Citizen Game:
Remediating practices between
Hollywood’s
Film and the Game Industry
Student: Vincent Sloof Student Number: 6178766
Address: Telderslaan 98, 3527 KH, Utrecht Tel.: 030-2942343
E-mail: Vincent_Sloof@hotmail.com Date of Completion: 27-06-2014
Supervisor: Dr. J.A.A. Simons Second Reader: Dhr. Sebastian Scholz
MA Thesis: New Media and Digital Culture Department of Media Studies
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Abstract
Games have grown into a multi-million dollar business, while the film industry has been making those numbers for a good while now. However, these two industries have seen a convergence of production methods and have been approached similarly over the years, as they start to mimic each other in various ways. By analyzing multiple games and films as case studies I show how these techniques and approached can be recognized as a form of
remediation of both media incorporated by each of them. Furthermore, by including agency as an important concept I show how the amount of ‘Hollywoodization’ present in a game has an effect on the agency the player has while playing. A higher level of Hollywoodization results in an effective lowering of agency as players are forced to watch cutscenes and conversations with little power to change them. Finally, I discuss the merits of using remediation as an analytic tool for comparing games and film, which shows that it certainly has its usefulness in abstracting common elements but at the same time also shows that the two media are also quite different and could benefit from other approaches as well.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 4
2. Gaming, Film and Frameworks ... 7
2.1.Gaming ... 7
2.2. Film ... 8
2.3. Games and Film ... 9
2.4. Frameworks ... 11
2.4.1.Remediation ... 11
2.4.2.Agency, Immersion and Transformation ... 12
2.4.3.Convergence Theory ... 14
3. Remediating Hollywood: Citizen Game ... 16
3.1.Gaming: Serious Business ... 16
3.2. The Wolf Among Us in Sheep’s Clothing ... 18
3.3. Heavy Rain: Ludic Noir ... 22
3.4. Uncharted 2: Setpiece Gaming ... 27
3.5. The Story, the Choice and the Setpiece ... 32
4. Remediating the Remediated: Ludic Elements in Film ... 36
4.1.Neill Blomkamp: District 9 and Elysium ... 36
4.2. Inception: Game Cinema ... 39
4.3. Gaming Tropes in Film ... 42
4.4. Remediating Games ... 45 5. Conclusion ... 48 6. Discussion ... 52 Literature ... 54 Video ... 57 Ludology ... 59
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"Game over, man! Game over!" Pvt. Hudson – Aliens (1983)
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1. INTRODUCTION
Elaborate voice-acting, a deep narrative, fully fledged out characters, motion-capture technology and annual awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). It would not surprise if one would insist that this list of characteristics belongs squarely to the film or television industry. This assumption however is only partly right, as there has been another industry that has taken over many of these features in the last decennium: the gaming industry. As early as the 2002/2003 season, the BAFTA split off games from their Interactive Entertainment Awards branch and gave the medium its own categories and annual awards. This shows that games are being taken seriously, and are more than likely here to stay. Another pointer that this industry has to be taken serious is its (yearly) revenue. In 2013 the game industry has made a revenue of 58 billion dollars, excluding
money gained from mobile games on pads and tablets (which would easily add some more billion). Even more telling are the numbers of highly successful game Grand Theft Auto V (2013), which garnered 1.86 billion dollars in one quarter of a fiscal year for distributor and parent company Take-Two (Goldfarb 2014). When comparing these numbers to the top grossing film, Iron Man 3 (2013), which made 1.215 billion dollars worldwide over the course of its running span of well over half a year, the difference is striking (Box Office Mojo, Iron Man 3 2013). I am aware that a game of this magnitude has a longer production stint compared to a movie like this; however, the budget of both the film and game is roughly equal. Another side note is that movies get added value by the release of their blu-ray and digital sales, but a game from the Grand Theft Auto franchise tends to do rather well after its initial release as well (through its multiplayer component, combo-packs with consoles and price cuts). Even sequels are accounted for in the form of downloadable content packs, which the player can buy for a reduced price compared to the entire game, which add levels,
missions or extras to the game in varying ways. By laying the most popular game and film of 2013 side by side it becomes clear that both industries are power houses in their own right within the overarching entertainment industry. Even though they both work differently on their projects, the game- and film industry know how to play their audiences and make high profits from their (mainly) AAA-titles. By being such highly popular pieces of modern day culture, gaming (just as film once) is standing on the brink of being incorporated into more and more theory as concepts of ‘gamification’ and influence on everyday life start to come onto the foreground in multiple theoretical fields.
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reward branches, there is more overlap to be found, which I hinted toward at the start of this chapter. There has been an increasing convergence going on between film and game
presentation, storytelling and production. There is even a trade between personnel going on as Hollywood directors, writers and producers now take up game development while
professionals from the game industry get hired to work on movies. Notable examples are Steven Spielberg’s involvement with Microsoft’s Xbox and franchises, Guillermo Del Toro’s ambitions to make a horror game and The Last of Us (2013) writer/director Neil Druckmann being hired to develop the screenplay for the adaptation of the game into a bid budget production. The latest example of this is the hiring of writer Will Staples of the Call of Duty franchise to write the script for the new installment of the Mission Impossible film, of which Germain Lussier of popular film blog /Film says: “His biggest success is the video game equivalent of Avatar or The Avengers: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3” (2014). This comparison already shows how the two industries are getting harder to separate these days. The title of this thesis refers to classic film Citizen Kane (1941), which is regarded by many as film’s most important accomplishment in taking the medium to the next level of
filmmaking with its camerawork, cinematography and storytelling. While it has been pushed off of the top spot last year, it remained the number one film for over fifty years in the highly influential Sight & Sound Magazine’s ‘top poll’ held every ten years (2013). Gaming however does not have a clear-cut number one game or even a list that is influential enough to call definitive. Citizen Game refers to the gaming industry’s attempts to create its own
masterpiece that takes the proverbial ‘game’ higher on multiple levels at once. The points this thesis deals with are centered on the idea that the gaming industry and the film industry convergence their techniques and remediate each other to certain degrees.
