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Video In Games: The State of the Industry
Video is one of the most commonly used and least understood elements of modern computer games. Ever since the CD-ROM offered a medium able to carry significant amounts of audio and video, game developers have worked to incorporate video into their titles. Although there have been many missteps along the way, video is still a critical element of the game designer’s palette. When used well, it can create mood, set up game play, introduce characters, and forward narrative. When used poorly, it can rip you out of the game faster than a direct rocket-launcher hit during a deathmatch. Throughout the brief history of our industry, games have striven to be more immersive, more involving, and more dramatic. The term often used is "cinematic." There was even a time when the term "interactive movie" was very much in vogue. Now of course, we look back at this period knowing that most filmmakers don’t know much about games and that game designers don’t necessarily make good films. The half-baked efforts of this period stigmatized the term "full-motion video" (FMV). Indeed, we’ve reached a point where one recent FMV adventure game, A Fork in the Tail, proudly proclaimed that it contained "FMV that doesn’t suck." For the record, the FMV didn’t suck. However, the game did, and for a very simple reason: game players don’t like being passive. Game players like to play, and choosing which sophomoric one liner to use on the scantily clad, direct-to-video harlot in front of you ain’t playing. While many developers have been licking the wounds they received after mistaking cutscenes for game play, others have forwarded the state of the art. Grim Fandango’s FMV adds camera movement and the pacing of professional editing, while keeping the fabulous feel of its engine intact. In fact, many can’t tell where the video ends and the engine begins. Jane’s has done a wonderful job with FMV, repurposing training films and using a news broadcast format at the beginning and end of campaigns in the Longbow series. Here, video is used to present information in a concise and informative manner while simultaneously creating a technothriller feel in the simulations.
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Features
Video
in Games: The State of the Industry
