Blog: "What videogames lack: Deeper intent"

[hollowleviathan]

I can disprove that simply from personal experience. The romance in Planescape: Torment was no less accessible and powerful than from movies. The inability to stop myself from killing Andrew Ryan, the choice that games give me, taken away, was uniquely powerful and not available in a non-interactive medium. How much richer is the fear in the horror genre, when instead of yelling, "Don't go in there!", you yourself must muster the strength to 'go in there'?

The protagonist does not and is often not silent and non-evocative. Psychonauts, Zeno Clash, Mass Effect all have talkative and opinionated protagonists. They all express emotion according to the plot or according to the players decisions. Quite often these characters are voiced and motion captured by the very actors you claim are somehow superior to them.

There's always going to be people who dismiss certain art styles out of hand. Go into the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, there's controversy displayed on the walls. It's shameful folly to dismiss everything in a genre out of hand.