Jul 23, 2013

Things Video Games Do Better Than Movies


Catching Short Attention Spans
I have a better time watching movies on cable. The commercials give me enough time to do other things. Having to sit still for more than an hour can be a nightmare. Especially when I'm not in control of what's going on. Video Games Win when it comes to stimulating my attention defect. Movies can be so uninteresting at times.

Video Games Adapt To You
Movies demand that you understand what they're about. Videogames try to adapt to however you play. If you want to shoot cops and raise your wanted level, Grand Theft Auto responds. If you want to Complete the Story and Stop playing it's okay. If You want to play multiplayer online and never see the story, Call of Duty adapts.

One thing I notice about this generation of console games is how much the games react to you. I constantly heard praise as I'd plow through games such as Saints Row & Ratchet & Clank. I'd notice how the praise wouldn't appear as often when others would play.

Better Overall Experience
The greatest movies are interpreted differently. Everybody who watches it sees the same images on the screen, and have different opinions about what they see. You might notice extra things when you watch a movie, but you see the same images.

The greatest videogames are experienced differently. You could see totally different things and love the same game. A game like Fallout 3 is so open ended that every game is completely different. You could experience the same event in a different way from other players in Fallout 3. I could love how Megaton was blown to bits while someone else could have diffused the bomb and had a totally different experience.

Video Games Last Longer
Going to the movies is a great activity. It gives you something to do when you need to kill time. Spend a few hours eating popcorn and watching a movie. It's fun.

Video games are designed to last longer than one day. If you spend a day watching movies, you'll see more than one movie. Spend a day playing video games and you could be playing one game all day. I've spent months playing games that I love. 4 years and over 500 hours later, I still enjoy Fallout 3. I'd have to watch a ton of movies to spend that much time watching films.


Video Games Have Better Settings
Video games do a better job at presenting a place. Movies give you cool camera angles and stuff, but videogames let you explore the surroundings. I'd love to have explored Al Pacino's mansion in Scarface. The videogame made that possible. Open World Games have made it possible to explore various cities during different periods of time. I felt like I was in Hong Kong in Sleeping Dogs, LA in 1946 was vibrant in LA Noire. It's really awesome.

Better Opening Day Sales
No movie has ever made as much money as Call of Duty on it's first day. Black Ops 2 made $500 million dollars on it's first day in 2012. The Avengers had the highest grossing first day for a movie at $207 million in ticket sales. Yea Call of Duty costs a lot more than a movie ticket, but still. Numbers don't lie. That's probably why you've got George Lucas & Steven Spielberg talking about video games.


The Power of the Controller
There's more power in the controller than Steven Spielberg realizes. With movies your eyes and ears are all that's necessary. Video games demand a little more out of their consumers which pays off. The control gives gamers the ability to control how they play.