The Citizen Kane of Gaming

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Words_of_Ivory

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#1 Words_of_Ivory
Member since 2006 • 218 Posts

http://www.thegamingvault.com/2010/02/the-citizen-kane-of-video-games/

Interesting little essay I found on the integrity of gaming, and whether it should be taken more seriously as a form of expression, like movies, literature and music are.

Do we need a game like that? Or does one already exist?

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DJ_Lae

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#2 DJ_Lae
Member since 2002 • 42748 Posts
For me the easiest comparison is Tetris. It has no story, but I don't think it matters - videogames are about player interaction and gameplay, not story. In that sense I'm not totally with the article, as while a good story in games is a nice bonus, it shouldn't come first. It's why I'm leery of games like Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy taking a Fork in the Tale sort of direction. And like Kane, Tetris was ahead of its time and carries a timeless sort of feel, and had many of its elements borrowed from games released far later.
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muthsera666

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#3 muthsera666
Member since 2005 • 13271 Posts
For me the easiest comparison is Tetris. It has no story, but I don't think it matters - videogames are about player interaction and gameplay, not story. In that sense I'm not totally with the article, as while a good story in games is a nice bonus, it shouldn't come first. It's why I'm leery of games like Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy taking a Fork in the Tale sort of direction.DJ_Lae
I disagree completely. While interaction is key to making a game instead of a movie, story is a necessity. If a game has no story, I don't feel the need to play to the resolution of the game. The story doesn't necessarily have to operate on the calibur of prize winning authorship in every game, but without story, there's no feeling to the game, no heart. Games are like people. Beautiful people are nice to look at and play with on occasion, but the people with story, with depth of character, are the ones that you want to stay with, even if they aren't the most beautiful in appearance.
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DJ-Lafleur

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#4 DJ-Lafleur
Member since 2007 • 35604 Posts

[QUOTE="DJ_Lae"]For me the easiest comparison is Tetris. It has no story, but I don't think it matters - videogames are about player interaction and gameplay, not story. In that sense I'm not totally with the article, as while a good story in games is a nice bonus, it shouldn't come first. It's why I'm leery of games like Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy taking a Fork in the Tale sort of direction.muthsera666
I disagree completely. While interaction is key to making a game instead of a movie, story is a necessity. If a game has no story, I don't feel the need to play to the resolution of the game. The story doesn't necessarily have to operate on the calibur of prize winning authorship in every game, but without story, there's no feeling to the game, no heart. Games are like people. Beautiful people are nice to look at and play with on occasion, but the people with story, with depth of character, are the ones that you want to stay with, even if they aren't the most beautiful in appearance.

Stories are necessary depending on what kind of game we are talking about. If it's a Mario platformer, then there really does not need to be any story at all, because anyone who plays it really just wants to some platforming, while a game like Final fantasy on the other hand should definitely have a good story.

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DecadesOfGaming

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#5 DecadesOfGaming
Member since 2007 • 3100 Posts

The deeper the story, the more emotionally involved the player.. more great storys please.

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LoG-Sacrament

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#6 LoG-Sacrament
Member since 2006 • 20397 Posts
its a pretty good article, but i think he missed a big question: "what makes people consider citizen kane the best movie of all time?" sure, he told us some of the things it did well, but is being good the sole reason citizen kane is considered the best? it wasnt just ahead of its time. it was highly influential. many critics take that into consideration. then he goes into storytelling as a criteria (presumably stemming from the article's inherent link to film). stories are wonderful and can add a lot to a game. however, videogames do not have to tell a story. sports, racing, and puzzle games are genres where its pretty common to not have any sort of story. answering this qualification is key to establishing a basis for the citizen kane of gaming.
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muthsera666

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#7 muthsera666
Member since 2005 • 13271 Posts
[QUOTE="muthsera666"][QUOTE="DJ_Lae"]For me the easiest comparison is Tetris. It has no story, but I don't think it matters - videogames are about player interaction and gameplay, not story. In that sense I'm not totally with the article, as while a good story in games is a nice bonus, it shouldn't come first. It's why I'm leery of games like Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy taking a Fork in the Tale sort of direction.DJ-Lafleur
I disagree completely. While interaction is key to making a game instead of a movie, story is a necessity. If a game has no story, I don't feel the need to play to the resolution of the game. The story doesn't necessarily have to operate on the calibur of prize winning authorship in every game, but without story, there's no feeling to the game, no heart. Games are like people. Beautiful people are nice to look at and play with on occasion, but the people with story, with depth of character, are the ones that you want to stay with, even if they aren't the most beautiful in appearance.

Stories are necessary depending on what kind of game we are talking about. If it's a Mario platformer, then there really does not need to be any story at all, because anyone who plays it really just wants to some platforming, while a game like Final fantasy on the other hand should definitely have a good story.

Still, I disagree. I started replaying Psychonauts. I hadn't finished it before. I have several other platformers in my collection, both completed and untouched. You know why I started Psychonauts in particular out of all of the platformers? The story. It's a wacky, far-out and humorous story, but it serves to connect everything together. I've never like Mario games because there is no story. Beat up a monkey rolling barrels? Beat up a koopa (?) because he stole a human woman? No thanks, give me my stories that actually work.
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Canvas_Of_Flesh

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#8 Canvas_Of_Flesh
Member since 2007 • 4052 Posts
For me, a decent story is a necessity, unless the game is a sports title or something. I can enjoy a game without a story well enough, but the games with great stories are the ones that stick in my mind. For example, I enjoyed Borderlands while I was playing it, but once I finished it I couldn't really remember too much of it.
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jjtiebuckle

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#9 jjtiebuckle
Member since 2008 • 1856 Posts

From what I deciphered, Citizen Kane is considered the best because it was most inflential for it's time. There's too many influential video games to be awarded C.K.

He also goes on to list the CK recipient has to have awesome narrative, told in a way that explores the gray areas. Again, too many video games with this criteria.

Citizen Kane was also praised for it's technical aspects, as well as borrowing other forms of art and implementing them into the film. Once again, this is impossible to narrow down to one video game as every title he listed met this criteria - Mario, Doom, Super Metroid, Shadow of the Collosus, Half-Life and Bioshock. It's easy to narrow the CK award to each genre, but for every video game? Impossible.

While I read the article, I was thinking about Heavy Rain and what the game offers - awesome narrative through 4 different points of view, being able to control what you're character is thinking, and an aesthetic style that takes everyday emotions into raw form. CK qualifier? Sure thing, but unlike movies where there's no interaction, I think gameplay has to be a requirement and since I have yet to play the game, it's impossible to judge.