The main question of the thesis is: how does the gaming industry remediate Hollywood’s approaches and techniques and to what extent is there a reversal of this
remediation taking place? The concept of remediation I will use is the one that was coined by J. David Bolter and Richard A. Grusin. They describe remediation as “the representation of one medium in another” and as a “defining characteristic of the new digital media” (45). In the next chapter I will elaborate more on the concepts to be used in the thesis. To answer the main question of the thesis a number of branching paths will have to be taken, which in turn will have implications on the discussion of the entertainment industry as a whole and current debates on gaming. One debate that is inherent to the ‘Hollywoodization’ of games is that of narratology versus ludology, or more simply put: story vs. play. This clash culminates in the concept of ludonarrative dissonance, a point(s) in a game when story and gameplay actions
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diverge so radically it becomes jarring, an area of dispute in recent years. Ludonarrative dissonance can be interesting to analyze as to how the game industry handles the problems between story and character personality. This difference is often the main argument for the concept; how can a genuinely likeable character be taken seriously when he or she slaughters thousands of people during gameplay and is a funny joker in the static scenes. While these two extremes do not mix and there is an argument to be found in this problem I would like to take the opportunity to return to this topic later and shift the view slightly elsewhere for now. One of the initial assumptions relating to this debate I would propose is that the amount of ‘Hollywoodization’ present in a particular game has implications for the agency a player has when playing: the more it mimics Hollywood, the less choice the player will have through reduced agency. The scenes where the player has no or little control over the character here are the ones that create the distinction between gameplay and storytelling. From this point of view I will delve deeper into the differences that diminish or enlarge player agency, and look at the way this is done through game production. Here related concepts from Janet Murray and Henry Jenkins will be touched upon to elaborate, which will be introduced in chapter two as well.
In the second chapter I will introduce the concepts to be used in analyzing the objects, case studies and examples of the thesis. Beside these concepts I will provide a short
introduction into games and (the end of) post-classical Hollywood which could be seen as an allegory for the turning point the game industry is at right now, which will be integral parts of the thesis. In chapter three I will look at the ways the game industry remediates Hollywood, what techniques they copy or adept and what implications this has on the games being produced. In this chapter a number of case studies will be presented as arguments for the claims being made. Beside the differences in their products I will take a look at how both industries function, and what techniques they apply to maximize their business. In the fourth chapter the reverse will happen as I will look at how Hollywood has taken up conventions in the game industry to alter certain films, styles and methods. Just as in chapter three, a number of case studies, in the form of films, will be presented to strengthen certain claims. Chapter five is the conclusion of the thesis, in which I will bring together the various arguments and findings made throughout the chapters that have come before, to answer the question(s) this essay has worked towards resolving. Finally, in chapter six I will present some points of discussion and take a look at the future of the intertwining of gaming and film. By looking at this future I will create some points of interest that could be useful or taken up for later analysis.
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2. GAMING, FILM AND FRAMEWORKS
In this chapter I will introduce both industries as they will appear in this thesis, to create a base out of which I can make certain claims. After discussing these two media giants I will proceed to elucidate some of the key concepts to be used further down the line such as remediation, agency and transformation.
2.1. Gaming
As seen before, the game industry, just as the film industry, has become a business that is being fueled by large quantities of money and manages to create even larger amounts back through its revenue (most of the time). But this industry had to start its popularity somewhere, which happened in the 70’s and eventually exploded in the 80’s, with the arrival of
Nintendo’s first console the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). In the seventies games such as PONG (1972) and Space Invaders (1978) popularized gaming as played on arcade machines in shopping malls while Atari successfully pioneered home consoles, paving the way for the revolution that Nintendo caused in 1985. Since that successful entry multiple players have tried to break into the console market, of which Sega was Nintendo’s biggest rival during that period but eventually crumbled due to the financial failure of one of their consoles: the Dreamcast. Now the market consists of three big players each providing their own console to compete with the others: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Circling these ‘big three’ is the PC as a fourth ‘gaming console’, which oftentimes is able to play the same games as the other separate consoles, however many big games tend to get released later for the PC due to pirating concerns. There are a number of smaller devices that act as miniature gaming consoles such as pads and mobile phones and the Ouya, a mini-console based on Android software. Finally there is another ‘console’ in development that utilizes a different approach: the Steam Machine. The Steam Machine is developed by the Valve Corporation, which also runs popular online distribution platform and e-shop Steam. This device does not have predefined specification but is developed by multiple hardware producers who each create their own version of the machine with a combination of different strengths, weaknesses and price tags. The Steam Machine will have its own operation system and interact with the already existing Steam network and online store to play and stream games. This approach is vastly different from the one taken by the ‘big three’ as users will have a large variety of
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choices when they buy their console, able to select the features they need and keep in mind the varying prices accompanying these choices and even being able to alter hardware down the line.
With the entry of a new popular medium, new problems and challenges started to arise. One of the first major media fueled problems gaming faced was the accusation that playing videogames incited violence. This particular aspect received a lot of publicity when family of the victims of the Columbine shootings in Colorado in 1999 sued various game developers for damages for example (2001). Due to these constant accusations, violence in videogames has been an area that saw a lot of activity in academia over the years. With the rise of online gaming after the new millennium studies on in-game economics have seen more and more attention over the years as well. In-game auction houses in sustained open worlds such as World of Warcraft (2004) have been the topic of various papers regarding digital markets and player behavior in online trading practices. These areas are more about the perceived effects of the game on the outside world, for this thesis however I will focus more on the world as seen in the videogames. In this regard various papers have been written on a variety of topics ranging from religion as portrayed in certain games to the coding practices and the consequences of programming on environments. The area the thesis will look towards however is the interplay the gaming industry has with the film industry, Hollywood in
particular. Both industries followed a similar trajectory with the introduction, rise to
popularity and evolution of its techniques and presentation. Many characteristics of film tend to return in games in some form or the other, be that story, camera angles or character
portrayal.
2.2. Film
The film industry is the counterpart to the game in this thesis. However it could be said that these media both rival and complement each other nowadays. They are rivals in the sense that they compete for the money of their consumers, but at the same time they borrow techniques and franchises off of each to make into films and games. This has of course only been a feature for as long as games have existed, film as a medium has been around for almost a century longer.
Due to the limitations of technology and other constraining factors such as war, the evolution of film has taken place in a much slower pace compared to games. This is not
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necessarily a disadvantage as this also means it had more time to slowly build up sets of conventions, key figures, production methods and concepts such as star power. Compared to games, film can fall back onto a century’s worth of material, writing and experience. Whereas film had and has, for example, highly influential magazines such as Cahiers du Cinéma in the past, gaming is (still) devoid of such things. Award ceremonies like the Academy Awards in the form of the Oscars have similarly been around for years, while games have no clear-cut universal award organization. What both media do have in common however is their trajectory when it comes to doing their business. When comparing the current state of the game industry to that of the film industry it could be argued that gaming is currently floating at the end of Hollywood’s post-classical period.
Post-classical Hollywood or ‘New Hollywood’ is the period in film’s history roughly between the late 1960’s and the early 1980’s. It was also the period that pulled the film industry out of its economical recession with a host of successful new and old directors alike. Many of these directors are still active and contributed to popularizing the medium to what it is today such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. This movement was known for the self-conscious reflections upon film’s history in the form of the utilization of techniques and paying respect to its predecessors (Thompson and Bordwell 478). Another aspect of the period was the relative freedom these directors gained due to way studios approached filmmaking. Many of these directors were responsible for successful products thus gaining certain liberties, which allowed them complete access to every aspect of the film, promoting artistic freedom. These successes however proved to be the downfall of the same system that helped build them up. Directors demanded to be free of financial constraints to create the film they envisioned, while the studios wanted certified hits. Studios, now eye-opened by the successes of Star Wars (1977) and Jaws (1975) eventually decided to adapt a new strategy and focus on two or three major films a year while filling up the remainder of the year with smaller and cheaper films, constrained by a tight budget due to allocation of funds towards the bigger productions (Thompson and Bordwell 487).
