Introduction

Cinematography has contributed with traditional and emerging narrative techniques used in the sphere of video games from their inception to the present day, for example: the journey of a hero, a three-act structure, the representation of human emotions, character archetypes, the use of time and environmental re-creations ^{(Ip, 2010 a and 2010b)}.

In the beginning, as of the mid 1970’s, stories and characters usually came from films and television, and later appeared in video games; there was even a certain aesthetical analogy between this early cinema and these primitive arcade video games ^{(Marcos-Molano et al., 2021}; ^{Planells, 2011)} .

At once, there are highly relevant sources and media which have also influenced video games from the start (and even cinema and television) such as comics or novels. Popular culture characters such as Batman, Dracula or Don Quixote (Batman, Ocean Software, 1983; Dracula, CRL, 1986; Don Quijote, Dinamic, 1987, respectively) turn into video games or inspire other similar characters, virtually from the beginning. Besides, these entail very important intertextual practices between media, for example, the case of the novel Ender’s Game and its adaptation into a film, or the video games Double Dragon or Super Mario Bros, among others, who have produced comics of their own.

Later on, in the 80’s and following decades, video games largely served as inspiration for the film and television industry ^{(Carton, 2022}; ^{Martínez-Fabre, 2021}; ^{Stopel, 2019)} , particularly adapting mythical video games into films ^{(Wolf and Perron, 2005)} .

These adaptations (of video games into films) may be grouped into three categories ^{(Anyó, 2017)} :

a) Adaptation of the games’ universes, which become diegetic universes in cinema, as for instance: Super Mario Bros (Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, 1993), Street Fighter (Steven E. de Souza, 1994) or Double Dragon: The Movie (James Yukich, 1994).

b) Adaptation of rules and structure, which turn into a narrative structure. Films such as Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999), Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000), Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2002), Funny Games (Michael Heneke, 1997), or Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001).

c) Adaptation of participation and playability, which become a style and may attain an allegoric nature. Films such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Simon West, 2001), Ben X (Nic Balthazar, 2007), or Chatroom (Hideo Nakata, 2010).

In this way, videogames have been a great resource in the cinematographic panorama, particularly in science fiction and fantasy ^{(Fábics, 2017)} , being this inter-medialness another field of research in Game Studies ^{(Gunkel, 2018}; ^{Heineman, 2015}; ^{King and Krzywinska, 2002}; ^{Maté, 2021}; ^{Muriel and Crawford, 2018;)} , mainly based upon three paradigms: ontological, methodological and field ^{(Navarrete-Cardero et al., 2014)} .

The various approaches that have intended to define video games consider them a unique medium ^{(Wolf and Perron, 2005)} . However, despite the most attractive and studied category is that of video game adaptions, the present research focuses on films whose characters play the video game and so, it becomes the main topic and discourse of the plot ^{(Martínez-Fabre, 2015)} .

Such inter-medial proposal to approach a genre inside another is not new at all. For instance, there are novels or films that deal with the world of theater such as Fernando Fernán Gómez’s novel, El viaje a ninguna parte [Voyage to Nowhere], published in 1985 and turned into a film in 1986; or conversely, lyrical theater plays that deal with myths, fables, legends, or other novelistic typologies ^{(Serra-Heredia, 2015)} , thus making opera one of the most comprehensive genres (music, poetry, theater, novel, dance, etc.), either at stylistic or narrative levels.

For its part, the Seventh Art (a calque of Septième art) also implies a patchwork; in addition to serving as a hypertext to build numerous ludic digital creations, the sphere of video games may be utilized as a basis for the creation of a film plot of its own and as an inherent part of the context where this techno-ludic cinematographic fiction takes place ^{(Bittanti, 2003)} . This is the way in which films based on specific video games difference from them ^{(Sánchez-Mesa, 2012)} .

The influences on the big screen may be grouped into five main categories: game universes, the gamification of missions, controller and interfaces, game experience and game structure ^{(Larsen, 2017)} . At present, it is common to watch scenes were characters speak while they are playing a video game, either individually or collectively. However, fewer are the films where such action defines what occurs with the characters over the story ^{(Bittanti, 2003)} .

