What if there were more cutscenes in games?

What's that? More cutscenes?

Often cited as one of the most hated gaming conventions, I frequently wonder why games could not build on them, rather than hap-hazardly throw them in at often very innapropriate moments.

Why can't we have a gaming Ghost in the Shell? You 'watch' the plot development, but actually play the action parts. A gaming Evangelion where the battles are fought by you, but the rest just as before. I've picked these examples as they are both strong plot-wise and with clear 'playable' sections, obviously a novel game-specific story would be better.

So why have games failed so far? Games based on films would seem to already be doing this, but I don't think they ever pull it off as, deliberately or not, videogaming as a medium is seen as less 'worthwhile' than the film version it is based on, leading to botched jobs where much less care is taken then in its filmic counterpart. The second problem is that the quality of cutscenes is far too low. I would not want to watch more than play because almost every game so far which attempts to have film/tv style parts are quite awfully done. The third problem is that gamers would have to start with a different outlook on what they were about to experience. They would have to expect to do as much watching as playing, if not more. If the watching was enjoyable enough, however, I can't see why this switch could not eventually be made, and the recurrent interest in episodic content could be perfectly suited to this.

This is, of course, all hyopthetical, but what do you think?

Gaming is still only a young industry compared to film - give it around 60-70 years then you'll be able to compare games to the films of today!

The main reason the correct length and and number of cut-scenes in games is difficult to decide is the fact that gaming is an interactive medium, unlike film, and cut-scenes just move games further away from being interactive.

The main reason cut-scenes are of poor quality or are at inappropriate times is because a lot of game companies produce the script/plot/dialogue in-house and therefore a lot less enjoyable than if they had used a professional script-writer or the like (which some games companies do).

The main reason the Wii has been so successful so far is its complete interactivity and it is highly unlikely that games with many cut-scenes will be making their way onto that console as I doubt people who are now used to being physically involved in games are going to be ok with sitting around waiting for a cut-scene to finish.

It's also telling that some of the most successful games recently have been the likes of Wii Sports, Brain Training, The Sims, Nintendogs etc - games which don't require cut-scenes and are simply about having fun and as a result have crossed age and gender boundaries to massive effect and huge profit for the likes of Nintendo.

Perhaps the best way to make cut scenes more enjoyable will be to make them interactive as well? ie, let players control the 'camera', or the dialogue or even simple QTE events like in Shenmue and Resident Evil 4.

The best example I can give of what I am talking about is best displayed with a situation that occured for me in Knights of the Old Republic II. Now, when given a choice between playing as a male and female character, I will always play through a game as a female first so I can totally disassociate myself from the game and play it for fun - if I play as a male, I will generally react to situations as I believe I would actually react in reality.

At one point in KotOR, you have to split your group of characters into two parties to complete seperate objectives. So, playing as a powerful female Jedi leading one party, I also placed another female Jedi, Visas, in charge of the other party. Once the two objectives have been completed, the two party leaders (one of which is always your main character) have a conversation with a female Jedi (name escapes me) who is acting as your mentor in the game.

When this cut-scene first occurred, I was amazed at a Star Wars game featuring 3 incredibly powerful female characters so prominently and was almost tempted to congratulate the developers for making a strong feminist statement until I realised that by playing as a female character and placing another woman in charge of the other party, I had 'created' this 'feminist' cut-scene and that a lot of people will have had this cut-scene featuring two men and just one woman.

During this cut scene, you also decide the dialogue in an effort to gain influence with the others involved making it even more interactive as well. If cut-scenes can maintain this level of quality and interactivity I will have no problem with them being in games at all.

kotor is a great example of good cut-scenes, but if you want a game that crushes you with long cutscenes, try metal gear solid. i think the latest one is 3. i've seen it...you spend more time doing cutscenes than playing xD[/quote]

Then games would be more like Xenosega.

I like playing, I hate watching cutscenes. Putting to many cutscenes in would destory the game for me.

Really, there isn't that much wrong with cut-scenes. They are better for advancing plot than most other things, and who doesn't want to see the really cool explosion after the final boss has been defeated? The only problem is that if a game has a really intricate plot, cut-scenes tend to be over-used, Metal Gear Solid being a primary example.