so me & ceri are in a thing at the moment about what the Citizen Kane of video games is. a text that is considered the formal pinnacle of the medium, referenced continually & informs Video Games as they progress & grow. like, this is an objective question: what is that game?

this is also a query about time. like, in the span of video game history we are chronologically at around Citizen Kane time right now if we compare the timeline of Video Games to the timeline of Film (40-ish years into it’s existence i guess)

this house seems to be stuck on Ocarina of Time. i’m not convinced, necessarily, but that feels like it might be the right answer. for further context i think Super Mario Bros is like... Steamboat Willie, i think.

the big thing here as well is that Popular does not equal Great - and the game that holds that same landmark weight does not have to be a hit, or perhaps took longer to sink in.

ceri has just said mario is the chaplin of games and i’m gonna lie face down on the floor because i’m p sure he’s right

this is ridiculous

describing, say, Ocarina as the CItizen Kane of Games also like. comments on the weirdly self developed limitations & flaws of the form, too. like yes, there are moments of excellence but also - it standardizes mechanics, input, output, style - that we get trapped with kind of

i also need to say that we are allowed obviously have ~personal Citizen Kane Of Video Games. but this is objective: so it has to be something that p much everyone can reference. it doesn’t hinge on popularity but unfortunately intersects with popularity

look i never said i wasn’t the worst

myst is Important but idk if it’s the CK. myst is something alright

i viscerally disagree with MANY of your takes friends but i am enjoying this a lot

ceri just said that video games are inherently postmodern because they’re obsessed with themselves and honestly. a fact

our household GTA takes is that whole they are obviously Big Games their wider cultural references make them less obsessed with Video Games than with American Culture at different modern-historical junctures. GTAs are something but Not Citizen Kane

i’m so glad i haven’t had to block anyone for saying Assassins Creed

i love this discussion! i am no closer to an answer and maybe will never be! i love this! i love to *query*

sadly the fact that nobody has said Earthbound means it’s not Earthbound

also: some games aim to make leaps but fall staggeringly short and end up becoming cynical, or narratively cheap. we have taken to calling these games ~prestige games~ i will not name any but trust that you can intuit the kind of thing i’m talking about