Trigger Happy
171
Well, Robotron and Valhalla are pretty old games.
Things on first inspection look somewhat different with
the modern multimedia extravaganzas. Gamers familiar
with epics such as the Final Fantasy series will quickly
voice this objection. For every so often in such games,
an FMV (full-motion video) sequence—the computer-
generated “movie” nugget—pops up and moves the
plot along. The narratives of the FMV sequences and
the actual gameplay are contemporaneous: that is, the
FMV is a synchronic story line, and a very involved
one it is too. The same thing occurs in Metal Gear
Solid
23
—where the highly entertaining plot is as tightly
scripted and twisty as most Hollywood action movies—
in Zelda 64 and, to a lesser extent, in the Tomb Raider
games. Here are games that do have synchronic stories.
Do they constitute some form of interactive
storytelling?
As we touched on in the last chapter, the thing
about FMVs is that they are completely predetermined.
The player must watch them, cannot take part in them
interactively. These sequences are also known as
“cutscenes”—appropriately, because they signal a
_________________
23 Although here they use the game engine’s normal graphics, rather than
the superior rendering of FMV. FMVs are just the most popular type of cut-
scenes.
