Saw this on prominent gaming journalist Jeff Gertmann's formspring and thought it would be good for commenting on: I disagree.

I agree. With you, that is.

I think we just have to agree to disagree.

I would love to see how he can interpret "dumb action movie" from Tetris, Peggle and Planescape: Torment. And I bet there are other interesting examples as well.

Journalist... he has as much credibility as any other person out there.

Well... FMV games, I guess

If you mean Giant bomb Gerstmann then he is just like this.

As for the question I think games wanted to be like movies for some period of time. As a whole games were never ment to be action movie.

We're all products of what we grew up on, I believe, and he grew up on Atari and Nintendo. I get that. Still, I think he's wrong in an objective way, because a lot of big sellers 10+ years ago were much less cinematic.

Because they didn't have the technology, doesn't mean they didn't want to.

For an example you could take Bioware going from Baldur's Gate to Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect 3.

Before they had money for all the cool tech and voice overs by stars they had to make up for something to make that game stand out and the results were most of the time absolutely phenomenal (characters, story, locations).

They kind of still do the same stuff, but feels like the magic is gone (or I'm just to homophobic for all those gay romances :-P ).

DodoGeo, you mean, because they have better technology now, they can make games easier, more shallow, more boring and more empty?

I want old times go back :-( (Well, I may sorta time travel , thank GOG, like religious people use to say)

Does that mean that text adventures aspire to be books? It's a careless dismissal, and Gerstmann is being flippant even for the short format.

There's an element of silliness and spectacle in any kind of gaming if you look hard enough. They are fundamental elements of human culture. One might as well ask if movies always intended to be games considering how music, special effects, plot twists, etc. are designed to influence viewers. Perhaps Star Wars (1977) was really trying to be a neo-romantic symphony. Just listen to that soundtrack. Media influence one another. That's perfectly normal, and it most certainly does not mean that one medium is attempting to be another one.

I think he's confused. It's videogames that are being turned into big dumb (emphasis on the dumb) action movies (Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, BloodRayne, etc.).

Besides, some videogames would make better movies that the reboots, remakes and endless sequels the movie studios are pumping out nowadays (I'd love to see a movie based on The 7th Guest).

Action type games, probably some, but not all. Other type games...Of course not. He is painting with a huge brush, and of course it won't stay in the lines of truth then. Further, you watch a movie, while you play a game, it is a totally different experience, the two can never be called the same, just because the graphics are now awesome compared to back when.

And was so much better than any movie I know :-)

That would be immensely boring, I think. Isn't it just a long series of puzzles? I must confess it's been many many years since I played it, but that's what I remember. I don't recall much of a story. A movie based on Phantasmagoria, however...

Not every game is Call of Duty, Jeff.