Books, movies, music… there are many forms of media but few that are as young as video games. In this video, I discuss how video games have gained more respect over the years as well as cover some of the key distinctions that make them different from other forms of media.
Are Video Games The Best Form of Media? – Retro Bird
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Yes. Yes they are.
HELL YEAH!!! & Love your channel, dude!!!
As a man of all media's novels, Manga and IRL. Yes. But their aren't as nanny games that have reached the heights of som of the best novels. It is. Still young compared to 1000 of years of writing. Ps not just speaking in terms of writing. Fun can also be a factor in both.
Gotta be cause it’s interactive
I only play retro games casually and have no strong opinions on this topic in general. However, I believe that video game music has given us some modern classics that will stand the test of time. Even modern games that I have zero interest in playing sometimes astonish me when I hear the soundtrack.
Yes they are, love retro game music , some games are more entertaining then movies. And the resident evil games are better then the stupid resident evil movies
Hate that nickelback song , you remind me of who I really am , not like you say sorry or whatever it goes
As a super nerd in a realms of media, I could never choose just one form of media as my favorite. Lol it would be like picking a favorite child. But video games have given me plenty of good memories in my 15 year life span so far. And O do go to play video games while listening to music for stressful times (like COVID for instance). So you could say video games is a good influencee in my life. Anyways, sorry for the long comment but I think as long as a media is giving you joy and healthy benefit it's a good media. Now back to my science fiction novel! LOL
I think video games are great because they're more interactive – but as a medium not all games are accessible to the widest group of people. Sure you can emulate, but that's an extra barrier that 90% of the movies/tv shows/books don't have.
The biggest and most unique property that video games have is immersion. When I play Subnautica, I feel like I'm exploring the ocean. If I watch Finding Nemo, I feel like I'm getting a very entertaining and visually appealing second-hand account. If I watch The Aquarium on Animal Planet, I get a mildly entertaining and educational second-hand account. If I read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I get a less visual but informationally deep second-hand account. If I listen to We Lost the Sea, I can imagine myself diving to treacherous depths, but the feeling is fleeting as you're listening to another person's experience and trying to relate on a spiritual level. But when I play Subnautica, and am swimming for dear life as a terrifying alien whale shark is nipping at my heels, those experiences are genuinely my own.
Media.?.?.?.? I guess I just never saw it as that???? My only real question then is how do you put a video game in the Dewey Decimal System? Because media is brought into the library so why not video games? Or would you follow the same rules as the old floppy disks? Also how are are you going to get the National Library to recognize it as media and have them add all the info?
What other media form can you build reading skills and hand eye coordination? Sure that is mostly for younger players but still
Lots to think about here. I sort of enjoy sports, but my dad would watch sports all day. A baseball game can take hours. A movie generally runs 90 minutes. I can't watch football for 6 hours.
I think that's why I like retro games. It's like ordering a pizza v making a full meal. Both have merits. But I can see either way.
I read the Hobbit years ago. I liked it. So one day I decided to watch all the movies back to back. I fell asleep. And that's not ripping on the movies; everyone has their own opinions.
It's not even about interacting. It's about I can play SMB for 20 minutes, have a good time, and that's it. It's the delivery pizza. I'm not committed for hours and hours at a stretch. I can do other things today. I used to read a ton of comics. Usually 22 pages, once a month, then I move on. It's episodic in a way. Games are sort of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. It doesn't matter if you read all of it; you get your fill and maybe do something else. They were novel in the sense of you had no idea where the story might go. And that's fine. I don't like games with a lot of script or dialogue. That sets you on one path.
I draw and paint a little. Most people seem intimidated by the idea of failure. " I cannot draw a stick figure!" Nobody wants a stick figure. I wasn't born with these skills; I earned them because I wanted it. I worked at it. It took time.
It's a bit like a book or a movie. If I saw it or read it, that's pretty much it.
Retro games are like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Or sitting down with a blank piece of paper. You figure out what you want to do. It's up to you.
