The House Next Door

Terrific stuff, Diego and Orlando. An original perspective on a medium (video games) that still isn't taken as seriously as it should be.

If you ever make a sequel, I'd love to see something about the influence of videogame design and style on feature films -- because there's been a lot of it. Watching the first few seconds play out in that little viewer window, for a second there I thought I was seeing footage from the end of "District 9."

Many good points made here, but right now I see the videogame industry stuck in pretty much the same rut that big-budget Hollywood filmmaking is. Almost every game these days is a sequel or so derivative and unoriginal it might as well be one, because publishers 9 times out of 10 will pick a safe bet over something new and interesting. And the genres and games that were doing something new and interesting five or six years ago have been sequelized into irrelevance. Silent Hill's a good example of this phenomenon. The first few installments of that are genuine nightmare material, more disturbing and atmospheric and emotionally complex than most horror movies, willing to forego "fun" for lengthy stretches in favor of pure, invasive dread. Silent Hill 2 in particular could, and maybe deserves to, have a whole video essay done about it. But with the last couple sequels, the franchise (which is something it probably shouldn't have become) has been handed off to people who don't seem to understand what made the first games good or memorable. And stuff like this has been happening across the board in the last few years, which is pretty much the chief reason why I've stopped regularly playing games. If it sounds like I'm down on the whole medium at this point, I'm not. I'm still rooting for it, and even the most seemingly generic franchise entry, like the first Modern Warfare game, is capable of strokes of brilliance, like how in that game at one point you're forced to take the perspective of a man dying from radiation poisoning as he crawls feebly through rubble in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. It's weird, shocking, a little moving, and something I don't think any other medium could pull off.

Very interesting question... especially considering the quality of many action films. While many of them exceed in the visual effects department, scripts and character development are seriously lacking. However, I don't exactly enjoy action or most of the 'big budget' films.
From its beginnings the film industry (as well as photography) had a hard time proving itself as an art form. While many film-makers have undoubtedly proven their worth as artists, many others seem to have contributed to undermine this achievement... I believe that many action directors are still doing this today. One cannot simply forget movies such as the aforementioned Solaris (still, we should remember that this movie is based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem), or another one of Tarkovsky's masterpieces, Stalker. That in itself contains so much of all the arts combined: poetry, music, visual arts... all of these individual genres have the possibility of coming together in a film. However, I don't really expect this from an action film, much less a tent-pole one. Still, audiences shouldn't accept the disgusting way in which some directors treat them. Unfortunately, I was dragged to a screening of Transformers (I cannot emphasize enough how much I want to erase this memory from my mind... but, alas, it is not possible) and I had the opportunity of experiencing first-hand how some directors 'talk down' to their audiences; and I was completely astonished by it.
From what little knowledge I have been able to gather regarding games, I would say that many developers have a deeper respect for what they do. There are titles out there that treat a very complex subject matter and also allow the possibility for reflection. Titles such as Silent Hill and Bioshock deal with very intense themes, to which one cannot simply remain impassive. Not everything is always explained and diluted, ready for the audience to consume without further questioning.
These are the cracks which allow us to slip in and pour our thoughts, seek out answers that we may never attain... but there inlays the beauty of it all... to be able to enjoy the path, not knowing where it may take us.

I've tried, in vain, to bring this link into conversation at a forum I moderate that's populated by some hardcore, yet intelligent(!) gamers. Unfortunately the longest thread there just wants to dismiss the whole thing completely out of hand, but I think it's just being nitpicked to death.

If ever there was a chance for two different fields to briefly mix-it-up I thought this well done video essay would get the ball rolling, but alas it's not happening at the moment. If you feel like wandering over there and wishing to give it a go, please feel free.

http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=954535

Good God, these guys beat me to it. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that video games have surpassed the movies as popcorn entertainment.

But just as the music and film industries have fallen to the accountants, the video game industry better watch its back.

Great essay, fellas. Still digesting, choked with reactions, questions. More later.