Regardless of what you think about their most recent movies, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg know a thing or two about movies, entertainment and storytelling. So when they start talking about video games, we should probably pay attention.

Both men said that it was the human connection between the players and the characters on-screen that was what video games struggled with the most when compared to other narrative-based forms of entertainment and that was where the next evolution of video games lied.

The pair spoke on a panel about the future of entertainment at the grand opening of the Interactive Media building at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Coincidentally, Microsoft Interactive Entertainment President and gamer enemy #1, Don Mattrick, was also on the panel with the two cinematic legends.

Both Spielberg and Lucas talked about the importance of characters as the area where games are lacking the most compared to more traditional forms of entertainment. Both suggested that the actual gameplay was the cause of the disconnect between players and the characters on-screen.

On the subject, Spielberg said, “The second you get the controller something turns off in the heart, and it becomes a sport.” Lucas said that the reliance on violence in games means that the emphasis is taken off the characters.

But the man behind Star Wars has an idea as to what the next big game will be and it’s not another CoD clone. Lucas told the assembled crowd, “The big game of the next five years will be a game where you empathize very strongly with the characters and it’s aimed at women and girls. They like empathetic games. That will be a huge hit and as a result that will be the ‘Titanic’ of the game industry, where suddenly you’ve done an actual love story or something and everybody will be like ‘where did that come from?’ because you’ve got actual relationships instead of shooting people.”

Spielberg thinks that he big breakthrough lies in technology that Microsoft is investing in like Kinect and IllumiRoom. He said, “I believe need to get rid of the proscenium. We’re never going to be totally immersive as long as we’re looking at a square, whether it’s a movie screen or whether it’s a computer screen. We’ve got to get rid of that and we’ve got to put the player inside the experience, where no matter where you look you’re surrounded by a three-dimensional experience. That’s the future.”

I tend to agree with Lucas that empathetic characters are the future of games. A game like Telltale’s The Walking which places a strong emphasis on the characters in the game and their stories is probably a very basic template for what he and Spielberg think games should work on going forward. Even with the violent elements to the game, they carry the story forward rather than take you out of it for the most part.

I don’t agree with Spielberg that getting rid of the screen and controllers will make games any better. As long as CoD is held up by publishers as the gold standard, gaming isn’t going to progress as an entertainment medium regardless of how they’re controlled or viewed. We should worry about story first and let the rest follow.

Source: Variety