Most modern games are on rails in the sense they tell a story and you are just along for the ride. You aren't really making choices or sometimes even participating. I like the idea of games being F around and find out. It's like the stun lock in Castlevania, or the safe zone in Pac Man. It's a blank page more or less.
Look at this photograph…
Something about about games that distinguishes them from other media is level design and conveyance. Devs work hard to put everything in just the right place to give players a unique experience without tons of exposition. In some games this is masterfully done (Mega Man, Zelda, DKC, even more modern games like the Last of Us or Dark Souls). It reminds me of a director shooting at just the right angle to get that perfect scene. I think it really is a form of high art.
Yes, video games are the best media. You can only look at a baseball card so many times before you get bored with it. You can only read a book so many times before you completely memorize it. You can only watch a movie so many times before you can recreate every scene but with video games you have interactivity meaning you can play a game multiple ways. You can speed run it, you can no death run it, you can do a completionist run, etc. It's also why they tend to hold their value.
Woe Woe Woe! With music I dance, imagine, workout, clean my room and make my commute better
I think for me video games can be something I'm actively participating in, but there can also be games where I can relax a little more. Sure I can pick a movie or book to fit my mood, but with games I can also pick how involved I want to be. I can do it actively with other people on the sofa or online with modern games. Solo gameplay also allows for more active involvement than other media. I think gaming definitely falls between entertainment and a hobby (something I think of that you actively engage in whether it be woodworking, sports, etc).
Maybe I'm going off topic, but a different point (and I think you were talking about this with being involved in the game) and why I enjoy retro games and books more is that there is room for the imagination. I'm gonna quote Gunpei Yokoi (of Gameboy fame)
"Do these playworlds really need to be that photorealistic, I wonder? I actually consider it more of a minus if the graphics are too realistic. There's a similar line of thinking in the entertainment world—using soft focus lenses when women are filmed, for instance. When that is done, each person can project their own conception of "beautiful" onto the woman being filmed, and everyone will see their own personal Venus.
If things are too realistic, there's no room for your imagination, and the reality of those faces you thought were beautiful will be revealed. Or to use another common expression, it's actually more erotic when a woman leaves some skin covered. Even if a video game doesn't have the power to display very complex graphics, I believe your imagination has the power to transform that perhaps-unrecognizable sprite called a "rocket" into an amazing, powerful, "real" rocket."
And he continued talking about why the Gameboy wasn't color on release.
"The technology was there to do color. But I wanted us to do black and white anyway. If you draw two circles on a blackboard, and say "that's a snowman", everyone who sees it will sense the white color of the snow, and everyone will intuitively recognize it's a snowman. That's because we live in a world of information, and when you see that drawing of the snowman, the mind knows this color has to be white. I became confident of this after I tried playing some Famicom games on a black and white TV. Once you start playing the game, the colors aren't important. You get drawn, mentally, into the world of the game."
Haha the nickelback reference was genius
Games are interesting in that they contain mini movies (cutscenes), music, and reading, so it kind of envelops all media at once. I will say that only one or two games would I consider perfect (silent hill 2 and super metroid), while I think there are a couple handfuls of music albums and movies that I consider perfect. However games definitely have the edge with immersion. If I could only have one, it would be between music and games, not sure I could decide.
Short answer. Yes. Long answer… Yes.
Video Games while having limitations of the hardware they are for, video games also have extra layers it provides that I find makes it a better media. They can have cutscenes, music, simple or complex gameplay (depends on the mood/genre I want to experience the next time I pick up the controller, been getting into rail shooters and shoot-em-ups recently besides hack n slashes, beat-em-ups and visual novels prior to broaden my experiences), I can skip the story and explore/level up or choose what I want to do in how I attack an enemy, find secrets, changing the music/subtitles in the menus instead of having to rely on the TV or Media Player to change them (I know minor but still something I think), I can read visual novels with deep or silly stories and sometimes prefer them over pages in a book and otherwise experience fan content from games (obviously more broader modern thing these days than retro besides I guess mods or reskins of games in the PC space due to the many game engines people used and maybe still use).
