2025-06-07
The other day I went looking for footage of FMV games, and happened to find a YouTube playlist of trailers for modern FMV games. We're talking 4k cinema quality video here, literal interactive movies... and I found it terribly disappointing. Now I have nothing but respect for anyone who makes a game, so like, so shade to the developers. I'm only bringing it up because it got me Thinking. Why do I find retro FMV so charming and fun, while hi-fidelity video just feels kind of soulless? Irony? Nostalgia? I mean, yeah, but I think that's only like 20% of it.
I've been reading the classic Understanding Comics this year. Everyone told me it was good, and I finally picked it up even though I'm not an artist and certainly not a comics artist, and, you know what? Everyone was right. I had no idea it was going to be deep. Like. It's been a long time since I feel like I've learned something fundamental, something that reshapes the way I see the world. Anyway, somewhere near the beginning of this book, the author talks about the differences in audience experience when they're looking at realistic images versus more abstract or iconic images. Less realistic images leave more room for interpretation; indeed, they require interpretation. We, the audience, have to contribute to their meaning. And that's so much more interesting, so much more engaging, than just looking at a thing and knowing what it is. We become participants in lo-fi art. We see ourselves in the missing information. Or, something like that, the book's in the other room.
I think this is what's going on with retro FMV. It's more interesting because I'm supplying some of the meaning missing from the deepfried frames and bitcrushed audio. And maybe this is also why people get really into analog horror: lower fidelity leaves more room to psych yourself out. What's back there?? I can't really see! It could be anything!! Same with pixel art, same with low poly 3D. We like "games with worse graphics" because there's more of us in them.
...but also like 20% irony and nostalgia.