Tag Archive for 'N’Gai Croal'

Mad Max-creator George Miller Turns to Gaming

When I first heard that George Miller is working on a fourth Mad Max film, titled “Fury Road,” my first thought was, “Awesome.” When I learned that Miller was teaming up with God of War II director Cory Barlog to produce a Mad Max game for concurrent release with the film, I thought, “Even better.”

Prominent filmmakers, including Miller and Steven Spielberg, are flocking to the game industry, where cinematic products are becoming increasingly viable.

In a two part interview with Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal, Miller talked about his attraction to games.

I realized that the kind of filmmaker that I am, I unconsciously try to make films that are as immersive as possible,” said Miller. “My cutting patterns and compositions try to exaggerate–well, not exaggerate, but try to enhance a kind of three-dimensionality and an immersive quality to my storytelling. That of course is what games do so well.”

Miller sees games as a more open way to explore a narrative. “Film is a pretty closed narrative–it moves along at 24 frames a second, it’s extremely linear, and in that sense rigid, whereas games bust that open. So in a way, with games being more exploratory, it’s closer to what a novelist can do in many way,” he said.

It’s just another way to tell stories,” added Miller. “If you’re much more interested in games than movies, then you might enter the story through the game. Or you might enter the story through the film and move towards the game. It’s still the same story. It’s still the same characters. It’s still the same world. It’s just that you can approach the characters and the world from different angles.”

Continue reading ‘Mad Max-creator George Miller Turns to Gaming’

Two Steps Towards Making Games an Artistic Medium

At the end of my last post of substance (on Roger Ebert’s inflammatory comments), I referenced N’Gai Croal’s blog. Croal challenged gamers “to keep doing the heavy lifting necessary to suss out where the art of videogames lies; to determine how the craft can enhance that art; and to continue the fight to push this young medium from squalling infancy into graceful adulthood.”

A bold charge. But where do we begin? I gave it some thought, and came up with two things we can do right now to start moving forward.

1. Keep talking, but keep it civil

“Yours is the most civil of countless messages I have received after writing that I did indeed consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature.”

That’s how Ebert began his response to a concerned gamer’s letter in 2005. That’s embarrassing. There’s no way games will be accepted as art if their fans respond like drunken truckers scrawling messages on the wall of a gas station bathroom at the barest whiff of criticism.

Continue reading ‘Two Steps Towards Making Games an Artistic Medium’

Thus Spake Roger Ebert: Games Are Not Art

Revered film critic Roger Ebert’s 2005 indictment of video games as a non-artistic medium caused renewed controversy this past month, with big-name figures like Newsweek journalist N’Gai Croal, author and director Clive Barker and gaming historian Steven Kent weighing in.

“I am prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful,” Ebert said in response to a gamer’s letter in 2005. “But I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art.”

“To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic.”

Ebert’s comments drew an outcry from gamers, responses from game developers, and even mainstream media attention. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Aussie developer John De Margheriti, founder of Micro Forte studio, countered Ebert’s arguments.

“The author of the game has written some grand plotline, has created the races, the pretext of the stories,” said De Margheriti. “He’s constrained you in a series of quests you must do, missions you must complete, objects you have to collect. There is a structure, but it’s a structure that’s interactive.”

Continue reading ‘Thus Spake Roger Ebert: Games Are Not Art’