of the in-game movie I managed to rip out. Her reaction was - “WOW! It really look like a movie!”

Nowadays, games are equally entertaining as movies. Matter a fact, a lot of games (especially those came out in Playstation 4) had reached a certain sense of realism to it that these games had attracted quite a number of movie producers who willing to spend a good money to convert game to a live-action movie. I still remember watching the first Tomb Raider movie (2001 with Angelina Jolie) and kept looking for the finer details (such as the way Lara moved, jumped, shoot and so forth) and comparing it to the 3D version I was familiar with.

As I was writing this today, I have just learn that they are releasing "Monster Hunter" movie for the year end release and I was pretty surprised that they could make a movie out of Monster Hunter (due to lack of plot - at least in my opinion). And what's more, the main actress is Milla Jovovich ... Yes, the same one who (as we had seen last) was killing monsters and zombies in Resident Evil movies. I guess she graduated into hunting down actual (dinosaur-like) monsters.

As games become more advance in term of presentations, many of these game plots are viewed with the same interest as movies, and some games can even be turn directly into a live-action movie without much work. 

Take these two games for example - Days Gone by SIE Bends (2019). And Ghost of Tsushima by Sucker Punch Productions (2019). 

Personally I find that these two games has the best storyline or plot I have ever seen.  The character development is well designed to showcase the changes in the characters during the story progress and the game has one of the best presentation I had seen in a game. These two games could easily be adapted into a live-action movie and people will flock to see it without knowing that it had originally started off as a video game.