To me if I read a book/watch a movie and tv series I sort of get a lot of the obvious tropes or ideas appearing (depends of course) or find it can drag on and I might not care about many aspects of it and drop it or if it feels like a video game or I want the freedom to see different aspects of it (obviously besides choose your own adventure books/films) I may want to experience that. Whilst with a game if I play it or drop it I don't feel that let down by where I left off for story or getting the feel of the gameplay again or being happy to have it on the shelf, or trying out emulation, or if it's highly replayable it's worth experiencing again anyways. Depends on the game of course but the extra additions games provide gives you more to experience than other mediums.
Obviously I just thought of whatever I could but some of it I think makes sense and otherwise are just random thoughts with not much meaning behind them. XD
Everyone knows that slides, pocket rockers, and real player videos are the best forms of media.
You already gave my answer in the video. Games mostly combine it all. I'll totally listen to an ost of a game. Silent Hill ost's are among favs
I wanna know about your favorite games in each consoles.
And favorite modern games also.
No movie or book will get my adrenaline going like a video game.
Nickelback rocks! 🤘
I’d say exactly how you get immersed in a video game is very different. Bioshock almost has a skewed Disney World vibe to it.
It feels like an an interactive dark ride. I’d say there’s a lot of challenge but that because I’ve thus far played only on the hard difficulty.
A lot of focus on exploration and the recordings really add to the experience without dampening the play experience. This opened me up to Metroidvanias!
This is both a pro and a con, but games are the best at substituting reality.
Short Answer: Yes
Long Answer: Yes
Well regarding the very last thing you mentioned, I don’t think reading in video games can really be counted as real serious reading, even games like planescape torment and disco elysium, while great and well written games, are merely a puddle compared to a book
Video games are Multi-media. And that guy running out of the grocery store was me, I left the shopping cart completely full of frozen items and dairy.
I think one of the largest reasons I find video games so enjoyable to collect is the preservation aspect. To get the original experience, most of the time you have to play on the original hardware. The same couldn’t be said for something like a book which could be reprinted for decades, if not thousands of years like some religious texts. I suppose the closest comparison would then be movies, as many movies from the silent era have been lost to time, and many more haven’t been upgraded to a newer medium like DVD or BluRay.
You went over it in depth and it's what makes me enjoy games over all other forms of media and that's it's interactive. I love being able to be part of the action instead of watching it. I've read multiple pages before and had to go back due not remembering anything. That comment hit home haha
You know, I once heard that they kick off the New York City Marathon every year by playing a Nickle-back Song: it just makes people naturally want to run away fast and hard.
I would also add that video games as a media form also blends into being an art form like playing a music instrument take for example shoot em ups, fighting games, run and gun games (like Contra and Cup Head), action platformers (like Mega Man), all platformers really, and RPGs . I say art form because there is more than one way to play. You have an objective, then the player must figure out how to complete that objective and how the player gets there is up to them. Like how a musician will play a song differently than another musician. Also, both practitioners of music and video games are called "players". Awesome video! You are the voice of the contemporary mature gamer!
Leo dies in Titanic?!… Geez Spoiler Alert LOL Yes, I love movies and I love Video Games and I feel the modern game era really combined my two favorite things into one experience. I think the first time I truly felt that was when I played MGS on PS1 when it came out… just mind blowing to me.
…fucking Kefka.
I play games with my daughter (4)
From a gamer yes, from a movie buff no. It depends who you ask.
I feel like that some of the parents that used to scold us for being glued to the TV playing video games are now they themselves glued to their phones.
video games are a form of art
viduya gaymes
I am 13 and im from denmark and I love collecting retro video games and have many retro games and consoles like snes n64 gamecube ps2 gameboy color and advance many more and I have over 70 games and I think they are just as good if not better than new games my fav game is cuphead and I beat it almost 200% and my fav old game is super mario sunshine or super mario world but my fav nintendo game is mario 3d world that i beat with Rosalina and intent to beat with all carakters on the wii u PS i love your content and keep up the good work😀