2.3. Games and Film
The approach taken by the film industry can be seen as a parallel to the way games are released these days as well. Most game developing studios tend to focus on very few titles, resulting in the allocation of labor and financing towards one or two major projects. This
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tactic becomes clear when looking at the production of a game in the Call of Duty franchise for instance. Multiple studios work on this same franchise so that publisher Activision is able to release a game of the series during the holiday season every year. These studios alternate annual release dates (there are even three studios working on three games now) so they can make the deadline of delivering a blockbuster every other year. The most direct comparison in the film industry to the Call of Duty franchise would quite possibly be the movies in the Marvel Universe, which have risen to top of the box office lists these past few years. Just as with the Call of Duty games there are multiple teams working on different films within the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’. These interconnected universes contain blockbuster characters such as Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America and combined The Avengers – all
responsible for a significant amount of revenue in recent years. By spreading these movies out so that there are never two of them in the same year, but making sure they are connected in some (plot related) ways, Disney (who owns the rights to the Marvel universe films)
effectively keeps interest going but makes sure that consumers do not have to spend too much of their money in quick succession. Franchises like Call of Duty, but also football franchise FIFA for example, does the same by making the next entry in the series hit the shelves during the holiday season, a time of spending and gifting.
A second view on the releasing and production of these titles is the way they make their predecessors obsolete. The interconnected universe of Marvel effectively negates the plots in the previous movies by taking the next iterations of these plots in different directions. In his first movie, for example, Captain America deals with actually becoming and being a superhero but in the second film this is of little consequence as there are bigger evils to deal with, making the plot of the first film pretty irrelevant in ways. The same is happening within the games industry, but on a more technical level, namely that of gameplay and graphics. When we take Call of Duty as an example again, each holiday season the next entry into the franchise effectively kills off the previous one. By making the next game slightly better, faster and more pleasing to look at it becomes a mandatory upgrade for players that are invested in the franchise. Developers frequently say they keep supporting their older titles but most gamers tend to buy the next game and keep up with the action so to speak, provided they are actively engaged with the game (as is the game with a multiplayer focused titles like Call of Duty.
By making these basic comparisons in the way the two industries operate, it is clear that they both approach their markets with a certain philosophy. This philosophy can best be described as a low-risk/high-reward model as the games and franchises that are being built
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upon seem to be a guarantee for sales. In the next chapters I will delve deeper into what these two markets share, how they remediate each other and why their business models have so much in common, for now I want to close this chapter off with a description of the theoretical framework that I will fall back upon in later discussions of case studies and examples.
2.4. Frameworks
This paragraph will be devoted to a number of theories and theoretical concepts that make up the framework that will be used further down the line in this thesis. Five concepts make up the bulk of this framework which I will each elucidate upon individually, namely: remediation, agency, immersion and transformation and finally convergence theory.
2.4.1. Remediation
Remediation is the first concept I will discuss and as touched upon earlier is “the
representation of one medium in another” and is a “defining characteristic of the new digital media” (Bolter and Grusin 45). Even though the above statements are the essential elements of the concept of remediation there are certain details that help enlighten and deepen the perceived effect of remediating a medium or multiple media at once.
One of the more, if not most, important distinctions Bolter and Grusin make an argument for is the difference between immediacy and hypermediacy. These concepts relate to the way the user of the medium experiences its usage. The effect of immediacy when using a medium is perceived by making it ‘disappear’, transparent, by removing all traces of
mediation (Bolter and Grusin 5). Often the disappearance of the medium is done by employing certain tricks or techniques that divert the attention away from the mediums specificities and onto the actual content shown. The utopian example of immediacy is virtual reality wherein “the viewer should forget that she is in fact wearing a computer interface and accept the graphic image that it offers as her own visual world” (Bolter and Grusin 22). The counterpart, in many ways, to immediacy is hypermediacy. If immediacy is about making the user forget the medium it is using, then hypermediacy is the ways in which a medium calls attention to itself. An obvious example of hypermediacy is the way news websites but also certain newspapers portray their content, juxtaposing their articles, videos and images in a
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collage that calls attention to the way the medium is arranged.
Computation, and especially the way interfaces were being designed and presented, shuffled the balance between immediacy and hypermediacy, when they became popularized. Because of its relative ‘newness’ an arcade game like PONG must have been something special to behold, as it mimicked a game of tennis (or table tennis) on a computer screen. But because of the medium being used, the joystick, the particular shape and usage of an arcade machine, playing a game of PONG also meant being constantly reminded of the medium’s constraints and technicalities, its elements of hypermediacy. Bolter and Grusin notice that the combining of immediacy and hypermediacy is not specifically tied to new media, as sixteenth and seventeenth century cabinets already play with these two forms. They go on to notice that these cabinets often utilized doors that already represented, through elaborate painting, the contents of the actual drawers meaning “the doors themselves opened on to a fictional place, while the painted doors themselves opened on to a physical one” (35). Now, comparing the cabinet door with, for instance, the icon for the trashcan on a computer, shows that they essentially serve the same purpose; they both open up a space by using an allegory standing for that space.
Another aspect Bolter and Grusin discuss is the remediation of social arrangements, and while this is not remediation on a material level, it acts the same way. They use the example of film actors and directors who wanted to be respected in the same way as stage actors would, that they too would be praised for ‘moving’ their audience. In turn actors and directors of television dramas want their production to be seen as film; with the same status it enjoyed (69). Most of these elements of remediation can and will be applied to the gaming industry in the next chapter of this essay, but first I want to discuss some other concepts important to the discussions, starting with agency, immersion and transformation.