This resource, as we will intend to demonstrate in the present research, is useful to have not only a formal and aesthetical configuration proper to video games (with all its implications), but also for the characters (and thereby, the audience) to immerse in a world where rules are not the real world’s, but those characteristic of video games, though at once, they end up modifying the characters’ preestablished realities.

There are many precedents of the superposition and interconnection of fictions. The most recurrent are perhaps analepsis and prolepsis (i.e., flashback and flashforward), either to tell facts already occurred, which might take place, or could have happened (Glosario de cine, nd). Some instances are clearly noticed in Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) or in ¡Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall! [Welcome, Mr. Marshall!] (Luis García Berlanga, 1953). In this way, a story is introduced into another story, both at particular points or at global level, in which case it would be most determining for the initial premise, even placing it in the background (as in Citizen Kane).

However, there are other possibilities to include fictions as Matryoshka (Russian) dolls, which imply a change in the composition of the narrative rules the characters follow. One of them is when protagonists perform a play, as in Noises Off! (Peter Bogdanovich, 1992) or Shakespeare in love (John Madden, 1998); in these films, the characters who already interpret a character, play another role at once in the context of a theatrical performance. This enables theatricalized fiction, as it has its own rules and narrative structure, to promote characters behave and act differently regarding their real context, while their actions in such fiction influence their previous reality.

And finally, another possibility, even further from the original reference framework, would be introducing dreams or the oneiric sphere, as in some David Lynch’s films ^{(Sheen and Davison, 2004)} , in Freddy Krueger’s saga, and in an extreme manner as well in Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010). In the cases above, surrealism opens a wide variety of possibilities, in which time and the physical may be transgressed almost naturally, and the world and its characters could behave very differently from what is expected or preestablished by common reality. All in all, these instances are some antecedents or similes of video game inclusion in film history, and they all have, as all the cases commented, their own peculiarities and characteristics.

This way, the central point to understand the influence of the use of video games in film plots is to analyze the divergencies between the standard reality and that put forward by the ludic digital universe ^{(Mateu, 2017)} . Some of these belong to the very concept of the game; which develops in a separate world, fictitious, it is like a game narrated with actions, far from daily life, a continuous symbolic message ^{(Vázquez-Neira, 2011)} . Video games have goals and preestablished ways to carry them out: pursuing something or someone, throwing an object into a certain place, conquer a territory, defend and keep or recover an object, etcetera. In the case of role-playing games, players may collaborate in the story that their characters follow, creating, developing and exploring a fictional world in an adventure beyond the limits of everyday life ^{(Vázquez-Neira, 2011)}.

The most common characteristics of video games (some come from traditional games) for the purpose of encouraging motivation and competitiveness are: inclusion of levels or stages; various lives or health statuses, including spare lives or devices to recover health (potions, food, pills, etc.); time limit; interaction; multiple goals (short, medium and long term); and reward systems according to the progression in the game, e.g., defeat a boss, earn trophies, points, lives or money (sometimes actual money).

Another highly efficient resource for engagement is the use of storytelling ^{(Jiménez-Sánchez and Frontera, 2019)} ; it is the fundamental part of some genres such as graphic adventures, platform, and role-playing games (RPG) ^{(Lebowitz and Klug, 2011}; ^{Stone, 2019)} . In this regard, narratology offers three relevant concepts: focalization, granularity and form of narration, which may combine to create significance and thus increase the players’ involvement and interest in the game, via these narrative elements ^{(Arjoranta, 2015)} .

When all this is applied in cinema, the result is characters immerse in a history mediated by a series of rules or ludic structures, differenced from their daily lives. These two interwoven fictions produce a number of proposals in the film narrative

Among the most recurrent, one finds the concept of life and death. By and large, in video games, extended life and even spare lives are allowed, modifying thus —in relation to the real world— resistance to lose it. Likewise, in some cases, death in the game does not mean the game actually ends, which allows the character to survive in spite of dying in the ludic fiction.

Another topic is that of avatars and character customization, since video games offer the chance for the original body to transform into a different one with which to act according to a context other than the actual. At once, sexual identity, the concept of gender and even sexual orientation may come into play, as the avatar may imply a transgression of them.

