When the ontology of video games hits the NYT Week In Review, you know something is up (click the picture at right to go to the article).

It must be that the writers at the Times are getting younger.  Here is this reporter Dave (not David) Itzkoff going on about the game designer (Hideo Kojima) and his franchise (Metal Gear Solid), in cultural and political terms without batting an eyelash.  It strikes me that maybe we’re reaching a certain maturity level where gaming, particular games with longish, well produced cut scenes (think also Prince of Persia ?) flows even more parallel with movies.  It’s really not an issue anymore, I suppose.  Certainly not for gamers who go to movies.

So I guess what this says to me about Narrative is that we’re accepting gaming narrative in the pages of the NYT.  Check.  Hidden Meaning in a game’s narrative?  That means we’re not just talking about “easter eggs” in the gameplay: there is actually a message – in this case, a message about war and the toll of warfare on the individual.  Maybe there’s a sense of irony in this game; clearly we’re supposed to be thinking about this while we’re playing it.  Maybe that’s supposed to not only inform the experience, but shape it.  Maybe the designer wants your conscience to be triggered while you’re playing.  Maybe he wants you to think that maybe real soldiers have consciences.  Maybe he would like you to think that those real soldiers are experiencing what you’re experiencing.  Does it put me on the ground there inside the head of some kid jumping out of a jeep in Mosul?  Maybe.

Here’s the bottom line for me:  maybe the video game communicates its message more effectively than any of the recent Iraq war movies of, movies that no one really seemed to want to watch (even and especially the much-admired Stop Loss – barely $11M U.S. boxoffice). 

In its first week in Japan, MGS4 sold 450k units, making it the hottest-selling PS3 title to date (per eFluxmedia).  Maybe if you want to get an anti-war message across to your audience, today, forget making a movie: better publish a first-person shooter.