2.4.2. Agency, Immersion and Transformation
Agency is a vital concept for many forms of media usage. Agency, or rather the amount of agency available to a person (or sometimes objects), determines the influence he or she has to change a given situation. Agency has been theorized in many different shapes and forms in various disciplines over the years; however I would like to focus on agency as coined by Janet Murray in her work Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (1997). This book, and the agency discussed in it, fit particularly well with the subject of videogames
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as it asks the question if computers can provide the basis for an expressive narrative form. Murray describes agency as “the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices” (126). By now these choices extend further than just changing in-game elements but also have a profound impact on the gaming communities. With the addition of a simple button on the PlayStation 4’s controller, the player can instantly share his or her gameplay through live streaming, changing the way games are played and watched. Another major change, that has become a part of the players ‘arsenal’ is the ability to create content for the game (and others), thus taking’ meaningful action’ not directly related to his or her own game experience, but changing the way others can play their game with this new content. Agency is one of three characteristic of “electronic delight” Murray envisions, “immersion” and “transformation” being the other two (181). Murray describes immersion as “the experience of being transported to an elaborately simulated place” (98). Finally, transformation is the ability of the computer to constantly process and change
information, such as models, numbers and images, and is thus always suggesting progression (154). Transformation can serve in a number of functions for the player. First there is the ability for the player to hide, to “masquerade”, to play something or someone else, as is popular in online role-playing games (154). Secondly there is the ability that digital media holds to present “simultaneous actions in multiple ways”, which will return in one of the case studies (156). Finally, the final advantage of transformation Murray sees in digital storytelling is the way in which players are “invited to enact or construct their own stories out of a set of formulaic elements” (162). Furthermore, in the process of this transformation the player is also transformed due to these personal choices he or she has to make (170). For modern day video games agency, immersion and transformation are entangled in such a way that they become vital to the discussion, as will be shown in the case studies.
Agency in particular is very much defined by the degrees of immersion and
transformation going on in a game. A pre-defined beautifully rendered world, for example, means a high degree of immersion but leaves little room for players to create their own vision of this fantasy world, leaving them with little agency in the process. Something that extends player agency in recent years, well after the writings in this book, is the ways developers allow players to create their own maps, models and rules or in other genres of games, allow for complete free-roaming capabilities. The three concepts mentioned by Murray will return in later chapters when case studies will be analyzed to determine varying degrees of agency and Hollywoodization in videogames and vice versa. When one considers games as a medium evolved by storytelling influence and immersing the player into various worlds, the usefulness
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of these concepts becomes clear. How far can storytelling and immersing the player go until they completely take over any and all agency in service of a pre-conceived and linear
adventure? For now I want to shift the gaze to the final concept to be discussed in this chapter however, which is convergence theory.
2.4.3. Convergence Theory
Convergence culture is a concept coined by Henry Jenkins by which he means:
The flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want. (3)
Media convergence could be seen as a key feature of new digital media as they, above all others, possess the means to easily combine multiple different media into a single entity, and as Jenkins would have it, facilitate the migratory audiences. Obviously, the gaming and film industries spring to mind here as they influence each other, use each other’s ideas and take advantage of the migrating audiences that flow between them. Participatory culture is another concept that Jenkins coins that is closely related to convergence theory. The participatory culture is the way consumers nowadays interact with, and produce content in some shape of form for, or possibly against, existing products or events (4). This concept ties in well with gaming and the game industry as users often get more involved with production of assets for the game and, with the PlayStation 4, are even encouraged to do so with the press of a single button on the controller. Beside the content being created with these consoles, the gaming culture also has a large number of debates on ‘who is best?’ These debates often end in elaborately edited videos or images to satirically make their points. Furthermore these consoles have become so much more than simple plug-and-play machines solely meant for videogames. New consoles are now marketed as home entertainment systems which house a multitude of features ranging from interactions with sports channels, Netflix and other video on demand services but also serve as recording and communication devices with the help of cameras and motion tracking. Just as the mobile phone evolved from a device utilized for communicating to a fashion statement and handheld ‘Swiss army knife’ as Jenkins puts it, the game console has become more than it was originally intended to be and has gained numerous functions over the different generation cycles (5).
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In this chapter I laid the foundations for the remainder of the essay. Spread out in a number of paragraphs I introduced both industries and explored some of the major theoretical and
conceptual frameworks which are important and will return in the upcoming chapters. In the next chapter I will look at the way the game industry remediates film by laying bare the techniques these industries use in their production process. I will present arguments and case studies that show how certain elements overlap while others could be considered unique to each medium.
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3. REMEDIATING HOLLYWOOD: CITIZEN GAME
While the previous chapters were used to introduce the topics and break down the theory necessary for this thesis, the following two chapters will delve into the subject matter with the use of case studies and other examples.
3.1. Gaming: Serious Business
In many ways the gaming and film industry can be compared, not in the least when it comes to their approach when doing business. As stated before in the introduction to the thesis, the funding and revenue that goes through these businesses runs in the billions. Considering the amount of media being pirated on the internet, these numbers could turn out to be even higher However, it is hard to pin down specifics when it comes to the illegal downloading of games and ’chipping’ (making illegal copies playable) of consoles, because not every downloaded copy is a definitive lost sale opportunity. Despite these obvious problems when it comes to digital media and distribution, the gaming industry has seen a steady income over the last couple of years. With the arrival of a whole new generation of consoles there is a high likelihood that this will only increase, both because new iterations of beloved franchises will make the jump to these ‘next-gen’ machines, as well as the lack of options for pirating the new hardware as of yet.
While pirating of media is an issue both these industries have to deal with, there are other areas of overlap on the level of production that are more interesting when looking at remediation. An important aspect on which both these production industries seem to thrive is the domination of major studios and publishers that hold large portions of the market. In the case of the film industry, the top seven studios shared almost 90% of the whole market worldwide (Box Office Mojo, Studios, 2013). When looking at the game industry, Sony and Microsoft even beat the top movie major’s revenues by a substantial amount, but one has to take into consideration that these two companies are active on a number of other markets besides gaming. When looking at a pure (largely) gaming company like Nintendo, it made a revenue of 8.14 billion dollars compared to Warner Brothers’ 29 billion. Companies like Warner Brothers and Disney however, have stakes in different markets (theme parks, music and games) too and as such are not only film production companies. There are however a larger number of game developers that could present figures that beat all the movie studios
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not part of the ‘big seven’ as it were (Sinclair 2012). Both markets seem to have a relative low number of heavy hitters, making entering the market a very costly affair. Unless a studio manages to make an out-of-the blue extremely well selling game, it is unlikely that many new competitors can enter the market. Film has seen the same major studios for decades, which have been at the top of the food chain the entire time. Because the entry costs for these
markets are so high, studios turn it to their advantage with specific strategies to stay on top. As mentioned previously, game developers and publishers approach the market the same way as film did, and still does, by only making a few highly spectacular games on a yearly basis. Much like Disney does with their Marvel Cinematic Universe now, games have learned from the film industry that sequels (and spin-offs) work. Looking at the top ten bestselling games worldwide in 2013, there is only one game which is a uniquely new intellectual property (IP): The Last of Us (Fiscal Times, Top 10, 2013). Even a larger list of the top hundred bestselling games reveals there are only a meager six (or seven, depending on how broad one takes the definition) new IP’s. Ironically, the top ten worldwide grossing films also has two originals as well, showing just how strong the position of the sequel actually is (Box Office Mojo, Top 10 Worldwide Gross, 2013). The choice to produce games for a familiar franchise is obviously done for various reasons. Firstly, they are cheaper because often the software used (engine) to create the game is already bought, licensed and mastered. This means that models for most objects such as buildings and non-playable characters (NPCs) already exist in some capacity and need only be outfitted with a different ‘skin’. Secondly, as touched upon before, these franchises often enjoy large groups of fans who, under community pressure, are ‘forced’ to buy a new iteration of a game if they want to keep up with the mainstream crowd. Finally, gameplay in sequels is usually a straightforward extension of previous games with a little twist. This means the team that develops the game uses less time and money which can be spend somewhere else, such as advertising. All of these reasons can in some capacity be called remediation of film’s techniques. Film sequels do not need to establish their characters as much, already have a significant following (otherwise they would not produce a sequel), and style, genre and plot are often in line with the earlier films.
