I was going to throw this out for discussion, but instead I decided to start with an argumentative piece to hopefully increase interest.
Is the use of the cut-scene as the primary story teller in a game a step in the wrong direction? I move that it is. Games co-exist along with two other primary stoy telling media in our society, cinematic and print. A cut scene in it’s essence is a small cinematic production. Telling a story in this way is a simple cop out, outsourcing the narrative to another medium. This concept is a divorce between game play and narrative, each being served to the player in independent servings. The strength of video games as a narrative is the ability to be involved, by allowing cut-scenes to remain the driving force in the games plot we are condemning games to always be in the shadow of cinema. A short movie with games to keep us occupied in-between as it were. (Or a game with short movies in between to break up the action, but I’m focusing on plot here)
A cut-sceen is not intrinsically bad in nature, but it should not be used as a centerpiece of plot. In title such as FFVII we can see that FMV was not used to further the plot, but to highlight aspects of the plot that were visually impressive. Often times the biggest disconnect is simply in the camera angles used. Why must the camera fade to black every time a character has something to say? Couldn’t we just zoom out a little and pan the camera to ground level? Or better yet, why not say it on the field menu? Developers should at all costs ensure that the connection between the characters they are developing and the characters you are playing is as strong as it can possibly be. That is their medium. All of the hours of exposition is for naught if there is a disconnect between the people you watch in the cut-sceens and the people you play on screen. It would be like shifting your attention between a game you are playing on PC and a show you are watching on TV. How are you supposed to establish a meaningful connection between the two characters?
Should be enough to get things rolling.