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the word auteur and how it got burned by jeep 01/10/2012, 9:29pm PST
I'll add that it's tricky to say a game (or film or whatever else) is a vessel for content, namely because the content, inasmuch as it can even be clearly defined, isn't necessarily the reason the game was made or the reason people play it or why they like it.

This goes back to the definition of auteur I posted above but the whole point of the auteurist perspective is that no matter how complicated a work is or how many hands went into making it, its defining characteristics can often be traced back to one person or a handful of people.

I saw your other post right after I put mine in, but I was on my way to the train, I'm just gonna respond here

When I said the definition of auteur stretched to go from books to film I mean it only barely covers it. The guy who writes a novel is an author, the guy who wrote the Anime Guide to Databases may refer to himself as an author, but it's a how-to book so he's not covered by the French New Wave's concept of an auteur: they specifically were referring to their national film industry's bad habit of shooting classic french novels the way they shoot The Tonight Show now and calling that cinema. It led to them demanding "new stories for a new medium," and they looked back through the history of the medium for people whose films (in your words) "had defining characteristics that could be traced back to one person."

Here's where we're running into a problem: that person was not the dude who built the camera. For sure the tech that is the camera offers both abilities and limits in terms of how images can be captured, but that isn't what made a film auteur. Read this phrase again: "new stories for a new medium," because that's the core of what makes an author and an auteur: "the person responsible for the storytelling." For like 15 years on the internet I have been using the word auteur the same way, this way, and I can see that it's a problem word because there's another bit of narrative to a video game that can be confused with the kind of thing I was talking about.

Here's why that shit is harder to parse out of a AAA video game. Gameplay of any type has at least two narrative bits, the rules as designed are narrative elements, but I have to organize them after the fact to make a story (Once upon a time you and I play poker. First I deal the cards, then we each look at our cards, then you decide how many to draw, and I decide how many to draw, maybe we bet or not, and then will we see who wins. The end.) and the experience of playing the game is a real narrative story (Once upon a time I had a bad beat and lost a lot of money...). The first bit is called 'mechanics' but it's not different than narrative in terms of the parts of our brains that deal with time order and social rules, but it isn't a story any more than "the legal process" is a story. The second bit is inferred by the player in a card game and in a simple video game (or even in a complex one like Dwarf Fortress, see Boatmurdered), but in an AAA game that part is ALSO rendered by the program, and this is critical: that's the part that maps to movies and books, not the first part.

The story element I care about is optional in a video game but even shit like roguelikes have them, and when they're not there people invent them so they're necessary enough:

Invent Mechanical Element -> Organize Into Series of Choices or Challenges -> Game

Invent Story Element -> Organize Series of References to Choices or Challenges -> Story

Game + Story* = Triple-A Game

So the "designer" of the necessary part of the game is organizing a narrative series into a game, but not telling a story. The word "auteur" can only apply to him in a mutated sense, because he's not telling a new story for a new medium, he's doing something new in history, or something old that really has bloomed since dungeons and dragons met a computer. We've run into a couple problems, here: The "auteur" as I have always referred to him/her is Erik and Chet who didn't invent the portal mechanic or code the 3d version of it, they told the perfect story with the medium the game mechanic provides and that's what fits the term, the end. That isn't sufficient for us because it doesn't include the designer as a clearly necessary component, and since the story makes tons of reference to the mechanics applying the term only to writers just seems kind of incomplete. Thus the term "auteur" will not stretch to cover video games.

I still want a classic auteur and that's still what I care about. I want "new stories for a new medium," but it's sufficient for me if this person is working with the camera he found: He's the one who turns the mechanics into a story, or more precisely writes a story to cover the mechanics, has input into the visuals, worries about how the story will interfere with the play experience (no cutscenes? thanks y'all). An effective writer can be an auteur in the French New Wave sense if he's good enough, and Chet and Erik seem to be the right people for that term. Congrats guys.

You want a term for the designer who is the equivalent of an auteur in terms of the "narrative bits" that are game mechanics, but he's not working with a story he's making the camera and working with mechanics and it's not the same thing. It's absolutely necessary to have the equivalent for discussion purposes because his work does enable or limit the kind of story that can be told. Is John Carmack a Design Auteur? Game Auteur? How about "fuck you, come up with another word." Knowing the internet it will be "ludotard"

The more interesting proposition to me is coming up with a word for a guy who does both. It's weird but what we have here is an aspect of video games that does not map well to any other narrative form: The auteur who makes his own medium, or reinvents it for every story, so in film this would kind of be Lucas or Cameron (with their tech companies in tow, even though they still use cameras) but there's not a word for them either, and really the cgi development process in movies gets more and more like games every day, so it would be ok to have a word to cover them all. In games the easy reference is Jon Blow because he keeps talking about it. I read how he likes to write his games as one big main, which he codes the games from scratch to tell a story, seems sufficent.