There are some notable difference I feel that I need to mention though when it comes to games and film. Because games are a new medium, they adapt faster to the internet. The consequence of this adaptation is that games are quickly transitioning towards digital
distribution. Digital sales already equal physical sales as of 2013 but prominent game industry professionals are positive they will surpass them in two years (Brightman 2014). I believe this
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is indeed one of the major differences when it comes to film, as the addition of downloadable content (DLC) for games, has been on the rise for a few years now and does not seem to stop anytime soon. DLC usually consists of either extra maps, levels and costumes for games or entirely new missions and story content for a higher price. Most high-profile games that are released now tend to incorporate this DLC into their business strategy, as it is a good way to ensure extra income, for instance when the developer releases new maps for a Call of Duty game, which players are then ‘forced’ to buy if they want to keep up. While films also make the transition to disc and digital formats, their primary source of income is through ticket sales. Even though platforms like Netflix are changing the way movies are watched and ‘rented’, their main form of income is not as flexible as games can be/are.
The next paragraphs in this chapter will be dedicated to a number of case studies which will show how certain games remediate specific techniques used in film and how this influences the experience of the game. I will discuss these case studies in a specific order based on the amount of agency I feel they offer to the player. The first case study offers hardly any agency in narrative and gameplay, the second case study offers many options for narrative but not for gameplay while the third case study reverses the agency of narrative and gameplay.
3.2. The Wolf Among Us in Sheep’s Clothing
The Wolf Among Us (2013) is the latest effort of studio Telltale Games. Telltale is known for creating narrative driven games with an episodic structure, releasing an episode (out of five in total, in this case) roughly every other month. Furthermore they are also known for adapting existing franchises into games such as their acclaimed game The Walking Dead (2012) which is based on a comic, games on various seasons of television show CSI (2000-2013), a game surrounding blockbuster Jurassic Park (1993) and a forthcoming game on hit series Game of Thrones (2011-2014). The Wolf Among Us is no different in that respect as it is also based on a comic book series. The game revolves around classical folklore and fairytale characters such as Snow White who all live in New York because they have been chased out of their
homeland. With the help of spells they take on the form of humans and try to live a normal as possible life in their own district: Fabletown in Manhattan. Protagonist of the game (and comic) is Bigby Wolf, known from the iconic wolf described in the Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs tales (who also make an appearance). Wolf has been appointed as the
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sheriff of Fabletown because of his strength and ferocity, but is mistrusted and feared by most because of these qualities as well as his former atrocities. The plot of the game starts with a serial killer who starts murdering young women, but quickly spirals into a web of betrayal, power and shadowy figures.
The game presents a number of remediating qualities. First there is the use of fairytale characters adapted into the game space. I would consider this remediation as the game takes popular characters from fairytale books and gives them a darker twist and human appearance, making them unique digitized objects. Secondly there are the themes, the plot and characters themselves that are being portrayed in the game. Judging from the way the characters are written, the locations designed and the plot being laid bare, it becomes clear this has the trademarks of the film noir genre. The characteristics of film noir are identified insofar that:
their protagonists are almost invariably men, usually detectives or criminals characterized by pessimism, self-doubt, or a cold, detached view of the world. Women are usually sexually alluring but treacherous, leading the protagonist into danger or using them for selfish ends. A common setting for film noir would be a big city, especially at night; shiny, rain-slicked pavements, dark alleyways, and sleazy bars are common millieux. (Thompson and Bordwell 215)
Looking at these characteristics, The Wolf Among Us can tick off most, if not all, these boxes. Wolf is pessimistic in the sense that he still feels mistrusted due to his ‘previous’ life and sulks through the narrative smoking cigarette after cigarette, leaving a trail of violence while focusing on his job. The locations match the description above as most scenes frequently play out at night, in dirty motels rented out to prostitutes, strip clubs or the ‘sleazy’ bars
mentioned. The femme fatal is also present in the game in the form of Snow White and Bloody Mary. Snow White is Wolf’s partner during the case, ends up being a victim of the serial killer but turns out to be alive after all, making her an enigma in the game’s plot, while at the same time being the love interest of the protagonist. Bloody Mary on the other hand is a straight-up villain, working for a mysterious crime lord by the name of the Crooked Man, and comes across as dangerous and ruthless. It is important to distinguish between adaptation and remediation; insofar that adaptation is merely copying content while remediation is about taking that content’s specific techniques into a new medium. I feel that even though these film noir elements are merely content, they are presented in such a fashion that it transgresses the boundary of mere adaptation as the portrayal of these elements is done through film
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The techniques used to give life to the game’s visual style are also in line with how film noir is depicted as the genre was known for its “filmic influence from German Expressionism” (Thompson and Bordwell 215). German Expressionism heavily emphasized mise-en-scene (composition of a scene’s visual objects) as the “the film image must become graphic art” and the “mise-en-scene elements align into eye-catching compositions” (Thompson and Bordwell 92-93). Figures one and two below show just how the game achieves this particular style. The first figure is from the game’s opening credits and immediately shows this approach, giving the mise-en-scene of Manhattan’s Fabletown a life of its own, with its very particular colors and staging. The second figure depicts a scene further in the game and combines numerous genre defining elements: thugs, the femme fatale, a rainy alley and emphasis on the mise-en-scene through the use of color, which pulls the attention towards the area rather than just the characters alone. These images are mererely a representation of what the game attempts in terms of visuals, they do however examplify just how the remediation of fillmic elements such as the mise-en-scene, results in more than simple adaptation of film noir content.
Throughout the plot of the game, the developer is attemtping to bring film noir to life through remediating its filmic technqiues, while adding (albeit minor) ludic elements to the mix.
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Fig.2 – The Wolf Among Us: Rainy Alley. Telltale Games © 2013
Not only does the game adapt concepts from film noir, but also relies on tropes that frequently occur in television serials: the ‘previously on’ and ‘next time on’ segments that open and close episodes of these shows. The game applies a similar strategy and uses these introduction and fore sighting scenes in its episodes. The title card these shows often use that show the name of an episode before the first scene starts is also used in The Wolf Among Us, an example can be seen in figure three.
