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Gaming is by far the most massive entertainment industry on the planet. It dwarfs films and music and generates several billion dollars in revenue annually. It has invaded almost every household, every demographic, and every corner of our digital world. And while it’s understandable that games for a cell phone aren’t yet in the position to become considered something even close to “art,” it is simultaneously ludicrous that high-end video games have refused to shoulder the responsibility of being both entertaining and artistic.

But why? Why, after all these years, do we have to suddenly begin demanding depth and artistic relevance in video games? Because like any good medium, games have already experienced the fledgling years that allow the world to become acquainted with it, and we now must use what we have learnt about video games to provide more meaning and earn the protected status shared by movies, music and even literature.

Games may not ever offer the same experience of a book, but neither will a movie or a song. They can only use the advantages inherent in the medium to produce their own relevant tales and messages. And that advantage is a powerful one: interactivity. If we can be in the game, we should also be in the art.

So let’s look at what’s holding the industry back and how to fix it:

1. CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE THROUGH INTERACTIVITY - “SCREW GUI’s!”

    

   
   The argument can be made that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s GUI ruined
   what could have been the best survival game ever

   Problem: Certain games have done wonders to create a sense of atmosphere, but they only do so using graphical effects, environments and certain things such as music or artistic style. Now, what’s wrong with this is that only an extremely few games have realized you can use interactivity to create an even more potent sense of atmosphere.

   Solution: Just start subtly implementing interactivity and gameplay for the sake of atmosphere. Some games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. try to, but fail because they complicate the matter. Others implement it too much and sideswipe entertainment or appeal, such as Call of Cthulu. Metal Gear Solid 3 forced you to eat and heal, but it was in a GUI-oriented menu screen that seemed more of a gimmick than an addition and hardly felt like you were struggling against the jungle. Keep it simple and intuitive. Axe menu screens and take advantage of mankind’s sense of logic.

   Example: In a Western game, instead of having a map that magically transports you to another town, you can implement long treks through the dangerous desert. Instinctively, you’ll need to buy water, food and defense. Instead of killing 200 enemies a level, kill 4 but make killing them harder both physically and emotionally - i.e, a mission has you invading one house in a field instead of an entire battlefront. You will only encounter 3 or 4 enemies but when you do, you’ll get into a firefight lasting several minutes. And when you shoot down an enemy, he might fall out of sight grabbing his knee and yelling for the rest of the level until you finish him or decide let him live (or maybe just letting him bleed to death).

2. KILL THE CUTSCENE
   

   
   Half-Life went a long way to furthering the cause of
   cutscene-less video games

   
   Problem: Similar to the problem above, cutscenes kill gameplay - so sever the limb to save the body. By killing cutscenes and forcing game developers to be creative with telling the story, you strengthen the cause of games astronomically. Cutscenes are lazy workarounds that use film to tell the story. Games have their own strengths in this department, so use them.
   
   Solution: Use in-game features to tell the story. Use in-game enemies, friends, abilities, etc. There is a psychology behind video games and the more you empower the user, the more adept he’ll become and responsive to the game you create. With a conditioned gamer, you can then set up situations that have him creating the story in his mind instead of being an observer (like in a cutscene).

   Example: When Half-Life came out, it was revolutionary. A large part of this is due to it’s lack of cutscenes. Instead of telling you, you find out that the military is there to kill by reading blood-smeared messages on walls and witnessing a murder of a scientist. Another example could be making something such as returning home to rest, heal and/or eat feature. You can then have the player returning home after a specific mission to see his house has been ransacked. No need for a cutscene to express this - just make sure the food and bandages are gone and you will force the player to the nearest doctor and thus continue the story. The story will become personal as the player is being affected in real time (by not being able to heal his character). This is much better than being assigned a health status and environment after an uninteractive cutscene.

3. EMPOWER THE USER AND GET IN THE GAME
   

    

   
   Fallout revolutionized games with it’s physical, strategic and even moral
   freedom afforded to gamers

   
   Problem: Continuing from the last problem, game developers have been insulting gamers for quite some time now with forcing plot, actions and linearity on gamers. By making unyielding level design that forces you along a path, you are literally guiding the player through a bunch of really elaborate tunnels. It is still a rare commodity to be able to kill a key character or ignore an unfavorable mission.

