Presented by: Denis Dyack

1. Reflections on the 8th
Art
Denis Dyack

2. Who am I? 

4. Related Talks
Engagement Theory
The 8th Art
The Medium is the Massage
One Console Future
Musing about Clouds

5. Engagement Theory
Engagement >= Story + Art + Audio +
Technology + Gameplay
Reflection on Legacy of Kain
Flow

6. The 8th Art
Video games as art
Parallels to film history
Eight

7. Medium is the Massage
Understanding the
medium of video
games

8. A One Console future
Technology and Commoditization
Economics will force us to one console
“Commodification can be the desired
outcome of an entity in the market, or it can
be an unintentional outcome that no party
actively sought to achieve.”
- wikipedia

9. Musing About Clouds
Why they are the future:
• Economic
• IP Protection
• Everyone wins: cost effective, lower
cost, better access, bigger market
place

10. Fundamentals of the 8th Art
Tradition Entertainment vs Video Games
• Books, films, tv, music are all linear
• Video Games are non-linear and
interactive

11. Video Recorder Analogy
Star Wars vs Call of Duty

12. Why the Recorder Analogy
Matters
Broadcasting linear content allows for the
capture of the entire experience
Broadcasting interactive content only captures
part of the experience
• Thus Star Wars vs Call of Duty = Call of
Duty wins from an IP integrity perspective

13. Clouds
Stops the commoditization of software

14. Golden Age of Video Games
1st Parties, 2nd Parties, 3rd Parties
Games cheap
Fast to make
Profitable
Not many games

15. This is now…
Gamers
Requires more investment then traditional
linear mediums
With investment comes loyalty
Language of games is still primitive

16. High Pressure System
Rising Costs of Development
• 30M+ budgets are here to stay
• 30M+ Marketing Budgets
Fewer games making most of
the sales
A Hit Driven Industry
360, PS3 and
Wii, iOS, Mobile, F2P, MMO, S
ocial
• Less Penetration with each SKU
More difficult to be
successful

17. Success
AAA games are now defined by their
Marketing budgets – Don Daglow
(2007)
EEDAR: Marketing,
Perception

18. Coming Storm
Event Horizon
Commoditization
Performance oversupply
Walls coming down
End of Retail
iOS, F2P, Mobile, MMOs,Clouds

19. Massive Disruption
Who will survive?
Hardware will not matter
Economics in question
Sandcastle walls will wash away

20. What will survive?
Good games will survive
The rest is just a sideshow

21. Reflections on the 7th Art
Cinema will thereby prove to the supreme
artistic means of representing and
expression of milieus and peoples. It
will cease being “individual,” copying
the theatre, which in turn copies itself.
- Canudo

22. Immateriality in Games
Exclusive domains
Its in its infancy
Universal language that will entertain in
ways we cannot yet imagine