Filmgames

'Filmgame' Definition: A video game made by developers who would clearly rather be making a film than a video game, and so sacrifice gameplay for cutscenes, and talk about the game being 'Cinematic' as the best end result compliment for the game, rather than anything gameplay-related.

'Filmgames' is a term I've coined (because I'm insufferable) to mention video games that specifically are focused on Graphics, Story (meaning Cutscenes), Animation, Mo-Cap Acting, Voice Actors and Mo-Cap Performances taking priority rather than Gameplay or Writing.

Even though they might say they focused on story (making you think the game will have a good story), what they mean is they focused on their story, (actually meaning the writer/director's attempt to be an auteur film director, at the expense of the game's actual story quality).

They didn't focus on making a video game story, the best video game story they could make in the medium, but instead wanted to shy away from making a video game because they don't like themselves being seen as someone who makes video games that could be seen as childish.

And so to compensate, they try to make the game more serious, dramatic, hardcore, edgy, realistic, to get away from the fact that they could be called a video game director and instead be seen as a director or actor or writer (meaning film director, actor or writer), and so intent on making the game as cinematic as possible (meaning more like an Oscar-bait film than a fun action-adventure with good gameplay) from an inherent insecurity in working in the medium of Videogames.

I've specifically gotten annoyed to the point of coining the term because of the amount people fight for videogames revolutionising the industry by adding cutscenes and taking gameplay away from the player in AAA gaming.

What defines a Filmgame is their not focusing on giving the video game as good a story as possible, but specifically defined by games that have neglected their gameplay and story writing for instead indulgence in the intent that they are trying to elevate their video game to being more cinematic or filmic, to get away from the medium that they're in.

By focusing solely on making it seem like a film, they sacrifice the fun of the gameplay, amount of gameplay, fun of tone or game's playfulness of writing, and yes, even the video game's quality of writing, because they view what they are making as serious and fundamental rather than fun. They view the medium of video games as a detriment and want to be making films and TV, or taking video games and be thanked by everyone for making 'serious' art, because they themselves view video games as not serious art.

Components of a Filmgame:

⦁ Real is Brown cliche.

The world is notably grey, brown, black, maybe white. Monochrome as dark as possible to make it seem as realistic/scary/serious as possible. 'Dark' is not just tone but also colour, said to represent the tone, but potentially going so far as to detriment of the memorable distinct environments as levels, instead them merging together as one indistinct unmemorable blur. Bright colours mean childish which is a no-go. Lots of mud and grey stone.

⦁ Cutscenes.

The 'Story' focus means cutscenes between gameplay, the cutscenes from the developers' standpoint are seen as a reward, something the players want rather than wish would be over.

Filmgame Cutscenes can last for too long and often play out like film scenes (modern 'realistic' film scenes, so unmotivated shaky cam, shot-reverse, locked off wides or improvised blocking rather than planned blocking for intent of scene changes borne from authored intent), rather than effort being taken from a game development perspective of potentially making them more gamic, to merge them with gameplay for example, or have a pace to match the gameplay.

Whereas Uncharted 1 or Halo 3 might have more animated movement to characters in game and cutscene, such as with Halo's enemies and Master Chief's movement in cutscenes, or Nathan Drake's movement and expressions in cutscenes, a Filmgame like Uncharted 4 or Halo 4 will make this movement in and of camera more stilted and rooted in cutscene for the characters.

⦁ Unmemorable Dialogue.

Nothing quotable. Just the basics that probably needed a rewrite. Things like 'Look out!' and 'Looks like we're not getting back home any time soon'. Little to no attempt has been made to worldbuild and attach quotes, in reference to the worldbuilding done to make the particular meanings in the writing and overall themes of the game shine through in quotes that could be attributed to that game in reference.

Memorable: 'To give the Covenant back their bomb.' (Few words, in reference to later action, references Covenant, a worldbuilt race with a distinct name).

Unmemorable: 'I'm gonna kill you!' (Every protagonist, in reference to any character who is angry in anything to someone else. The 'memorable' aspect becomes down to line delivery rather than meaning behind the quote in writing.)

⦁ Stock Characters.

It would be difficult to immediately say how one of these characters would react to any given situation, since little time or effort has been taken to differentiate or characterise them for fear of their sense of humour being seen as silly.

The developers may also have simply had one goal in mind, and so all of the characters share the attitude towards achieving this goal, rather than conflicting naturally through their own opinions on how to do so, or even whether they want to do so (such as in the crew of Knights of the Old Republic or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare).

