It is the early 1980's. Two children sit in front of a television screen, joysticks in hand, enraptured by the sight of a small white blob bouncing across the screen, back and forth, in Atari's version of the classic game Ping Pong. Now flash forward to the year 2000, a mere two decades later. Two children of the same age group sit in front of a larger television, oblivious to the world around them as they watch Squall Leonheart battle the sorceress Idea in 64-bit graphics so realistic that they could nearly pass for photographs; a product of Squaresoft's new Playstation game release Final Fantasy VIII.

In a mere twenty years, the video game industry has advanced incredibly. But to what do we attribute these drastic changes? Are there any unifying themes to link this advancement together? Looking back at the history of gaming, and critically examining those games currently on the market, an obvious trend emerges. As the years progress, video games borrow more and more from the genres of theatre and film; so much so that a large percentage of the games currently available are in themselves a cinematic presentation, arguably becoming interactive movies.

Video games have undergone nearly constant change since their advent in the late nineteen-seventies, and at increasing speeds. With Nintendo's American release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as the Famicom) in 1986, video gaming made the leap from cheesy blobs, squares, and barely-recognizable humanoid forms, to slightly more believable 8-bit graphics. From there came the Super Nintendo (1990), and the Genesis (a Sega game system), both boasting 16-bit graphics, taking video games one small step closer to realism. Five years later came the Sony Playstation (a system capable of 64-bit graphics which was released in 1995 but not popularized until nearly two years later with the game Final Fantasy VII), and Sega's counterpart, the Saturn. On the heels of the Playstation followed the Nintendo 64 (1996), yet another release from Nintendo Corporation, also complete with 64-bit graphics. Today, gaming is changing at a rate nearly comparable to that of the internet. With the recent release of Sega's Dreamcast system, and Sony's Playstation 2, gamers are promised graphics nearly parallel to those of current motion pictures.

One of the most obvious ways in which video game designers borrow from the cinematic genre is in their usage of ending credits, a technique which is found even back in the days of the Famicom. Upon completing a game, the player is subjected to a list of credits; the names of all who participated in the creation of the work. In more recent releases, game designers cleverly con players into watching the entire list, some of which span over 5 minutes in length, by placing pictures, animations, or even short story sequences afterward, forcing players to watch the credits in their entirety if they wish to see the complete ending.

A more recent addition is that of the title sequence, a technique which is nearly synonymous with feature films. While earlier games such as Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. did contain title sequences, they were very short and consisted merely of ghost-play, that is, the characters of the game going through the basic motions of the game and 'dying' shortly afterward. With more recent releases, notably those for Sony's Playstation system, gamers are treated to lavish, movie-like opening titles, some over 4 minutes in length. Some games, such as the complex role-playing game 'Xenogears' from Squaresoft and Konami's popular 'Angelique' series, feature actual hand-painted animation in their opening sequences.

Another aspect in which gaming mirrors the theatre and film industries is in its extensive use of character design. Much as feature films attempt to attract viewers by casting popular and/or attractive actors and actresses, video games attempt to attract players by including iconic main characters, many with lavish costuming and complicated pasts. For example, in the first-person shooter game Tomb Raider, the heroine character Lara Croft is credited to being "a product of the mechanization of bodies beginning in the Industrial Revolution; her fetishized beauty resides in her slick and glistening 3-D generated polygons, evolved from clunky robotic metals into more appropriate attire for Information Society" (Anne-Marie Schleiner, 'Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons'). In Konami's popular role-playing game series 'Angelique' (originally for Super Nintendo but now out on Playstation), targeted at young women, the gameplay basically consists of flirting with 9 main male characters, all designed to be both physically and intellectually attractive, in order for the main character to either marry one of these 9 men or become queen. The gameplay itself is incredibly monotonous, however because of its score of attractive young men, the Angelique series is one of the top rated games among female video game fans in Japan (the game is not currently released in the United States). In Japan, the metaphorical mother-country of the gaming industry, video games which use prominent seiyuu (voice actors) in their animations are proven to sell better than those with unknowns. This directly parallels the film industry in its usage of attractive, iconic stars.

Another way in which video games are moving toward a cinematic theme is in their use of lavish sets and illusionary worlds. While earlier game-worlds consisted of only a simple two-dimensional, side-scrolling world (in the early Super Mario Bros. series from Nintendo it was impossible even for characters to go backwards and retrace their path), modern games have progressed into full-blown 3-dimensional spaces. Says Steven Johnson of first-person shooter games such as Doom and Quake: "Given the core audience of teenage boys, there's no denying that the carnage is an important part of the appeal, but ... the pleasure of these games is as much the pleasure of mastering a space, learning to navigate through it, as it is the pleasure of shooting things" (Johnson, 73). Much as George Lucas' Star Wars: The Phantom Menace relied heavily on its lavish sets and exotic locale to add to the overall appeal of the movie, modern video games make use of complicated 3D rendered worlds to entice the player into buying, playing, and recommending the game to friends.

The list is nearly endless. The game over screen of Konami's Genso Suikoden series features the main character on his knees in a spotlight, surrounded by darkness; a classic technique used in the theatre to invoke feelings of defeat and/or loneliness. Video game soundtracks are ranking as some of the top-selling soundtracks in Japan; mirroring and even surpassing their motion picture counterparts. As video games progress, the trend toward the theatrical genre becomes ever more obvious, which leaves the question: Will there be some point in the future where the theatrical industry will be overshadowed by the gaming industry? Given the recent boom in game popularity, the question becomes ever more valid, however, only time will tell.