Kotaku 
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Denver, 6:45 AM
Wed Dec 2
62 posts in the last 24 hours
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01/28/09
First of all, plenty of movies are entirely freeform. "Slacker" is the first that popped into my head but it's just one such example. If he was talking about *Hollywood* movies, then he should have specified that.
Second, Hollywood movies follow the conventions they do because these conventions have been passed down for literally *thousands* of years. The three-act structure that Hollywood movies generally employ (and they don't always, honestly) is based on Aristotle's Poetics. Not to say that tradition for tradition's sake is always a good thing, but sometimes we have traditions because they work.
Third, most of Dan Houser's own writing follows these same conventions whether he means it to or not. GTA4 is an utterly conventional three act story. Act 1: Niko comes to America, and his cousin gets in trouble. Act 2: Niko gets in deep as he tries to rectify his cousin's situation while looking for the dude he needs to take revenge on. Act 3: Niko successfully solves these problems. The End.
There's nothing about that story that bucks tradition. GTA4 could fairly easily be translated into a (bad) Hollywood film, whether or not Dan Houser would like to admit it.
I get annoyed when people in the game industry get all high and mighty about other art forms when they obviously have no basis of knowledge or experience to do so.
01/28/09
This man is a true writer. Cheers!
01/28/09
Mayhap when he quits regurgitating themes and homogenizing the crime genre by aping movies and novels to create his very own eclectic style of rehash, then we may see the so called fruits of his freedom.
01/28/09
01/28/09
Video games are in some need of some serious writing reform.
I hate what qualifies as a "good story" from game review standards. Most of the time the the writing (and voice acting) is groan inducing and the story is trite and expectable.
01/28/09
Games are for playing, your all doing it wrong.
01/28/09
However, when it comes to a single player game, where I'm investing days worth of hours in to it, I better be knee deep in an engrossing yarn of woe and spectacle.
01/28/09
01/28/09
They are not mutually exclusive...
01/28/09
I disagree that TV/Film is as "structured" as he says. There's always the general story arc, but many times in the past year I have been completely blown away by plot, script or writing. It's all in the creativity of the team as a whole.
However, gaming is a completely different medium with a completely different aim. Entertainment yes, but with an interactive backbone. I think the exclusiveness of the gaming industry will keep writing with buckets of freedom as long as they are choking change out of children.
That said, how do I get this guy's job?