The characters spill over into one another and so they all have the same goal, but no specific opinions of their own on events in the game or actions they would do that another character wouldn't. There isn't enough consistency of character to define them as having a consistent reaction to something to define their views.

An example would be Mass Effect: Andromeda, where though Peebee and Jaal have some specific reactions:

Peebee: individiualist, impulsive, asari (calm race) with a tattoo (visual characterisation differentiating from other asari, a black swipe over the eyes), fast talker, rebellious, antsy, literally next to the escape pod with a foot out of the ship.

Jaal: calm, slow talking, pensieve, curious and observant of the other crew, lightly humourous rather than laugh out loud funny.

Other Andromeda crewmates, Liam, Cora, Vetra, Drack, Lexi, Gil, Suvi, the Ryder Sibling, the Ryder MC, and to an extent, Jaal and Peebee, are all: Witty, Trigger-Happy, Up for Adventure, lightly Rogue-ish, Prideful in their killing skills, Smarmy, and somewhat Irresponsible.

No matter the character-defining dialogue present, there are too many lines of dialogue and actions in the game characterising every character as the same, giving an overall impression of them all blending together rather than differentiating.

An example of better defining their characters would have been for Jaal to be disgusted by killing but it being something he has to do anyway. Or cutting out his witty or smarmy jokes, to instead have jokes at his calm expense. Or Drack having fewer jokes considering his age, his sense of humour specifically being more similar to an older person's, more censored or out of touch, puns to do with older Krogan humour.

By removing some of these similar elements for characters, say a character that is calm, reserved, spiritual, optimistic, romantic and making little to no smarmy jokes, having difference shown again and again throughout the game, you'd be able to easier differentiate the characters when recalling in memory.

Plus, when they finally did make a joke, it would have more impact coming from them, since you'd know they wouldn't normally do that, and so the given situation would be telling in the reaction it got from that particular character.

An example would be Mordin Solus's quick, intelligent speech, compared to Grunt's... grunts.

Liara T'Soni in Mass Effect is more focused on science to the point of being absent-minded to normal conversation (similar to Mordin), but she's polite, and there is a running joke of her seeming young for her age, since comparatively she is young being able to live a thousand years and only being around a hundred.

Compared to Mordin who has a similar scientific mind but a much more rapid way of talking, which is telling of the character's race and differentiating. Though she does later become more callous, it is a specific conflict that she is more uncaring and her maturity is seen as distancing her from the crew, her becoming colder and changed from her former self.

Kelly Chambers and Samantha Traynor dislike combat completely compared to the majority of the Mass Effect crew.

Thane sees killing as a religious moment, as well as it being a job to him.

Though EDI does joke, her jokes are almost exclusively at Joker's expense, and to do with her ability to known things throughout the ship and run the ship, being it's AI. The jokes play off the player's understanding of the internet, and are to do with knowing too much, and playing off of her seen as an AI and therefore the characters and player fearful of her.

This characterisation is also not just her own, but attributed to a growing relationship between her and Joker. In the beginnings of EDI, in Mass Effect 2, EDI jokes little at all, being serious and Joker joking at her expense. Therefore, her joking in Mass Effect 3 becomes endearing, and telling of Joker's impact on her- she doesn't joke for no reason, it's specifically that she didn't joke (being an AI), and then changed because of spending time with a human with a sense of humour. Joker got to her and she now banters with him, she learned humour from him. That is a character arc and specifically shown to be deliberately done.

For the AI to be bantering from the beginning might appeal, but would be ultimately detrimental in causing character spill and would eventually become more annoying than cute.

⦁ Shaky Cam.

They've incorporated Shaky-Cam similar to Spielberg's use in Saving Private Ryan's Omaha Beach sequence to try to make the filmgame seem more realistic and action-packed and dynamic, rather than focus on composition or purposeful camera movement or the advantages of potential videogame limitlessness in terms of cinematography, .

⦁ Walking Simulators.

Large sections of the game are walking A to B which, although technically gameplay, aren't challenging gameplay that could lose any more casual gamers.

This wastes time and let's the player become engrossed in the world through a cutscene and then give more exciting gameplay, Attempts to be ‘cinematic’ in the player simply walking through a crowd as though it’s an action film.

However this leaves the player caught somewhere between cutscene and gameplay but with the gameplay boring and the cutscene showing the back of the character’s head (Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End), or beginning with following other characters (Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag), rather than starting with the action (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2).

Filmgames

The Order 1886 (2015), Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016), The Last of Us (2013), The Last of Us: Part II (2020), Tomb Raider (2011) - Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2017), God of War (2013), Assassin's Creed (2007) - Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (2020), Watch Dogs (2014), & Death Stranding (2019).

