What on earth does "video-gamey" mean?

[CleverNickName]

"video gamey" = "I hate the product that I'm applying this label to!"

That's not true. I think 3E is video-gamey, but I play it almost exclusively.

 

[Doug McCrae]

If the guys who have created each and every edition of D&D weren't inspired by their contemporary works of art, something would be dreadfully wrong with the world.

Totally. Because of the legacy fluff, D&D is still in many respects a window into early-mid 70s pop + geek culture.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I wonder if video games have become synonymous with "modern". VGs are a very modern art form that has evolved massively over the last thirty years. Movies have undergone significant changes as well. Heck, even the fantasy genre of literature is totally different than it was when D&D was born.

If the guys who have created each and every edition of D&D weren't inspired by their contemporary works of art, something would be dreadfully wrong with the world. (For reference, just look at Elmore's art and tell me it's not in touch with the 80s. I dare you.)
-blarg

I would agree with this.

I mean, look at the use of the words "videogamey" and "anime" to describe things like flashy attacks with fancy names and the like, as a contrast to "literary" which supposedly entails realism and subdued action. There is no doubt that a lot of anime series and videogames made these days feature flashy attacks with fancy names, but the reason they do so is because that kind of thing is the kind of thing that captures the attention of modern audiences of the fantasy genre. If D&D now features flashy attacks and fancy attack names, it is because people have grown to expect them in the fantasy genre, not because D&D is emulating anime and videogames.

Meanwhile, the classic "anti-videogame" "literary" influence seems to be Tolkien, which is rooted in the kind of fantasy you see in the writing of Tolkien's day. A lot of other "literary" examples come from a particular period and style of fantasy which seems pretty much limited to the set of fantasy authors who were popular when D&D was created. That particular kind of fantasy is mostly relegated to history now, since newer popular fantasy has taken a very different turn. D&D is just trying to catch up.


Anyways, there is one more thing I want to mention regarding this particular discussion. Far too many people are (perhaps unconsciously) trying to equate the role of the player in a videogame with the role of a player in D&D. These two things are not equivalent in any way, and trying to do so will lead to problematic conclusions. Just as it is fallacious to say that the role of D&D player is the same as the role of a reader of a book, or that the role of a D&D player is the same as the role of a player of a miniatures-based wargame, it is fallacious to make statements equating the range of choice open to a D&D player to the range of choice available to the player of a particular videogame. After all, a person playing a videogame may be expected to fulfill any number of roles with respect to the game, and this may range anywhere from "reader" or "viewer" to "distant commander of military units" to "controller of a single character", and often somewhere in between, and this makes direct comparison to D&D (which assumes a very specific and unusual player role) incredibly difficult.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Give me just one videogame that has a world and story (no videogames that are abstract puzzles) that can not possibly be turned into a great movie

Ummmm, just about any movie done by Uwe Boll:

House of the Dead
Alone in the Dark
BloodRayne
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Postal
Far Cry

And for a non-Uwe movie...
Super Mario Brothers

 

[Destil]

Video-Gamey (adj): Of or pertaining to an element of Pen and Paper roleplaying that is often used in Video Games. Generally something inspired by D&D, like killing monsters and taking their stuff and levels/classes.

 

[Teemu]

Are spellcasters in 3e and earlier editions more videogamey than non-spellcasters simply because they have flashy special effects due to their magical nature?

 

[SSquirrel]

Ummmm, just about any movie done by Uwe Boll:

House of the Dead
Alone in the Dark
BloodRayne
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Postal
Far Cry

And for a non-Uwe movie...
Super Mario Brothers

No this is a list of video games that were turned into bad movies. The question was games that have a world that could not be turned into a good movie or RPG. I submit that these all could have been, however Uwe Boll sinks anything he touches and the SMB movie people ignored large parts of the whole concept of Mario and focused on stupid things like the jumping boots. Trying to remember if it was Iwata or Miyamoto I saw talking about that recently.

Videogamey>Yeah 4E is just like a video game. I mean, it feels just like WIi Sports Tennis to me. My guy just does his thing and the only thing I can control is when he attacks that ball. I just walk up to it and swing. And again. Oh wait, that's 1st and 2nd Ed The videogame talk is completely bogus, some people just can't seem to let it go.

 

[CountPopeula]

I think I figured out what this means.

"4e is video-gamey" means it's mechanically simplified and uses some video game jargon blatantly. Calling a necklace a "neck slot item" feels like a video game term to me, for example. But I think it mainly refers to all classes having the same number of the same kind of abilities, only differentiated by effect, not mechanics.

"3e is too video-gamey" means that the acquisition of new abilities across every class is too linear. Also, the formulas were made more intuitive and less arcane (defense increases, no THAC0, saves based on abilities and not sources).

Yeah, there you go. it basically means "I don't like certain mechanical changes"

 

[WayneLigon]

I think the reason that the 'video gamey' tag really gets under people's skin and makes them especially combative is that not all that long ago the phrase equated to 'childish'.

 

[Blustar]

...
Meanwhile, the classic "anti-videogame" "literary" influence seems to be Tolkien, which is rooted in the kind of fantasy you see in the writing of Tolkien's day. A lot of other "literary" examples come from a particular period and style of fantasy which seems pretty much limited to the set of fantasy authors who were popular when D&D was created. That particular kind of fantasy is mostly relegated to history now, since newer popular fantasy has taken a very different turn. D&D is just trying to catch up...

Ummm, are you serious when you state that Tolkien has been regulated to history? Are you also implying the same for Leiber, Howard and the like?

I think you are seriously over-inflating the popularity of modern fantasy. I consider myself a fantasy afficionado and I still havn't read anything modern that I would say regulates the great fantasy authors to history. Actually most popular fantasy is drivel and bubblegum. Sans a few select authors.

The best selling fantasy movie (and most popular) is Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit will sure to be a blockbuster too. I don't think great fantasy will ever get regulated to history. I mean I still think the Odyssey and The Illiad are the greatest fantasy stories ever written.

Can you list this newer popular fantasy influencing D&D that I seem to be missing...