The value proposition is just heavily skewed towards video games. Some games cost less than a single visit to the cinema and provide heaps more entertainment. Sure, it’s different entertainment and the social aspect of going to the cinema is a factor too, but I’m not much into cinemas myself, so I know where my money goes.
The social aspect of going into a dark room to watch a screen in silence? Vs talking a joking around on voice chat?
Have you been to a theater recently? You only wish it was silent.
Idk when it started but its fine to talk through the whole movie or fuck with your phone volume turned on now.
or fuck with your phone volume turned on
At least they turn up the volume so you don’t have to hear them fuck
The social aspect of going to watch a movie in a dark room on a screen while everyone around me loudly “whispers” to each other and checks their phones. Not to mention the screen that is lower quality than my television at home.
If you put it that way
Add into it that a game can offer much of the same as a movie and given that it’s an interactive experience, you’re not just cheering on the hero, you are the hero.
And the social experience was risky before, but with smartphones being so prevalent, it has skewed the chances heavily towards a negative experience.
Social aspect of games is way bigger than movies. You don’t even talk during a movie.
You don’t watch a military movie and trash talk movie goers, threaten to bang their mom and then do a teabag motion when someone dies?
I’m an old millennial and Ive usually preferred games to movies.
I think one reason it’s hard for me to watch movies (or even books) is having no control over the narrative. Writing in a lot of TV/movies are just too, well, stupid. Even if a game is bad, you can at least have fun with cheats/mods or having your own objectives. Movies/TV your stuck with their plot as a bystander to a story.
Writing in a lot of TV/movies are just too, well, stupid
Personally i find the quality bar for writing in games (especially AAA games) is much lower. A well-known game with writing that matches a mid-tier movie usually gets heralded as GOTY. I agree with your point about emergent stories, though.
Basically the same reason as my reply to above reply. But in short, you’re right. AAA games basically = trash now (rare exceptions probably).
Old millennial here, too. For me it’s that video games have gotten too exhausting for me. Simply consuming, without decisions, is what I prefer after a workday 😴
Oh I’m not playing new games anymore. WoW burned me of that years ago (shadowlands refugee). I’m playing single player/local co-op stuff only. Bg3, modded Minecraft/sims 4/cyberpunk etc.
I’m 40 and I’d rather play a video game than watch a movie.
I’m 50 and really don’t watch movies almost at all any more. They tend to be so formulaic and too long to watch at home at night. If I’m going to watch something it will likely be episodic tv series. I do still play video games on the regular though.
For those that are curious, here’s the exact questions used and the %s by demographic
Generally speaking I’d also fall into the rather play games category, but it really depends on the context. Unfortunately there aren’t too many couch co-op kind of games anymore so if the goal is to spend time with someone playing a video game doesn’t often work great.
I think the first stat in the graph is the most important one and really speaks to the reason for the last one. I said this is another post about this article, but video games have become their own kind of third space. Going out with friends has become so expensive, whether you’re going to a movie or something else, and in a lot of places you can’t go to hang out without having to spend money anyways, so video games have become a replacement way to hang out with friends. And that’s before you start talking about stuff like friends who moved across the country for work or something.
Yes, definitely. My kids play a lot of fortnite because that’s how they talk to their friends after school. Some of my friends I only talk to while gaming because we don’t live near each other.
My wife, kids and I play video games together by sharing the controller.
We were playing classic SNES games together. Like playing Super Mario World or Super Metroid. My youngest isn’t really good at bosses so he hands it off to his older siblings. Where my wife likes to draw various scenes from the game so we can color them later.
It started during the pandemic but we do it once a month now and it’s been a great family bonding experience.
I can’t help but feel that part of this is because to make a movie there’s a higher barrier to entry and so a lot of studios and big budget production companies keep doing the ‘safe’ thing and regurgitating already existing properties or keeping their storylines ‘safe’.
This happens in gaming too (especially with big budget franchises) but there are really great experiments and indies out there showing what can be done, which is less so in the movie and TV industry.
People don’t always want the same thing over and over again and if executives could ever learn this it would be amazing how much creativity there would be, but they don’t.
That’s kinda’ how Rockstar Games started, apparently. Strauss Zelnik (spelling…?) suggested the Houser brothers to enter the gaming market because movie and music markets were too saturated and had success rates too low. Gaming was new at the time.
All of this comes from some YouTube video. Will edit in a YouTube/Invidious link to it here, sometime…
Ooo, interesting.
Thank you, looking forward to it!
The movie Everything Everywhere All at Once really brought a tear to my eye. It ignored a lot of “safe” conventions and just went all in on making a really good film.
Yes! I loved it, and same about tears.
The story lasts longer. And there’s no commercials. Why not?
I say that as an old person.
I wish all games were free of commercials…
Outside of sports games & racing games, and Death Stranding & Monster energy drinks, what other games have ads?
Not being argumentative. I’m a PC gamer and I’m actually curious if there’s like Pizza Hut ads while playing God Of War on a console or something!
No harm in asking, nw:
The first one that comes to mind is Fortnite, it has been used for advertising Halo and Star Wars, at least I think those were sponsors veiled as simple crossovers but I’m sure they’re not the only sponsors/crossovers.
Though, mostly I was refering to almost every live-service game as of late, if you count “please check out the shop and buy these new skins” as advertisements. They’re not being paid by third parties to deliver them, but they sure were as annoying as TV ads when I experienced them…
The latest example I can think of is Sea Of Thieves, where I still haven’t fully figured out how menus work because sometimes half of the screen points you to some kind of shop.
Only 63%?
For me, the turnoff with movies specifically is the hard time commitment. It’s rare that I have 2-3 hours free uninterrupted, and even if I do, I’m more drawn to the activity that I could put down after an hour if I really wanted to. Also, I’m usually picking up a game or TV show that I’ve already started, so I’m jumping into a story that I’m already invested in, rather than starting a whole new one.
For me these days, movies are way easier to jump into than a new series. Way less of a time commitment.
I am bottom Shrek.
I would not want to play video games with the people in the image, if they can’t hold a controller with their fingers on the triggers/shoulder buttons…
I’m also going to need some elbow room in case I need to dodge anything.
Haha, that’s crazy. My boomer dad may play Halo as a cover-shooter, but he can at least hold the controller properly. :P
Video games as a narrative vehicle have come a long way.
Go try ‘Detroit: Become Human’ or ‘Man of Medan’ or ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’. The stories in gaming are GD amazing.
well yeah, deep rock galactic is a video game, not a movie
duh
Rock and stone!
For karl!!
Now ask about tiktok vs games and about gacha mmos vs other games 😅
The movie industry is killing movie piracy, as the age old saying goes