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As mentioned before, this game is the one that has the least agency to offer the player. Gameplay consists of choosing answers in conversations that determine how NPCs react to Wolf, as well as very simple action sequences where a specific button has to be pressed to progress the scene. Even though it seems choosing different answers changes the game, on subsequent ‘playthroughs’ it turns out the differences are very minor. The order in which Wolf visits areas is for the most part a predetermined path, give or take one or two choices in which the player decides if they want to visit location A or B first. And while NPCs react differently to Wolf depending on the tone of his questions (aggressive, friendly, indifferent) the endings of the scenes almost always result in a fulfilled objective, as the player cannot leave until the scene is ‘solved’. By emphasizing the presentation of its characters, locations and the plot, Telltale makes the choice to hold the hand of the player so they can favor narration and style over agency. This is not to say that it is a bad choice, but the heavy reliance on remediating film and television (and comics) in The Wolf Among Us results in a relatively low amount of agency for the player. Sit back and enjoy seems to be the motto of the game, the question is: is this still a game or is it a television show hiding among them, like the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
3.3. Heavy Rain: Ludic Noir
Just as the previous case study, Heavy Rain (2010) (PlayStation 3), just as the title suggests, is loosely based on the film noir genre. Just as Telltale Games, Studio Quantic Dream with front man David Cage is known for its specific narrative driven games. The game tells the story of the ‘Origami Killer’ who kidnaps children and leaves puzzles for the law enforcers and family to solve. The game is played from the perspective of four protagonists: the father of the plot’s kidnapped boy, a private detective, an FBI profiler and a photojournalist. The film noir elements discussed in the previous title are also visible here: the gruff detective, the dark themes and of course the rain, which plays a vital role in the game’s plot. Out of all the games discussed in this thesis, Heavy Rain follows the format of film most closely. The game knows no ‘Game Over’ screen and if one of the protagonists dies, they stay dead. If they all die, you will not solve the mystery and the kidnapped boy dies. David Cage, the creative mind behind the game has said he vastly preferred if people “would only play it once” (Berghammer 2009). He prefers this because the ending of the game changes depending on the choices the player makes; it changes the number of protagonists that manage to survive and find enough
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clues to lead them to the killer. In this sense Heavy Rain manages to be extremely filmic, one could put the controller down on most sequences and the story would continue. Cage
emphasizes the experience of the game akin to watching a film, it is over when it is over so to say; you cannot go back and change it to rewrite the ending.
Whereas The Wolf Among Us has a style that is more alike a hand drawn or animated movie, Heavy Rain takes the realistic approach. Facial expressions and gestures of the
characters are all animated with the help of motion capture suits. The ‘almost a movie’ line of reactions that many people who play and review this had, were (are) a common sight.
Immersion is the name of Heavy Rain’s proverbial ‘game’, and this becomes clear when the control scheme is examined. The control scheme of the game attempts to apply immediacy to the experience by remediating the movements of everyday life. When the character needs to open a door, the player moves the ‘stick’ of the controller the same way as the hands would when using a doorknob. Similarly the controller can also be shaken when the protagonist is being strangled to break loose, for example. While this control schemes mimics immediacy in the sense that the developer hopes the player will get ‘lost’ in the experience by enacting what comes logically, it also backfires. The drawback to this scheme is that there are always
various icons present on screen that break immersion and by extension the immediacy.
Instead, the game then turns into a hyper-mediated experience, as the possible actions one can take are positioned in the middle of the interface drawing attention to the medium itself, as
shown in figure 4.
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A remediating aspect that is also tied to the way the interface works however, is the usage of subjective shots. These shots come in two forms: amplifying the mental or physical state of a character and the way objects are shown for usage in the game. The amplification of a characters state of mind through the subjective shot in the game is done a few times throughout the story. A classical filmic example of this shot is used in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), when protagonist ‘Scottie’, who suffers from vertigo, looks down a large tower. The camera zooms in while the dolly it is attached to moves back/forward, giving the shot an unsettling feeling. This particular shot is called the vertigo-shot, named after the film. Heavy Rain uses a different type of shot, but also plays with the way the character perceives the world. An example of this is the way the FBI agent has to constantly stay on a fictive drug to keep his mental state above a certain threshold. At various moments in the game he breaks through this threshold and the player is asked if they want to take the drug again. What is however remediating about this is the way this is portrayed: the camera starts shaking and suddenly switches to a point-of-view shot of the character. We look through his eyes while the world shift in and out of focus, showing the player through these various subjective shots that he (the FBI agent) is not feeling well. (Fig.5)
Fig.5. Heavy Rain: Subjective Shot. Quantic Dream © 2010
The other subjective shot used in the game is the way objects that can be interacted with are presented, which will be highlighted for a brief moment. This type of highlighting could be said to remediate shots frequently used in film when a character looks at a specific object as
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they enter a room, cueing the viewer this could be of importance. Obviously, doing this in a game would ruin the gameplay as it is effectively cheating by knowing what to do next. By highlighting these objects during the actual gameplay however, this choice could be seen as a symbiosis between the filmic technique and gaming’s equivalent of the subjective shot.
Heavy Rain similarly to The Wolf Among Us borrows another stylistic devices seen on television. 24 (2001-2010) popularized the way multiple views could be presented on screen of a single moment, heightening tension as viewers could see multiple, usually conflicting, events happening at once. Heavy Rain remediates this stylistic device as well throughout the game at various points, to increase the sense of urgency as the player tries to deal with problems (Fig.6).
Fig.6 – Heavy Rain: Stylistic Camera Device. Quantic Dream © 2010
The concept of transformation also returns in Heavy Rain as it is a fitting example for digital storytelling as Murray envisions it. Transformation masquerades, allows multiple vantage points and lets the player make profound choices in the narrative; these characteristics are all true for Heavy Rain. The player is invited to take on the role of agent, detective, journalist and/or father, with each character having a different take on the serial killer. The way the game is designed allows for multiple vantage points on the same situation, experiencing the mystery from all angles. Finally, the game revolves around choice and making an impact. The tagline for the game is “how far would you go to save someone you love?” which already hints at the dilemmas that wait. Often the choices presented in the game, as it is intended by the designers, are final and laden with consequences. Furthermore, these choices are often stark moral problems involving murder, violence and tragedy. In this sense immersion and transformation come together to present a believable narrative in which the player undergoes
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a personal journey. The world is presented as realistically as possible by using real actors and believable situations, making the player care for the choices they make. Immersion makes the player believe in the world they inhabit, while transformation’s power of both masquerade and the creation of a personal story makes him or her care, empowering their choices, in
short: emphasizing agency.