* + giant marketing campaign + extorting reviews out of critics
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Movies are dead by fabio 12/30/2011, 9:14pm PST NEW
    Seem more undead to me by N 12/30/2011, 9:58pm PST NEW
    What's your relationship to film, are you a screenwriter? NT by Vested Id 12/30/2011, 11:52pm PST NEW
        I watch movies? by fabio 12/30/2011, 11:53pm PST NEW
            Re: I watch movies? by Vested Id 12/31/2011, 12:01am PST NEW
                He went to some sort of film school, but he won't say exactly what he studied. NT by Your instincts are correct 01/02/2012, 2:39am PST NEW
    (Hollywood) movies are dead by Siskel and Ebert 12/31/2011, 5:03am PST NEW
    Movie studios have no balls, you mean. by Mischief Maker 12/31/2011, 10:09am PST NEW
        Whatever happened to CGI making things cheaper? NT by fabio 12/31/2011, 5:15pm PST NEW
    So are videogames by Mischief Maker 01/01/2012, 12:29am PST NEW
        all the fun of a tedious fps, plus some rpg elements, plus some cover mechanics by jeep 01/02/2012, 1:33am PST NEW
            Re: all the fun of a tedious fps, plus some rpg elements, plus some cover mechan by Vested Id 01/02/2012, 3:57am PST NEW
                I don't agree with that by jeep 01/09/2012, 4:54pm PST NEW
                    Here's where videogames and movies differ by Mischief Maker 01/09/2012, 10:55pm PST NEW
                    Re: I don't agree with that by Vested Id 01/10/2012, 2:19am PST NEW
                        Re: I don't agree with that by motherfuckerfoodeater 01/10/2012, 5:54am PST NEW
                        the word auteur and how it got burned by jeep 01/10/2012, 9:29pm PST NEW
                            You people have finally outdone me NT by the "art games arts?" debate 01/11/2012, 9:25am PST NEW
                                that one was never very impressive and we're more than a decade past it by jeep 01/11/2012, 4:25pm PST NEW
                            JOHN. ROMERO. NT by CHECK. MATE. 01/11/2012, 10:03am PST NEW
                                sure, and...he just wasn't very good at it. QED? NT by jeep 01/11/2012, 3:11pm PST NEW
                                Romero did his best work in the medium of DOOM. by Jerry Whorebach 01/11/2012, 4:25pm PST NEW
                                    Here's a bit of Romero on the 6502 by Ice Cream Jonsey 03/04/2012, 10:04pm PST NEW
                            Re: the word auteur and how it got burned by jeep 01/25/2012, 6:21pm PST NEW
                                Jesus fucking christ NT by Entropy Stew 01/25/2012, 9:18pm PST NEW
                                    that's been linked here before by jeep 01/27/2012, 7:14pm PST NEW
            No one wants to play quake in 2012 NT by Mysterio 01/02/2012, 8:55am PST NEW
                What's the point in sidestepping (literally, threadwise) the question of coders by Vested Id 01/02/2012, 4:07pm PST NEW
                    Is this shit talkin about Doom 3 bro? by dorm guy 01/02/2012, 4:29pm PST NEW
                        falls over, dies NT by Billy "Wicked" Wilson 01/10/2012, 11:31pm PST NEW
    Re: Movies are dead by laudablepuss 01/09/2012, 1:57pm PST NEW
        you mean like madden? by jeep 01/09/2012, 6:45pm PST NEW
            incidentally here's what will happen in video games over the next 5 years by jeep 01/09/2012, 6:47pm PST NEW
        yeah by jeep 01/10/2012, 3:00pm PST NEW
            Jesse Ventura using the medium of webcomics to disrespect our fallen heroes. NT by RIP Captain Lou Albano 01/10/2012, 3:25pm PST NEW
            The Link ones were only on Fridays, everyone knew that NT by Proving the point 01/10/2012, 8:55pm PST NEW
            OH MY GOD I never did know whether it would be a mario one or a link one NT by Mysterio 01/11/2012, 9:46am PST NEW
        The new Spider-Man is looking good by laudablepuss 03/05/2012, 9:32am PST NEW
            You were half right. by Jerry Whorebach 01/19/2013, 4:39am PST NEW
                Re: You were half right. by Mischief Maker 01/19/2013, 6:54am PST NEW
    No, there's a new Monty Python movie coming! by Shredder 01/26/2012, 10:53pm PST NEW
    Sometimes it's depressing bein right by fabio 04/02/2012, 2:52pm PDT NEW
        This does look completely awful. :( NT by laudablepuss 04/02/2012, 4:19pm PDT NEW
    Total Recall by E. L. Koba 04/02/2012, 7:11pm PDT NEW
