I am going to argue that Hollywoodisation has become more prevalent, or even epitomised, in videogames.
For this blog I will be drawing examples from a number of video games that I believe are related to Hollywoodisation.
Let us start from the beginning. Donkey Kong Arcade introduced the 'convention that spectacle be subsumed to the demands of the narrative' (Klein, 2004 p 366) to video games way back in 1981. The action of avoiding barrels, fire and death pits made sense within the narrative of climbing up a construction site to punch a monkey.
More recently the Kingdom Hearts series 'has first-rate cinematography, exquisite costumes and settings, internationally known stars, and even special effects' (Klein, 2004, p 375), all elements that are used when describing Hollywood films. The costumes that look amazing in the games would look silly in the context of a film. The settings of the game would cost too much money to be reasonable in making a film. It has voice actors such as Haley Joel Osment and Mandy Moore in the game. None of the game is filmed, the whole game is special effects. The first Kingdom Hearts game came out in 2002 and it had 'Hollywood production values, a tight story and smart script' (Wu cited in Klein, 2004 p 376) and more. This is only one example of a video game being more Hollywood than Hollywood but there are many more examples I could draw from.
Movies will always have their entertainment value and for the foreseeable future will appeal to a mass audience, but there is no entertainment more engaging than immersing yourself in a cinematic game. I don't believe movies should be based on video games (Super Mario Bros, Tomb Raider) as movies are, quite frankly, an inferior product. Video games can build from film, they are not set by the same constraints as films (runtime, actors). Video games can be above 'the Hollywood standard: stronger scripts, better acting, improved mise-en-scene, and advanced sound and image technology' (Klein, 2004 p 374).
I love movies, don't get me wrong, but if I was asked what were my favourite cinematic experiences none of my answers would be from a film. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on Hollywoodisation and video games, let me know what you think in the comments.
References
Klein, Christina 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalisation of US and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 360-384.
NINTENDO 1981, Donkey Kong, Arcade, Japan:Nintendo
SQUARE 2002, Kingdom Hearts, DVD Playstation 2, Japan:Square.
Wasser, F 1995, ‘Is Hollywood America? The Trans-nationalization of the American Film Industry’ Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Vol. 12, pp.423-437.
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Hello Kris,
ReplyDeleteAn interesting approach to how you have linked video games with Hollywoodisation. Your critical and analytical understanding about video games was good. You were able to link the scholarly reading by Klein and Christina well within your discussion and had some good and relevant hyperlinks to further my knowledge. It was interesting to read your opinion about the movies made into video games. I believe programmers produce these games because they believe there is a high chance of making profit and becoming popular because the original is already well known. My only advice for this post is to add extra scholarly sources to strengthen your opinion and discussion about Hollywoodisation and video games. Thanks for the read!
Loved reading this Blog, I have never thought about video games in a cinematic sense before. Watching the advertisement for Kingdom Hearts 3 brought back so many memories of my time playing number 1 and I have been persuaded by your arguments and have to agree with you that cinema in an "inferior product" (something I never thought I would say, as I too am a film lover). However, I don't believe all games are becoming undergoing 'hollywoodisation' just ones with big budgets and big fan bases (GTA, Call of duty, kingdom hearts etc.) which are becoming an ever increasing amount. I think you covered almost everything in this blog, you had loads of links to external sites which gave lots of depth to your post (and made me laugh (i.e "look silly" link)) and it was well structured and well presented, I really enjoyed reading this! One thing that could have helped would be one or two more scholarly references, simply to add more credibility to the post. In saying that this was my favourite blog so far! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
ReplyDeleteThis was a great blog Kris you covered the point of Hollywoodisation really well and your examples really help to reinforce the point. Your use of media helps to break up the article and it flows great because of it. Your use of intext links is a great inclusion and really helps the readability of the blog. Overall you tackled Kleins work really well and your piece was really informative.
-Nick
Hello Kris,
ReplyDeleteYou really reminded me even video games can be Hollywoodised. before that I thought Hollywoodisation is only for movies. Through reading your post, I found out that some of the video games contains the essence of Hollywood movies: impressive action scenes, clearly stated Justice vs Evil. In the case of RPG games, most of those plots has a similar style with Hollywood movies. Actually I think Hollywoodisation became the mainstream of entertainment.