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Analysis: What Video Games Could Learn From Inception
by Lewis Denby [PC, Console/PC, Exclusive]
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August 13, 2010
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[UK-based writer Lewis Denby went to see Inception recently, and now wishes video games had dreamed up the idea first. Here, he discusses why it's a good fit, and what kind of game it might have been.]
This might be a slightly unorthodox way to begin an editorial about video games, but to hell with it: today, I’m going to review Inception.
I went to see it the other day, at long last. Christopher Nolan’s new film is a meticulously crafted blockbuster, tense and exciting but thoughtful and complex. I loved every second of it and I didn’t want it to finish.
I’ve heard various complaints about it, almost all of which are ludicrous. "It’s too complicated to follow," screech several reviews. I’ve no idea what those critics were watching: if anything, I’d say Inception veered in the direction of having too much exposition and spelled out more of its mystery than was necessary. It’s plot is an elaborate one, but presented with such beautiful clarity. I was never lost.
It’s a film about dreams, and how ideas can be inserted a person’s mind by planting them there while that person sleeps. Psychological thieves -- 'extractors', in the film’s fiction -- are capable of infiltrating the dreams of others and stealing important information they’ve kept locked away in the backs of their minds. But the best extractors can also put new ideas there discreetly, and upon waking the victims think they’ve thought up those things all by themselves.
Its cast travels through several layers of dreamstate, all with distinct visual themes and varied tasks to complete, in order to convince a businessman to dissolve his recently deceased father’s company. For the good of the world, apparently: we quickly forget to question the motives of the shady man who’s funding the operation.
"It’s just a glorified heist movie," some critics yammered. Well, how terrible. Apparently we’re not allowed to do heist movies any more, and any that are created must be immediately criticized as such.
Point is, it’s a great heist movie, one that’s suspenseful, smart and stylish throughout. And that’s not to mention the multiple layers of meaning that can be extracted from its story: lessons about love, about regret, and about our individual, subjective perceptions of the world around us.
The Point’s On Its Way, Honestly
One criticism, though, I can get behind. Sort of. The way it’s intended is venomous, patronizing and frankly stupid, but I suspect the person who wrote it is onto something without realizing it himself.
The review is by Rex Reed, of the New York Observer. An absolutely preposterously terrible review in so many ways, if you don’t mind my saying so. But here’s a line that stuck: "I have no idea what the market is for this jabbering twaddle -- probably people who fritter away their time playing video games."
And, well, yes! Absolutely! I’d imagine a lot of people who play games would absolutely adore Inception, not least because it would make a near-perfect video game. Never mind Citizen Kane (seriously, have you watched it recently? Without drinking several cups of strong coffee?) - what video games need is the sprawling, epic, grounded science-fiction of Inception.
It would be a game which could satisfy all the mainstream demand for explosions, drawn-out gunfights and cool, low-gravity, slow-motion effects. It’s a globetrotting adventure, which jumps from Korea to America to Paris and then, in the dream world, a rainy city, a fancy hotel, a snowy mountainous military base and a morphing, twisting underworld. There are puzzles to solve, mazes to navigate and a whole load of bad guys to hit in the face.
It would be a wonderfully varied game. One mission would see you attempting to recruit your team, coming up with new ways to manipulate the game’s characters into joining you on your dangerous quest. By the end you’d be squad-fighting your way through the snow, driving snowmobiles, rigging explosive charges and oh my goodness.
That’s commercial viability, right there -- great big explosions always win out. But what would really elevate it to greatness is the multifaceted plot, the exciting mystery at its core which far eclipses most ‘big twists’ in computer games.
And what about the very nature of the story, and the opportunities that would open up for level design? It’s a film about designing dreams. There are countless things you could do to a game world to take advantage of this, in a way you simply couldn’t achieve with just a camera. When designing a virtual universe, your imagination can run wild.
It would make a perfect game, if done well. And that’s sad, in a way, because it’s too late. There’s no use trying an Inception game now, because a tie-in would have to be too close to the film, and anything based on its ideas would come across as plagiaristic.
No, video games had their chance here, and the movies beat them to it. A real tragedy: because you can bet such super-cool ingenuity wouldn’t be lost on critics in our medium.
[Lewis Denby is Executive Editor of BeefJack.com, as well as word-writer extraordinaire for anyone who’ll give him some pennies for his trouble. Can you tell that he has no official outlet in which to rant about films?]
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Yes I saw citizen kane recently, twice in the last year, on in the cinema on the BFI...without any need of coffee, it's as fresh as it probably was upon release and beat the hell out of a movie like inception in cinematography, direction, acting and let's stop there as both movies don't play on the same field. So sorry but your remark just make me fear that your movie interest are not very rightly placed....what's next, tell us that "snakes on a plane" was vastly superior to "amadeus"? (the comparation here is similar..)