   Solution: The game world needs to be opened up to the player and it’s walls torn down. It is important that game developers begin empowering the user. They must give gamers more freedom, more control and more credit. This does not mean making Grand Theft Auto clones, but instead working these ideas into any type of game intuitively and without compromising purpose. The Warriors, while not perfect, did a great job of placing players into an environment with the ability to explore while maintaining a purpose or goal. This feature also means letting the user make choices and facing the consequences. If you want to kill this character, then do it - but you know the consequence will be an end to the story or a tough fight. Allow the gamer to “get in the game.” That means the gamer knows the rules of this game world and adheres to them. But it is his choice to screw up. Because isn’t that the best part about games - that you can reload and try again? Unlike life - games give you infinite chances.

   
   Brother in Arms included ludicrous barriers such as
   tall bushes that kept you in line

   Example: Instead of impassable doors, generate random interiors and characters for irrelevant environments, such as one behind some random door - but DON’T RESTRICT THE ENVIRONMENT! Make a game where a barrier is the knowledge that walking into the sunset will get you lost and force you to reload. Non free-form urban games might be more difficult since you don’t want to create a whole city, but then make fully-functioning city blocks that house the missions.

4. LOOK AT LIFE - CHARACTERS, STORIES, EMOTION AND ENVIRONMENTS
   

   
   This is about the most dense a street will become in
   GTA III - a few “unique” characters walking around

   Problem: Games rarely capture life accurately. Villains are always clear cut, stories are always grandiose or contrived, emotion is forced and environments are not convincing. This is one of the most important issues to address. Life is rarely straightforward and the best movies and books capture how complex people really are whereas games tell you that you’re fighting on the side of good or evil (or sum it up in an ending “twist” cutscene that you’re really not). Stories are weak strings that attach implausible level sequences together. And even with our advanced technology, streets in games like GTA are oddly empty, AI is laughably scripted and impersonal and the environments are inexcusably unresponsive to the action around you.

   Solution: Fill the sidewalks with people. Give them feeling - you whip out a gun and they experience fight or flight (GTA does this terribly). Continue the trend of adding graphical effects like shaky-cam and field of vision blur. Also, make the stories relatable and logical. This isn’t to say you can’t have fantasy games, but there is logic in any [good] fictional universe - that is how mythology is born (such as in Star Wars or Lord of the Rings). However, in The Darkness, your character is some angsty guy but he kills remorselessly, without consequence and has no (unscripted) weakness besides death. Screw that. Implement emotion into the story and make it real and believable. Don’t establish something and assume the player will believe it for the rest of the game. We easily lose interest in things like plot, characters and even a game if something is incongruous and dumb.

   
   The Darkness includes “gruesome” violence, but provides no emotional
   context to convince you there is any real meaning to the violence

   Example: In a game where you crash a spaceship on a foreign planet, implement team cooperation and emotional stability. Set up a scene that establishes there will be hostility between you and aliens such as an intense and incomprehensible shouting match that erupts into violence. And if you were to escape the planet, make it so that you can explore the spaceship or even attack and pirate other spaceships (randomly generate interiors to the other spaceships if you have to - but exploit the environment).

5. HIRE THE TALENT TO ACHIEVE ALL THIS
   

   
   Quake Wars: Enemy Territory is in large part being
   developed by real gamers that got their start by modding

   Problem: And lastly, the reason none of this has been adequately considered or implemented is because the video game industry has been delinquent in properly recruiting the right talent. Very few game makers have had experience with the other mediums and know what’s considered acceptable for a movie or book. This needs to change.

   Solution: Game creators must exert the proper amount of effort required to hire talent that can innovate and execute. Hire Hollywood (or independent) screenwriters, innovative thinkers, idea-men and creative teams. Also, a large part of this is setting the priority for a game. For instance, instead of making multiplayer, a large arsenal of weapons and gimmicky features (such as superpowers or vehicle support) you focus on a solid singleplayer (or solid multiplayer), a few indispensable weapons and interesting freedom that the player will appreciate instead of ignore.
   
   Example: Instead of the ability to pilot vehicles, give the player the freedom to kick down random doors and explore. Or the ability to ride the subway (and actually ride the subway instead of being magically transported), being exposed to whatever a subway carries. Allocate a part of a team to fill in the voids or cracks in a game with substance or gameplay, rather than fencing it off with gameplay barriers (see point #3). And take advantage of this new generation of gamers - gamers that have played and know. Gamers that care and want to advance the game industry, not just suits or techies.

AND THUS CONCLUDES my first rant about the videogame industry. One should know that the reason I write this is not to lament the industry but to help it grow. Gamers can take a stand by not tolerating shallow games. Stand up for yourself as an intelligent, experienced gamer and don’t take any crap. Make sure our voice is heard and that the walls of EA don’t drown out the cries of our generation for a new age in video gaming.