Another sphere is the thin line between reality and fiction perceived by the characters, which confuses spectators as regards what occurs with them is the reality or part of the game. Conversely, an idyllic fiction far from reality may make the characters want to remain in the video game or a virtual reality —as Cypher in The Matrix (Lilly and Lana Wachowski, 1999)—; though, by and large, what is eventually demonstrated is that it is preferable to live in the reality (despite being bad) than in a lie.

Finally, and as a result of this creation of universes, both utopian and malicious, one wonders about the extent to which artificial intelligence (AI) and technology are capable of ruling human beings’ lives, or even the concept of freedom and free will of them in the face of machine control.

Goals

All these topics will be the analysis units to research in a series of films, in which characteristics proper to video games become key factors to understand the plots and the characters. The justification is that so far, no detailed updated study has been carried out regarding this sort of films. Therefore, the main goal was to research the way such elements inherent to video games propose new or original ways of narration in films. From this, another goal would be to reflect on the evolution of this intertextuality and ascertain whether we can actually speak of a booming genre of its own.

Methodology

The most extensive references used in the methodology are ^{Notargiacomo-Mustaro et al. (2013)} and ^{Sulbarán-Piñeiro (2000)} . A thematic discursive film analysis was run. In the first place, films whose main driver of the story was a video game were selected. To do so, an internet search was made on specialized sites such as IMDB.com and Filmaffinity.com, as well as in blogs and cinema webs, also in databases such as Scopus, WOS and Latindex in order to find research works related to films and video games. Moreover, suggestions from film platforms were accepted to gradually select less commercial or obscure films with similar premises, nevertheless.

The search yielded a sample of 25 films and four Black Mirror chapters, for in spite of being a TV series, each episode may be considered a short film independent from one another. It is worth mentioning that animation films were excluded in order not to extend the sample too much, and mainly because the basic purpose of this research is not to produce a listing of this sort of films, but to have a pool of cinematographic productions with which exemplify the various elements, object of study. The final listing in chronological order is displayed in Table 1 ¹, in which the most recurrent topics in the films were included.

It is worth underscoring that the criterion to select the sample was, in the first place, the existence of a ludic component proper to video games; therefore, fictions contextualized in virtual environments such as The Sims were discarded, as they propose an alternative virtual reality, though not gamified, as in the TV series Upload (Greg Daniels and Jeffrey Bilitz, 2020). Secondly, a sufficiently relevant video game at narrative level. Owing to this, it is important to clarify the reason why some films were left out of the listing.

The following were not selected: VGHS: The movie (Matthew Arnold, 2012), as it is compilation of the series; Scott Pilgrim vs. the world (Edgar Wright, 2010) because the presence of the video game was more aesthetical; The Last Starfighter (Nick Castle, 1984), The Wizard (Todd Holland, 1989), Cloak & Dagger (Richard Franklin, 1984) or Ben X (Nic Balthazar, 2007) because there is no plot in the video game, just particular moments of playing. The Lawnmower man (Brett Leonard, 1992), although the protagonist improves his intelligence (among other techniques) gaming in virtual reality (VR), the video game does not propose a fiction with which to change the protagonist’s reality; Pixels (Chris Colombus, 2015), Pokemon: detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019), or Wreck-it Ralph, (Rich Moore, 2012), because there is no video game as such, only parts of video game aesthetics are taken, while the characters in the video game interact in their real world, not otherwise.

In the case of Wreck-it Ralph!, the universe is the one proper to video games, though there is no fiction inside another. Plus, it is an animation film, which were previously discarded, that is, series and short films such as Pac-man the movie (James Farr, 2012) or The bishop of battle, included in Nightmares (Joseph Sargent, 1983). Similarly, neither are Super Mario Bros nor Assassin's Creed included (Justin Kurzel, 2016), since the alternative universe they offer is not a video game; and despite both are based on classic games, this study is not about adaptations. Some films were discarded as they were more VR than a game, namely: Virtuosity (Brett Leonard, 1995) or The Matrix; finally, neither were chosen Nerve (Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, 2016) nor Guns Akimbo (Jason Lei Howden, 2019), as these films deal with a game mediated by a digital interface (a technology-controlled Gymkana) and not based on a proper video game.

