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Firstly I apologies for putting this in general I didn't know whether to put it in Xbox/PC/Films section.
Anyway Peter Jackson stated a little while back that computer games will one day make movies completely redundant, in the sense that the level of story that can be delivered, the interaction and emotions that can be achieved from computer games can exceed what movies can deliver (I can't remember exact quote)
With games getting more and more in-depth with their story line (for example the story for Dead Space was created before they even started designing the game) I do personally see computer games replacing movies.
I've just completed Mass Effect, it's hard to describe the game as it's not a game in the classic sense. It felt like I was watching a block buster movie but I was actually the main character, I was Luke Skywalker in Star Wars etc. At no point did the game feel linear, you genuinely felt that you were driving the course of the story and every decision you made affected other people’s emotions. .
With this level of interaction your emotions are driven higher than what a movie could possibly achieve. The story of Mass Effect is great and convincing, it feels like a genuine world that you're living in, the characters are well developed and you care about them and the decisions that you make.
The ending is absolutely Biblical, truly on an epic level and you at the centre to the whole thing, I literally felt that I was there. What makes things truly epic is that Mass Effect is going to be a trilogy and what you do in the first game actually determines the events throughout the entire trilogy! The ending of the third game will vary from person to person depending upon what choices they made through the entire series. That gives you an idea of the interaction within this game/story.
Sorry for waffling on but I hope you get the point I'm making, could computer games ever completely replace movies? Is there any other games out there that reach the levels that Mass Effect achieved?
Discuss!
*edit
Ignore what I've said about the game Seth Green sums it up perfectly lol
The question seems a little obvious, maybe movies will become more interactive and a person or viewing group could control characters, but there will always be a big market for normal movies where you sit down and watch the story as the events unfold. Some stories wouldnt work or be as good, given the ability to influence the plot and others would be better.
As far as im concerned interactive movies are just going to be an alternative.
Much as I enjoyed playing Mass Effect, I still don't think it had the same level of story telling as Baldur's Gate II.
I couldn't get into that, but I didn't try it until much later after the game was releashed. I'm really bored that I've completed Mass Effect >< I want to play again but I know the out come of the game it wouldn't be as good now
Never heard of mass effect, but might give it a try.
I dont think games could ever replace a good film. Game storylines usually bore me and i tend to skip storyline segments. This could just be because im impatient and just want to play the game though.
Didnt Balders gate II was all that tbh, it was good but the storytelling wasnt amazing, nowhere near the level of Mass Effect.
I dont think films will take over, the good thing about films is you just sit back, relax and enjoy the story unfold, its LAZY and brainless for the most part and thats what people like.
I think eventually they will be 50/50 in terms of business, I think its pretty close already, but i do hope there will always be a place for films, people thought books would become dead after stories were told on screen, but this so isnt the case, books are still huge business and i think stories will always be told through different mediums, films,books,games, TV, etc.
It entirely depends on the game... There are games out there that could compete with films in terms of storytelling and absorbing the viewer/gamer, but I still feel the majority of games have weaker storylines than your average film.
I'll add another to the list of amazing RPG storylines - VTM:Bloodlines
I don't ever believe you will replace the connection you get from a real human face with a CG face on the big screen.
I disagree, although I see your point. The fact that you have an interaction with a game in my eyes builds the connection even stronger, you feel more for the people in the story because your actions literally effect the out come of the story and their lives.
So on that basis I'd argue the connection is even stronger than what a movie can deliver.
*spoiler alert*
For example one mission a member of your team dies, you decide who this happens to, this after finding out all about their lives and history. You're not just watching a character die and think that's sad. it's because of your choice the character died hence I'd argue emotions are even higher.
I'd also like to say why couldn't a computer game have live actors playing the roles of the characters? it would be easy for a game like Mass Effect to incorporate as the majority of the game involves conversation only.
Baldurs gate. Superlative game series true. But. I dont think games will take over movies just yet. Computers are still relatively not powerful enough despite Mors law.
Game programmers just can't seem to make a game where the environment is truly reactive. osme of the greatest games that felt like a movie to me was call of duty and doom etc.
there is still much creativity in movies, and unless u can get a computer program that can really make a world environment ad-hoc it just isnt going to happen.
There is a slow synergy in technology and maybe in the next 20yrs or so would we exeprience something like the matrix effect. I cant wait for it as i would be desperate to get out of the real world and feel younger.
But for now i dont think that games can take over movies, they may be immersive but they miss something, that third person voyeur experience. When good 3d virtual reality helmets are developed i will chnge mu mind. But you cant beat a good movie for now.
I'd say they think tanks behind entertainment will run out of idea's for both games and movies before one gets so far ahead that the other becomes redundant.
I don't think games will end movies though, if anything (before the ideas run out) games will actually inspire more movies to be made and tv shows, especially as technology makes more shows actually possible to be made in the first place.
I think the boundries between CG and real will blur further though, to the point where movies will have real and CG people in them and the viewer will have no idea which is which. You just have to look as one simple example, at the Heroes series and all of the downtown Japanese scenes to see how far the graphics have moved forwards, it's very difficult to tell but every single one of the Japanese sequences are purely graphics only, with no real footage taken from Japan at all.
I'd say the one way the world of movie making could end prematurely, is if the industry continues on it's current path of consistently producing shite movies, because cinema figures are already way down on previous years and with ever increasing costs and tough financial climates and greedy actors and movie industry people, they really do have few chances left to make movies worth while going to see or worth buying on DVD or Blu-Ray or legally downloading or the likes. Continual production of crap could seriously see people wholesale turning to computer games almost as a form of protest, together with the need for entertainment, which movies has failed them on.
Just wondering out of those who have played Mass Effect who agrees with what I am saying?
There are other games out there is huge story lines like Baulders Gate/Oblivion etc but from my personal experience Mass Effect has reached a new level in game play and story telling for a computer game hence why I've used it as the main example of games replacing movies.
Mass Effect = The end of Movies?
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