Oh, and I do love Inception to the bones, I have few critics to do...but there is no comparation
But this is a gaming blog, so I have to (and want to) say some things about your game ideas. Inception would make a great game. Not just because of the explosions, sure that's "cool" and all. But let's be honest, games have plenty enough of that as is. I've never known a crate or barrel in real life that explodes when shot, or you look at it funny. The vast majority of games have exploding boxes and cylinders everywhere. What shines are the story, the setting and the themes. Corporate greed/subterfuge and inside jobs, a hyper-reality romance, metaphysical musings, zero-G in ordinary places, characters that have flaws and abilities, intelligent sci-fi (that's no-neck space marine-free)the list goes on.
On the note of hollywood "beating us to it," not a chance. There's no new ideas, simply better connections with better timing and communication to the audience. In other words: we still need to do this. What if Kojima-san had never made Solid Snake because another James Bond already existed in film and novel? Or perhaps Blizzard didn't make Starcraft because Warhammer 40K (the tabletop game) had already done it well? Not only were those profitable ventures, but I think we can all agree that Snake is inspired by Bond, but different in unique and exciting ways. Same to be said of Starcraft's universe and characters.
And also don't think that game developers haven't had the idea first. What matters in film and games is who makes it first. I'm not claiming I did have that idea (maybe I needed an inception of my own), but I am saying that it is very similar to an idea that a friend of mine that I work with had. The difference? Nolan's got a big budget, tons of great talent throwing themselves at him and plenty of time and experience to get the job done. Unfortunately for me and my compatriot, we are still a little ways from having those resources at our disposal.
But with Inception, I left the cinema and thought, that it is a shame, that video games aren't capable of creating such a master piece. Inception adapted many visual concepts of recent video games, without copying them and put them into a new context, the dream. This context told me a valuable lesson about games, that I tend to forget, it told me, that games are like dreams. This connection was layed out in the fundamental mechanisms of the movie. The settings within the dreams were called "Level", the architect was clearly a level designer, etc.
But unlike many games Inception left me with the feeling to have seen something very mature, it was much more serious and intellectual then you usual video game, maybe, because at the heart of the story, there were really people with serious relationships, traumas, dreams and experiences.
http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?num=1&loc=D2002-033&s=date
As great as it is, none of the ideas in Inception are 100% original. Isn't it about about time someone made a new game based on Philip K Dick's Ubik?
It's not hopeless, however, that cultural significance of gaming industry can someday catch up to that of movie industry. Trust me, it took a century for movie industry to become what it is nowadays, and games have been taken seriously no longer then a decade ago. One thing the industry can work on is to make a more distinction on the role of 'Game Director'. Seeing gaming production nowadays, it seems Game Director has played more games then read more books. Just like famous movie directors, game director should also possess diverse area of knowledge including programming, art, game design, literature, philosophy, and so on, and know how to clearly yell 'Action' and 'Cut'.
And I couldn't help but to notice that 'Korea' was referred as irrelevant reference, not that I found it offense as a Korean.
"Perfect" games should not be about linear single-player action-shooters with set pieces, scripted dialogue and film stories. Inception would NOT make the "perfect" videogame. It would make the perfect "I-want-to-be-a-hollywood-blockbuster" videogame.
What is about movies that gives you guys so many hard-ons? Why don't we all go work at Hollywood then?
You don't see book writers look at World of Goo and say "Oh my god, I wish my next book could be like that", or a hollywood director look at Super Mario Galaxy and say "Damn, I missed the opportunity of making a movie about an almost-silent protagonist jumping around and dodging obstacles for hours, learning new and creative ways of exploiting his skills in pursuit of a clear goal". Jesus.
Naturally though, we'd have to change the structure of the game markedly. A 15+ hour video game can't and shouldn't follow the structure and pacing of a 2 hour movie. I won't go into the reasons for that here, because I just wrote a whole blog about it, but it's still an excellent premise for a game.
-Dan Felder, WhyGames
Ahhh..., just talking about it makes me want to play it again...
I think people should stop thinking about how to gimmick up the game medium to create a semi-interactive movie experience, but start thinking about how to use the inherent features of games to create compelling and meaningful experiences.
Most games are without an emotional center, and a lot of people think it is better that way; but just pure gameplay won't stick to peoples minds for much longer than the next game thay play. What games could do is to try to replicate an emotion through its narrative resources, just like film does. An emotion comes from experiencing something, but most games (and game developers) seems to ignore that kind of response from the audience, in favour of the next fistfight, shootout or fetch quest.
@Jaime: My thoughts exactly. Psychonauts did the go-into-dreams-game perfectly already.
@ Dan S: Wow, that's far closer to inception than even I would have thought. That's beyond copying, that's plagiarism!
@Citizen Kane fans: I think the point was that CK would not make a good game (ignore the coffee remark...). In fact, to turn it into a game would destroy what it does best: taking full advantage of the cinematic medium. The point was that Inception is well suited to the computer game medium specifically because the strengths of games are far more suited to it than the strengths of the film medium.
I think an Inception game would be awesome as long as it was not tied to the same characters or story at all. And for the discussion, I don't think the idea is to make a linear game, but rather a great game set in the world of extractors.
CK on the other hand succeeded in doing something unique to it's medium. THAT is what we should be trying
Exactly.
The only thing that could be extracted from Inception would be the theme and mood. Any other elements would drag a game down. And if you are just using those I don't think that would be plagiarist.