Agency in Heavy Rain is an apparent step up then, as choice has a much more
profound impact on the experience of play. Opposite to The Wolf Among Us, where death (the few times it happens) simply means re-playing a ten second segment, in Heavy Rain it has meaning. The game does not allow the player to replay a certain event unless he or she restarts the entire game, making every choice count and enforcing the sense of agency. Sticking with the assumption that a higher amount of “Hollywoodization” results in less agency, the game is at odds with this. On the one hand it looks more like an actual movie, with multiple vantage points to experience the story, as if watching an ensemble film. On the other hand Heavy Rain strays further from The Wolf Among Us in allowing the player
freedom. Players are able to look around them, pick locations and make profound choices that alter the ending of the game in significant ways in the former, while the in the latter
everything is largely decided. In this sense, playing Heavy Rain only once, as intended by its creators, remediates film in another way. The endings one did not experience could be seen as deleted scenes from a movie, which could be looked up on YouTube for instance, or replay the entire game with different options enabled. Even though the game looks and feels more like an actual film, the underlying mechanics the game runs upon stray further from its remediated medium than it seems at first. In this regard The Wolf Among Us, even though not in its visual style, is much closer to an authentic film. The game uses static backgrounds on which characters move and the camera position can never be influenced by the player. The control scheme in Heavy Rain, although intuitive at first glance, also betrays the medium it is running on. For all intents and purposes, it still looks like a videogame because the user interface gives this away, while in The Wolf Among Us this is handled much more refined.
When Heavy Rain is discussed as a ‘game’ however, it can also be argued that it falls relatively short. According to Salen and Zimmerman “a game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome” (80). Even though the game could be said to contain these characteristics, it has troubles making them stick. There is very little conflict in the game as most scenes are strings of
conversations, where the player simply chooses what to answer. Even though there are some underlying rules when it comes to activating interface commands, the game is very tolerant
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towards neglecting them as the story simply continues whether one does it right or wrong – because apparently there is no right or wrong, but simply the flow of narrative. Technically, the outcome of the game is quantifiable, however largely unknown to the player as it is hidden behind the algorithms that get activated upon making choices. Heavy Rain delivers more agency in its narrative than The Wolf Among Us, but it is still more film than gameplay.
3.4. Uncharted 2: Setpiece Gaming
A train wagon teeters on the brink of a ravine, the protagonist wakes up on one of the chairs whilst objects crash down into the abyss below him. Suddenly the chair gives way and he tumbles down, grabbing a railing just before he would plummet to his death, switching to gameplay (Fig. 7). This is the opening setpiece to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) (Henceforth Uncharted 2). The games of developer Naughty Dog are full of these setpieces and in film theoretical terms could be called “cinema of attractions”. This concept coined by Tom Gunning is “a cinema that displays its visibility, willing to rupture a self-enclosed fictional world for a chance to solicit the attention of the spectator” (64). Gunning claims this cinema was only dominant until around 1907 but it still remained in the background while the focus on narrative took over (63). Action movies of the 80’s and 90’s could arguably be said to have revived this trend by forgoing narrative in favor of the attraction. The Uncharted franchise is seen as gaming’s equivalent to the Indiana Jones franchise, as they both revolve around exploring exotic locations in search for treasure whilst uncovering ancient myths and escaping danger. This comparison is even used by Sony as they filmed Harrison Ford, who portrays Indiana Jones, to play a few chapters of Uncharted 2. This is obviously done as a tongue-in-cheek promotion of the game, but also an example of the effects of convergence theory. The setpieces in these games could then be seen as gaming’s equivalent to the cinematic attraction, as it foregoes realism to provide the player with spectacle. Although setpieces are not uncommon in gaming, Uncharted 2 managed to take it to a new level. Josh Scherr, the game’s ‘cinematic animation lead’, calls their process creating an “active cinematic experience”, in which the cinematic experiences are not viewed in a cutscene (non-interactive scene) but played by the player (Naughty Dog).
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Fig.7 - Uncharted 2: Setpiece in Action. Naughty Dog © 2009
Compared to the two previous case studies, Uncharted 2 allows the player more freedom in its actions but as far as story goes, is most linear. Drake can shoot, climb, fight and interact with objects while traversing tombs, ruins and cities. Players are free to approach the combat in any way they feel comfortable with, be that slow and precise or explosive. The path that has to be taken however is ultimately set in stone, with a few areas to be discovered that branch of into secret areas with treasure. The game effectively strings together setpieces to remediate the cinematic quality of the biggest blockbusters. Just as in Heavy Rain motion capturing is used to bring characters to life, however with the Uncharted franchise they took it a step further. Amy Hennig, the creative director of the game claims that because they used actors as they do in film and television (filmed ‘on set’), contrary to the standard approach of game audio recording alone in a studio, it comes across as authentic (Naughty Dog). That Naughty Dog’s production method tries to remediate techniques of older media becomes clear when she claims that:
Capturing the cinematics for Uncharted is more like shooting an on-camera production than a video game. It’s like shooting a multi-camera TV show, because the actors perform entire scenes in a single take—we don’t have to break the scenes down into shots because the mocap cameras record the entire performance from all angles simultaneously. (Naughty Dog)
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Another standout remediating aspect of the game is the way the game plays with the camera and the details in character animation. A good example of this is when Drake solves a puzzle leading into an old ruin. Because the path inside is so narrow, he banters that he is glad he is not suffering from claustrophobia. At the same time the camera swivels in to closely follow Drake, recreating that claustrophobic effect he just mentioned (Fig.8.). As well as playing with the camera this way, Drake also puts his hands on the walls for balance and switches on his flashlight, small little details that heighten immersion, as one would see in film.
Fig.8 – Uncharted 2: Camera and Immersion. Naughty Dog © 2009
Naughty Dog thus tries to strike a balance of the attraction of the setpiece, the emotions of character development with real acting and the immersion gained through camera usage and details. Ironically enough, at the moments when the game achieves this synergy, it is also the least interactive. From a standpoint of the ludologist, the story hampers the actual game as Markku Eskelinen calls story and narrative “uninteresting ornaments or gift-wrappings to games”, detrimental to their discussion (2001). The Uncharted franchise is especially prone to criticism from ludologists as the gameplay and the game’s story and cutscenes often clash, this is called ludonarrative dissonance. The jolly and witty Drake is an everyman’s friend but proceeds to kill off anything that stands in his path, making for a jarring combination of friendly and ruthless. Similarly his companions throughout the game come across as weak in
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the cutscenes, proper damsels in distress as it were, but when they join you in gameplay they are seemingly invincible, some people have experienced this as a jarring combination too.
