It seems like a concept that’s thrown around a lot these days is the parallel between video games and cinema, and the taunting question of when’s our Citizen Kane going to come around? But I wonder if all the people pondering this aloud truly understand what they’re looking for. I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that the vast majority of gamers haven’t actually seen Orson Welles’ 1941 classic. I have. And while I certainly believe it to be a great film and can recognize its significance in the history of motion pictures, it’d be a stretch to call it the greatest movie of all time.

It’s generally revered for its technical prowess–the cutting edge direction and cinematography that came together in a way cinema had never seen before. And GoldenEye changed First Person Shooters on consoles forever, but that doesn’t make it a better game than Perfect Dark. See, what I think people are really looking for in games is a trail-blazer–a game that utterly changes how we perceive video games and what they can do. But when you really think about it, our medium has already seen this “Citizen Kane” come and go. For old-school gamers who’d only known 2D side-scrolling their entire lives, Super Mario 64 shattered their expectations like nothing before. I’d argue that the transition from 2D to 3D was more jarring than anything Citizen Kane introduced to film.

I wonder if Mario will recall his innocent, pre-sellout days on his death bed and call out "Tanooki"?

That’s the fascinating thing about our medium of choice. We’re constantly changing, upgrading, rethinking the way we play. The most drastic changes in the history of movies were probably the transition from the silent era to sound, and from black and white to color. Everything else has really just been minor tweaks and explorations of an established craft. And that’s in over a century of moving pictures. Video games on the other hand, have had as many drastic changes in the past 15 years. 3D and motion controls were game changers. Hell, you could even throw in online play and Sandbox games. So really, I think we’re just so used to change in our industry that we didn’t even notice our Citizen Kane.

But for argument’s sake, let’s say Citizen Kane is regarded as the greatest film of all time for reasons besides its innovative technical feats. Besides its deep focus photography and fresh new camera angles, Welles’ masterpiece is also remembered for the way he weaved the story together in a series of flashbacks that threw chronology out the window. This sort of story telling that we take for granted because of modern classics like Pulp Fiction and Memento had never been seen before Citizen Kane. It was a brand new way to experience a story. This sort of story presentation has even had an impact on video games, with games like Chrono Trigger and Braid toying around with time.

But as for games that have most impacted the way we experience a story, Doom has to take the crown. With few exceptions, video games were almost entirely third person affairs before the father of the FPS. But Doom changed the face of video games forever. And hearing industry vets recall their first experience in the First Person Perspective just makes me long for that kind of expectation-shattering experience. I can’t really think of a change in story-telling bigger than going from playing a character’s story to playing your own story.

"I'm way more badass than those douches in Contra."

But perhaps the film critics are all wrong. Maybe it isn’t any technical aspect of Citizen Kane that makes it so worshiped, but rather its subject matter and the circumstances surrounding it. See, this movie infamously depicts the life of media mogul William Randolph Hearst behind the guise of Charles Foster Kane’s fictional story. Hearst was outraged at Welles’ portrayal and put all his power to use in trying to destroy the young film maker’s story before it could see the light of day, but ultimately could not prevent its release. His efforts weren’t fruitless however, as the smear campaign he ran largely contributed to Citizen Kane winning only one of the nine Academy Awards it was nominated for. But even without the controversy surrounding its release, the movie would have been remembered as one of the few serious and socially relevant stories of a time dominated by the likes of The Wizard of Oz.

This is where things get interesting on our side. Sure, we’ve got games that have faced heavy scrutiny on their way to release–Mortal Kombat comes to mind–and we’ve got games that deal with serious issues–behind all the nano-machines Metal Gear Solid 4 actually deals with some pretty serious stuff–but we’ve never really had a socially relevant game met with a storm of controversy. I suppose someone could make an argument for Grand Theft Auto, but the controversy was never over what the games were saying, but rather the violence within them. I’d love to use Six Days in Fallujah as my prime example here, but unfortunately Konami saw fit to give into the demands of all the William Hearsts out there. The video game industry just seems content to stick with the escapist stories of Summer Blockbusters instead of the dark and less-than-inspirational realities dealt with in many classics.

Prostitution is a serious social issue.

So what is our Citizen Kane? If you’re in the camp still waiting for it to come, you likely won’t find it until our medium starts dealing with some more serious subject matter. We’ve got the technical and conceptual parts down. We have for years, and we’ll continue to reinvent them for years. Ironically, our constant leaps of improvement in those departments may also prevent us from refining the more subtle aspects of presentation that separate the good film makers from the great ones, but that’s a conversation for another day. But if you’re still waiting for our Citizen Kane, it’ll probably take something as revolutionary as Super Mario 64 but dealing with less princesses and more capitalist extremism…damn it BioShock! Why couldn’t you have had some more innovative gameplay mechanics to go with that narrative? I think most gamers would settle for the Star Wars of gaming though.

Wait a minute, there wasn't a cane in Citizen Kane!

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Creators of such wonderful FPSes as Doom, Wolfenstein, and the yet to be released Rage, id Software, were purchased by the parent company of Bethesda Softworks (creators of such wonderful RPGs as Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), ZeniMax Media.

Why did id, one of the last independent developers out there, decide to sell to ZeniMax? Apparently they were having some trouble with today’s big publishers. John Carmack, in an interview with Kotaku said “As we were shopping Rage and Doom and upcoming stuff, talking about all of that, we were getting a pretty consistent line from all the publishers. They were willing to continue to fund our working with partner companies for all of these but pretty much ever publisher said, ‘Well, it would be worth much more to us if you would grow your studio and do more of your own work internally. That’s why we already started to staff up to do Doom 4 internally. So things were already moving in that direction.”

Activision, who are publishing their upcoming Wolfenstein game, was mentioned specifically. In the same interview with Kotaku, Carmack said “Going back to a much earlier time we were just Activision’s shooter shop. We did the FPSes there. There was no conflict, and that was great. But they brought on their own internal studios and there’s a very real conflict there between whether they want to put resources behind something they own the IP for and derive all the profit for versus something where they don’t own the IP and they might feel like any effort they’re putting into it isn’t going into their value but somebody else’s. That problem has grown over the years as budgets have increased.”

So why did id choose ZeniMax as their publisher of choice? id CEO, Todd Hollenshead, found that ZeniMax was the publisher that lined up best with their own philosophy on how games should be made.

Current id properties like Doom, Rage and Wolfenstein all transfer over to ZeniMax as well, but the Rage and Wolfenstein games currently under development will still be published by EA and Activision respectively. However, any future games made in those series will be published by ZeniMax.

Ultimately, this merger is meant to make id a better developer. “It allows us to accelerate the growth of our internal studios, so we can focus on making all of our internal games as opposed to working with external partners where there has been a step down in quality… There will be more, better games from id. So if you’re a fan of the company, then it is all upside and all things to look forward to.” And ZeniMax seems to be on board with that idea as well. In a press release, ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman said “We, along with many others, consider id Software to be among the finest game studios in the world, with extraordinary design, artistic and technical capabilities. They have demonstrated, repeatedly, that rare ability to create franchise properties that are critical and commercial successes. Our intention is to make sure id Software will continue to do what they do best – make AAA games. Our role will be to provide publisher support through Bethesda Softworks and give id Software the resources it needs to grow and expand.”

It’s a bit sad to see another independent developer get gobbled up by a publisher, but it’s also nice to know that id will be able to produce more, better quality games. Here’s hoping for an awesome RPG/FPS hybrid cross-over game from Bethesda and id.

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