Once the final sample was chosen, the films were watched, focusing on topics related to the contribution that the introduction of the video game would produce on the development and comprehension of the various aspects of the film narrative ^{(Sulbarán-Piñeiro, 2000)} . To do so, as a critical discursive analysis, films (rows) related to any topic (column) were captured in an Excel spreadsheet, and in the intersection of these components, the way the film accounted for this particular object of study from video games was written.

After watching all the films and the corresponding spreadsheet was filled in, finally, the annotations in the intersections were discursively and jointly summarized in function of each topic, adding other lesser topics, which came from a reflection and observation process. All of this became the following results.

Results

These will be shown below, according to the various analysis units under research.

Target

It is worth underscoring that the target audience of many of the films analyzed here is youths and adolescents, something logical, since at present as in the past, young audiences have been the largest consumers of video games ^{(Statista-Porcentaje, 2022)}. This has an influence on films, since some characters are depicted as nerds or freaks in reality, though idealized in the game (Level Up, Max reload and the Nether Blasters, or Jumanji), trying thus to appeal to the public knowledge on computing. At once, these face the adult world, which would pose an apology of the arrival of a new generation, thereby, another reason for the youths to like this sort of films. For example, as in Ready Player One, it is mentioned that in order to beat the adults, that have to skip the rules, that is to say, the typical disobedience and rebelliousness of adolescents would be fundamental to be able to beat the game, connecting further with young audiences.

Some films also show that in order to earn victory, cooperation is a must; a value to be fostered, mainly among the youth and adolescents, who because of their age, live a large part of their around friendships and social groups. In this way, some of the latest films are based on RPGs, which allows each character to have not only an avatar, but also a differenced role from the rest. This encourages working in teams, against individualism (often depicted by the antagonists’ traits), a necessary component if the intention is to beat the game. In this way, they are reminded that union means strength, or even that friends are better than foes, as particularly noticed at the end of Max Reload...

Discussion and conclusion

As it has been noticed, the use of particular characteristics of video games implies a renovation in film narrative; these resources are increasingly utilized in cinema to the extent of becoming a genre of its own, or at least a well-defined subgenre other than fantasy and science fiction (occasionally closer to one than to another).

Therefore, after the film analysis run, the presence of the origin and evolution of a typology of films with a character of their own in the aforementioned genres may be verified ^{(Fábics, 2017)} . Attesting to this, one may look at the production year of the sample: two films in the 1980’s, four over the 1990’s, eight in the 2000’s, and eleven films and four Black Mirror chapters over the last ten years.

As noticeable in the age range and consumption volumes, video games have been gradually positioning, as of the 1980’s, in the lives of millions of people, which enables the cinema industry to reach broader audiences. Moreover, computing advances relentlessly and it favors devising new plots or scenarios to place the characters. Well now, we also witness the proliferation of MMORPGs, with professional players and massive competitions. This makes it clear, these are not freak or nerd audiences, thereby, neither are these films for video game aficionados any longer. Finally, business models have improved and broadened in this industry; some processes under way are online sales, i.e., free-to-play, microtransactions, subscriptions, or pay-to-play.

All the aspects above make cinema and television use more frequently resort to this audiovisual entertainment mechanism. Then we have to wonder about the future or evolution of this symbiosis, partially depending on techno-ludic advances and the various tendencies of the players. As demonstrated by the present research, this sort of cinema has taken advantage of the continual renovation of video games. The possibilities for the cinema are multiple, there are disparate genres or approaches such as cinema for children, terror, science fiction, comedy or war. In this way, cinema increasingly combines and renews the analyzed elements in various manners, putting forward new possibilities (as in the cases, particularly, the four Black Mirror episodes), which allows foreseeing a growth in such cinema sector in coming decades.

Owing to this, the present article is expected to serve as a contribution for the promising field of study of the dialectic between cinema and video games; likewise, it is recommended carrying out with the updating of the topic in order to witness the evolution of this fruitful synergy.