Remediating the ‘cinematic experience’ is also noticeable when looking at the interface. It is trying to be as less intrusive as possible with small pointers towards life and ammunition tucked away in the corners of the screen when in combat. After a few seconds of inaction even those parts of the interface fade away, leaving a screen completely filled with the diegetic game world. The result of this interface design is that the game looks and feels like an adventure film when Drake is out exploring. There are no clues presented in the game that show the player where to go next or what to do, as this is cleverly handled by the
conversations that Drake has with his partners. Even when the game is giving you a hint, it is done through remediating printed media, by means of the journal. Drake keeps a journal in which he writes down important findings, the player can access this booklet upon reaching a puzzle. The journal is designed in such a way that it does not break the game’s immersion at all, as it actually looks like a handwritten collection of notes and drawings (Fig. 9). Just as the interface tries its best not to break the filmic immersion the game strives for, the journal does the same. Whenever the journal is accessed, the player can see Drake reach for it in his back pocket as the camera proceeds to then zoom in on the journal, giving the act a sense of continuity as it changes to a point-of-view shot from Drake’s eyes. Drake can also be heard murmuring in the background on the meaning of these notes as yet another reminder that the player should still be immersed in the game’s fictional world.
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Just as The Wolf Among Us this game is divided into chapters, however they are a lot shorter and more frequent, ending up much more akin to the size of chapters in books as the game spans 26 chapters. Totally different from the former however, Uncharted 2 starts ‘in media res’ (in the midst of things), as Drake hangs on for his life on a crashed train. In media res in narrative technique is the practice “of beginning an epic of fictional form by plunging into a crucial situation that is part of a related chain of events” (Britannica Editors 2014). This narrative technique goes back to the poetics of ancient Greece, but it is also used in films that often belong to the thriller or film noir genre. The opening shot of Inception (2010) for
example starts with the protagonist washing up on the beach looking dead, it is a pivotal point in the film’s narrative which determines the fate of this character, but the viewer then gets pulled back to show how he got there. Uncharted 2 pulls the same trick as the opening setpiece ends with Drake being shot and passing out in the snow before returning to the start of the narrative. Because this technique is not a very conventional tool in game design as most games tend to tell their tale chronologically, especially games that remediate film, it stands out as a remediating aspect of Uncharted 2. In media res could also be seen as a form of suspense in the way Alfred Hitchcock uses it, as the player knows what is going to happen before the protagonist does, heightening tension that constantly builds up to that specific moment. In media res approaches have seen a slight rise in past years but Uncharted 2
pioneered it in the sense that it combined a high-profile game with this technique successfully. Out of these three case studies Uncharted 2 is the most visually pleasing with its
bombardment of setpieces that give of a true cinematic feeling. From a perspective of pure gameplay the game offers the most agency to the player, as they are free to approach combat as they wish. When looking at the story however, the game has the least amount of agency to offer out of the three presented, as there is literally nothing the player can do to interact with it. The plot of the game is told through use of a strong cast of voice-overs, cutscenes and narrative plot devices. The game manages to capture the magic of the cinema of attractions the best, but that means that the player has to go along for the rollercoaster ride that is set out for them.
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3.5. The Story, the Choice and the Spectacle
The three case studies presented above all share that they try to be as filmic as possible, in their execution however they all approach it differently. The three games all provide a different level of agency when it comes to both the narrative and gameplay. The Wolf Among Us presented the least amount of agency in both cases. Because there is so little agency however, the game comes across as a film the most. The player has no control over how the environment is seen, because the camera is a fixed object. Because the developer holds all the cards, it is able to make the game look the way they want it. It looks and feels like a fairytale version of a film noir with its particular choice of locations and set design, not to mention the stereotypical remediation of what film noir characters look like. Because there is little actual gameplay however, the game could be said to balance between adaptation and remediation. I would reckon the game puts in just enough gameplay to differentiate it from becoming just an adaptation, as the player is still asked to walk from location to location and talk to people.
Heavy Rain’s approach to Hollywoodization differs from The Wolf Among Us in that it
offers more agency when it comes to its narrative. Because there is more choice, the game does not feel as straight-forward, as the player has to constantly decide if they want to solve a problem or conversation in x or y way. The interface plays a part as well in breaking the immersion, especially when compared to the other two games; the interface of Heavy Rain is sometimes cluttered with icons which emphasize its hypermediacy. The fact that the
developer of the game prefers that it is played only once however, speaks volumes about its desire to be taken serious as an interactive film. Just as the former game, it is drenched in a film noir like presentation that gives it a moody and grim vibe. The game also extensively remediates the subjective shot in both the mental state of the characters and objects in the game world. Players are pulled into the character’s mental state by shaking and blurring the screen and changing the point-of-views around while objects on the other hand get
highlighted in a way that resembles typical subjective shots in most films. As far as its narrative goes, the game is a step up from The Wolf Among Us in terms of its agency as players have more freedom. Because of this freedom the game feels slightly less filmic as the combination of interface and sometimes forced switching between characters breaks
immersion down.
The final case study in this chapter was Uncharted 2. In opposition to Heavy Rain, this game allows for no agency when it comes to influencing the narrative but most agency in terms of actual gameplay. This title closely reflects what current Hollywood blockbuster films
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stand for as it strings together spectacle in between the straight-up shooting and
conversational sections. When the combat dies down, the smoothly presented interface that covers up the fact that it is a game helps to sell the immersion of Uncharted 2. The very meticulous directing of the camera in the puzzle and adventuring sections of the game, or when Drake views at something like his journal, create a filmic game that is hard to compare with other titles. The game also boasts the best voice-over audio as well as visuals when it comes to animating facial expressions during cutscenes. As a downside, Drake and his companions in these cutscenes and the Drake the player actually controls end up being vastly different personas, from a narrative perspective at least. If one assumes that a cornerstone of Hollywood is continuity, then the differences that Uncharted 2 presents between gameplay and story exposition come across as somewhat jarring. However, as a gaming equivalent to the blockbuster movie it succeeds in creating the cinematic experience the developers have strived towards.
By picking these three case studies, I have taken three games which approach remediation and presentation of Hollywood in games differently. I believe these games are representational for the way Hollywood has seeped into gaming’s ‘DNA’ over the past seven or so years as they all look like a film but represent a different segment of the gameplay experience. From Wolf to Uncharted 2 these three games change the dynamics of agency from narrative to gameplay and as such give a representation of the gaming landscape when it comes to the Hollywoodization of the gaming industry. However, I feel the need to mention that with these three case studies I have by no means exhausted the amount of titles that could be explored in researching the remediation of Hollywood in games. There is a vast majority of games that fall in-between these three titles when it comes to picking narrative, gameplay or a combination of them. Recently released title Dark Souls II (2014) for example forgoes
classical narrative and invites the player to look for the plot themselves. It is by no means required to ‘get’ the story of the game to enjoy it, as the emphasis lies in its gameplay, but for the complete experience of the game players have to search every nook and cranny of the open world presented. Even though Dark Souls II does not resemble any of the case studies in this regard, it does however remediate film in respects to camerawork and presentation. Grand Theft Auto V on the other hand employs a strategy that was used by Hollywood directors in the post-classical era. The game’s missions often pay tribute to film by
remediating very specific elements of certain genres, films and even actors in these films. The developers know they owe part of their success due to the audience they gained that know and love these movies and they reward them for this with these tributes.
