Fictional worlds in cinema and games: Affinities in their conceptions, creation, and goals

Abstract

Any cinematographic or videogame storytelling and narrative, real action, drawn or digital - imply developing replications of Man’s life and existence, that will have to be unavoidably anchored in its fictional space. Only with those worlds the game or movie character’s script and plot can make sense. The player lives and experiences these fictions and their worlds, feeling himself a protagonist of the fiction and a co-builder of it. Any linear cinematic narrative has a great amount of aspects that differ from its nature of being the strictly controlled narrative and representation of cinema or animation, compared to the player interaction with the fiction of a game. It is this common ground and distinction between linear and interactive narratives – film and animation versus games - that this article tries to analyze, understand, and explore. Toward this aim, some paradigmatic films and games will be used as case studies.