The technological line between video games and action movies has become so tenuous that even the nimble Lara Croft may have a hard time detecting it. Kinder, a cultural theory professor at USC, said that just as games borrow from movies, films have increasingly used traditional game techniques to punch-up action sequences. The technological line between video games and action movies has become so tenuous that even the nimble Lara Croft may have a hard time detecting it. Many game characters now come with complex background stories not seen in the likes of the Mario brothers or Donkey Kong. Rather than collecting points, shooting bad guys or leaping across busy roads, the goal in most new games is to advance the story by solving puzzles.
Players work long stretches gathering clues without a villain in sight.
The player must then decide whether to turn traitor and eliminate the partner, he added. Just as games borrow from movies, films have increasingly used traditional game techniques to punch up action sequences - whether they know it or not, said Marsha Kinder, a USC cultural theory professor. Obviously there's a real hunger for this kind of convergence.