AFFF log

Drift over to the AFFF website for more details on this symposium, I will not try to summarize what was being said.

I was pleasantly surprised to see two people from Tale of Tales on the panel. They made the excellent almost Zen-like game The Graveyard some years ago.
It was clear from the types of comments they made that they have a very thorough understanding of media. They noted for instance that the majority of the games are still driven by the traditional narrative from the seventies that sprung from coin operated consoles. These machines introduced the notion of scoring points, reaching levels and the "game over" state - all this to persuade the player to insert more coins and to continue playing. They pleaded to let these conventions go and focus on creating engaging environments that invite players to come up with their own narrative instead.

The Dark Knight and The Matrix were mentioned as examples of mainstream films that have a mass appeal but still have rich characters and depth on a thematic level.

There was talk about trying to bridge the gap between films and games. It was useful to note the parallel between big Hollywood studios and indie film companies on the one hand, and big game producers and indie game makers on the other hand. There are different gaps between these different entities.

In the Q&A someone from the audience tried to put today's symposium in a larger context, that of multimodal storytelling (although he did not say it with so many words, I am using this term to express my interpretation of what he said). Games and films are just two instances of a common universe, just as the internet, comic books, animation and music are other forms. Instead of having a "film vs. game" discussion, instead of a "which one is better / more expressive / engaging / ..." contest, we should appreciate them for what they are, keep on trying to explore and improve that what needs to be told using the characteristics of the medium at hand.