Every well-designed website in the world tries to lure you into reading more of its content by offering you more articles or videos on a similar subject to whatever you just viewed. For example, if you were reading an article on video game violence, you might see a little text box suggesting that you read a news piece about Jack Thompson’s disbarring.

I found myself on the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) page for upcoming Xbox 360 action thriller Alan Wake yesterday, and as I scrolled through the fairly bare page, my eye settled upon a familiar phrase. “If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends...”

What did it recommend? Well, amongst a few other games like Max Payne and BioShock, it seemed to think I should check out the 2008 UK murder mystery Fragments. Did I check it out? Actually, I did, surprisingly enough. It’s the first time I’ve ever followed a machine-generated suggestion and I was confident after looking at the trailer that Fragments would probably tug at the heart strings of the same audience as Alan Wake. (both are so far unreleased, so let’s hope for the best from Alan Wake and Fragments).

It was only then that I realised there was something fairly intruiging about this system. When I was viewing a page for Alan Wake, a video game, it suggested Fragments, a film. Is this another prime example that video games are becoming more and more cinematic; more and more respectable, even? A likeliness was being drawn between a large-budget game production and an indie film and I agreed with it. Both pieces share a particular atmosphere and seem to appeal to the same people. The largest line separating film and games right now is simply target demographics.

A film like WALL-E or Herbie isn’t classed purely as a “kid’s film”. Instead, we call them “family films”. Is this important? Actually, it is. Let’s look at a random selection of games given a 3+ age classification by PEGI. Baja, a racing game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; Heracles: Chariot Racing, another racing game, this time for Wii; finally, Disney Sing It!, a karaoke game. Imagine you’re a kid again, around 8 or 9 years old, and you really want to see a new film. It’s suitable for your age group but your mother doesn’t want to go alone so she goes with you and watches the film too. Score for the production company, they just made another ticket sale, and your mother managed to get a couple hours of entertainment out of it too.

It was a family film, so assuming it was a good movie, your mother might have enjoyed it as well, even though she could be more of a horror fan than anything else. I strongly doubt that your mother would have labelled it as a “casual” film and herself as a “hardcore” movie-goer. It’s a dumb term that gamers have used to try and classify games into a two-way spectrum representing how damaging it would be to your gamer reputation to be caught playing the game in question.

Dropping these terms would seriously be a step forward for the industry. Leave the past behind and proceed into an age where every game is for everyone. Don’t assume that first-time gamers or those who don’t game very often can’t learn the “sophisticated” gameplay of Metal Gear Solid or Zelda. These people aren’t dumb, they’re just unfamiliar with the medium. Teach them, don’t drive them away to shallow games that everybody else is ashamed to play. Create an action-packed story-based first person shooter with a good learning curve and don’t forget the power of the almighty difficulty slider.

If you like Alan Wake, check out Pulp Fiction, I say. If you enjoyed Back to the Future, take a gander at BioShock. Don’t get caught up in the details, just go for it. If your Underworld-loving mother can get some enjoyment out of Stone of Destiny, maybe you can just inject Jack’s arms with an OPEN MIND Hypo.

— Connor Beaton