For those who might think this is a reaction to games beyond my major gaming years (around the '00s.) I've put for posterity games that are similar to these but with the important defining characteristics that make them more game-like or fun, colourful, more engaging, and more like videogames which have been largely critically and commercially successful as well as artistically significant, such as Mass Effect 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Red Dead Redemption, Final Fantasy 7, Valheim, Elden Ring.

Video Games – (not Filmgames)

⦁ Colour.

Colour blocked levels. Colourful games. Worlds with attention to use of colour. The Fallout series may be almost entirely brown, but certain places such as (tree quest) are entirely green. The individual levels have been mapped out and designed with the story in mind through what's going to differentiate it from another level.

Though not bright colour blocking specifically to market towards children, and occasionally having levels that are darker for a purpose of creating a claustrophobic space or a somewhat post-apocalyptic, dystopian space such as Half-Life 2 or Papers Please. They still have a colour palette beyond the black monochromatic and drab, or if they do have a darker colour palette, it is specifically to oppress the player, such as in Darkest Dungeon, rather than to seem more like a film, as in Tomb Raider (2013).

⦁ Short Cutscenes, Interactive Cutscenes.

Uncharted 3 has small animations that play when you hit characters in a bar fight, but they're animations during a fight. The fight then continues. The developers are consciously keeping cutscenes to a limited number and time, aware that the player may get bored and that the purpose of the game is the gameplay.

⦁ Quick, Quotable Dialogue.

The characters talk about the world they're in and may have shorter lines that have a meaning beyond what the character intends. The lines say something about the world or character specifically. 'Spacer's Choice' from The Outer Worlds, or 'Would you kindly' from Bioshock.

This is not to be confused with Ironically Quoted Barks, such as Skyrim's 'Do you come to the Cloud District often? What am I talking about, of course you don't.' and 'Just working on some Calibrations' due to lack of adding enough Barks in to characterise the game's incompetence and make it a joke in that way, even a loving well-intentioned one.

The players quote these Barks somewhat ironically, but humoured by the game's artificial nature making the character seem strange, to the point the canned dialogue or Bark becomes memorable not from it's meaning, but it's frequency and telling of the game's lack of budget or development time.

Although these Barks are a step up from no characterisation at all, ideally they would have more organic, similar responses, quoted because of their good meaning, not jokes at the game and character's expense.

⦁ Defined Characters.

The game will have more than one character and them differentiated in opinions on situations. The characters themselves will react in ways that other character will not, and so a player will know how a character would react in a situation even after the game is finished.

Monkey from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West () has a temper and dislike of technology, whereas Trip is good with technology, calmer, plans more.

Wrex from Mass Effect (2007) may seem uncharacterised by little dialogue, but it is telling of character that he is monosyllabic. That he actively does not want to speak. He dislikes small talk without purpose and Shepard initially, until Shepard says the right things and goes through fighting and then opens up, becoming more enthusiastic.

Whereas Mordin Solus, though also talking quicker to the point of speaking as little as possible, does so because Salarians live shorter lives than humans, and so are used to saying the point of the sentence quickly, and Mordin is a scientist who is actively spurred to helping your team and his interest in science and the Krogan genophage.

Mordin speaks quickly, glibly, with a darker sense of humour and more pragmatic approach to problem solving that might seem harsher than polite behaviour.

⦁ Composition and Video Game Camera Cinematography Style with Intent.

Some video games are 2d, some 3d. Some have fixed cameras on the characters (Fez, Super Mario Bros) while some are able to be moved around. Often, video games move the camera for the player to focus on important points of interest, such as with Uncharted of The Last of Us, giving a point for the player to focus on and know where to move towards.

The camera in games such as Papers, Please is the way it has to be because it is focuses on the player's eyes moving back and forth on a singular frame, creating a more frenetic pace when the game picks up pace.

Games can have introductory 'establishing shots' where the camera is moved to act like an establishing shot of an area, before moving back to the main character, both indicating the start of the level and serving as a momentary cinematic vista.

⦁ Deliberate Walking.

The walking sections are shorter and serve purposes. They set tone and may be limited to certain speeds for an end purpose of forcing the player to feel something, such as tension, fear, or claustrophobia.

They may be from a first person perspective or serve as cutscenes of a sort themselves, such as the opening of Skyrim or Gears of War with prompts to show interesting points of interest while going through an environment.

Video Games (things I wouldn't call Filmgames)

Uncharted: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Tomb Raider: Legend, Watch Dogs 2, Alien: Isolation, the Grand Theft Auto Series.