        Can't have 3-boobed whores and a lucrative PG-13 rating! NT by Mischief Maker 04/02/2012, 10:37pm PDT NEW
        No need to sacrifice the rating when we can use a clever reference instead by Vested Id 04/02/2012, 11:07pm PDT NEW
        Oh yeah, fucking Colin Farrell is totally the new Arnie. FUCK YOU MOVIE. by Eurotrash 04/02/2012, 11:57pm PDT NEW
            you, sir, are totally correct. by Oom Shnibble 04/03/2012, 9:00pm PDT NEW
                Alongside the 90 lb runway models punching grown men through plate glass windows NT by Mischief Maker 04/03/2012, 9:26pm PDT NEW
                    Angelena Jolie is many things but she was never a runway model NT by Carol Marcus 04/03/2012, 9:33pm PDT NEW
                        She just played one on TV by Mischief Maker 04/03/2012, 9:57pm PDT NEW
                    Watching the skeleton "beat up" special forces soldiers in Burn Notice by fabio 04/04/2012, 9:20am PDT NEW
                        Speaking of horrible action movie miscasting by Mischief Maker 07/09/2012, 7:50am PDT NEW
            Oy mate NT by Jason FUCKINGGGGGGGGG Statham 04/04/2012, 6:31am PDT NEW
                Do I count? NT by Liam Neeson 04/04/2012, 9:18am PDT NEW
                    While the recent Liam Neeson action movies are actually pretty badass, they are by Eurotrash 04/04/2012, 10:32am PDT NEW
                        I liked The Grey. by Gutsby 04/04/2012, 6:29pm PDT NEW
                            Just watched this. Now THIS is more like it, none of the usual PG13 bullshit. NT by Eurotrash 08/26/2012, 11:50pm PDT NEW
                                To elaborate a bit by Eurotrash 08/27/2012, 12:22am PDT NEW
                                    *POINT BLANK SHOTGUN* NT by "Goddamnit, Castle!" 08/27/2012, 5:13am PDT NEW
                Jason Statham is annoying and his movies suck. NT by Eurotrash 04/04/2012, 10:19am PDT NEW
                    Crank 2 is probably the pinnacle of contemporary moviemaking. NT by Gutsby 04/04/2012, 6:27pm PDT NEW
                        I guess I'll check out the Crank movies. But if they suck, I'LL BE BACK. NT by Eurotrash 04/04/2012, 10:25pm PDT NEW
                            So I watched Crank 1, it's a bit of alright. by Eurotrash 04/15/2012, 1:10pm PDT NEW
                                Alright, Crank 2 is fucking awesome. by Eurotrash 04/27/2012, 1:25pm PDT NEW
                    Re: Jason Statham is annoying and his movies suck. by Mysterio 08/25/2012, 10:56pm PDT NEW
        I saw the three-titted whore on set. It was filmed. NT by Fussbett 04/16/2012, 6:17am PDT NEW
            Awesome - so instead of Mars, Quaid goes to Canada? by E. L. Koba 04/17/2012, 12:07am PDT NEW
                WE found our way to other planets via the Canadian wilderness NT by Battlestar Galactica 04/17/2012, 1:55am PDT NEW
    Re: Movies are dead by skip 05/27/2012, 9:45am PDT NEW
        The movie will be over before the horseride to the first colossus is done. lol by Eurotrash 05/27/2012, 12:03pm PDT NEW
    Red Dawn 2012 by fabio 08/11/2012, 11:38am PDT NEW
    Blame foreigners. by skip 08/13/2012, 4:11pm PDT NEW
        Re: Blame foreigners. by Souffle of Pain 08/13/2012, 8:57pm PDT NEW
            Does this website award Post of the Year? I'd like to nominate the above. NT by ...for PotY, 1997 08/15/2012, 3:33pm PDT NEW
    Still dead by fabio 09/06/2012, 7:51am PDT NEW
        Fingers crossed for "Citizen Kane: Mummy Hunter" by Mischief Maker 09/06/2012, 8:54am PDT NEW
            THE MUMMY wasn't enough? by You faggot? 09/08/2012, 9:47am PDT NEW
                Not as funny as you at the moment! NT by Mischief the Good Witch 09/08/2012, 2:15pm PDT NEW
        Van Helsing 2 or 3 or 4 or whatever: still unwatchable shit NT by laudablepuss 09/07/2012, 4:40pm PDT NEW
        Why, those actors do not look embarrassed at all. A fine moment in their careers by Eurotrash 09/08/2012, 3:37am PDT NEW
        jesus christ by fabio 01/29/2013, 10:50pm PST NEW
            That still doesn't look anywhere near as toxic as the Hansel and Gretel one NT by Bunyip 01/30/2013, 4:32am PST NEW
    Seth MacFarlane hosting the Oscars NT by case closed 02/24/2013, 6:56pm PST NEW
    You probably weren't going to see Dead Man Down anyway by fabio 03/10/2013, 8:26pm PDT NEW
 
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