The "Your Seminal Movie Here" Of Games

Previously in the comments someone said that there's been no Citizen Kane of games.  Something I've heard said before, except the last time it was Birth of a Nation.  The argument is that games are just sideshow entertainment and we're waiting for the one truly groundbreaking one that will be Art or Be Truly Inventive or Have Lasting Importance.

But we've had a bunch that qualify!  Braid and Grand Theft Auto 3 are works of art.  (Surprised that I put GTA in there?  The way freedom permeates the whole thing, from the name of the city to your actions to the gameplay, and the exploration of the fuzzy area between freedom and criminality, makes it a work of art in my book.)  Games that are truly inventive are too numerous to list-- when they come along they spawn genres--Dune 2, Doom, GTA (again), The Sims, Guitar Hero. Civilization has lasting importance - it gets my vote for our Birth of a Nation - think I learned more about ancient history because of Civ than any history class I ever took.  (Side note:  Civ Revolution is the best thing that's happened to my DS, and I'm pleased to announce that I just beat it on Deity last night for the first time.)

Ok, so those are mine.  What are your Citizen Kane / Birth of a Nation of games - and why?

Comments

[Josh Szepietowski]

Starcraft: Brood War is my pick

[Jay Kint]

Ultima IV. Before this game, RPGs that I played were just about killing stuff and collecting loot. While that is a worthwhile activity (in a game), I thought something was lacking. Ultima IV showed me what it was.

[Nat]

i still think we are in the cabnet of dr. caligari days. experimental. still exploring. just starting to use some interesting plot devices. I'm hoping Far Cry 2 is going to be the next big thing. Love what they are doing with their Story Engine.

[Justin P]

"Beyond Good and Evil" is my "Citizen Kane". As a game, it is a great exploration of conspiracy, adventure and action and belies an undercurrent of subversion, whilst maintaining some serious personality and charm.

[Enrique Saul Gonzalez]

I think for most people the argument is inherently flawed. NO game is going to "open the doors" of mainstream acceptance overnight.
It took half a century for cinema to be recognized as "art" and for the significance of classics as "Birth of a Nation" and "Citizen Kane" to be acknowledged.
And of course evaluating games only on their narrative qualities is about as fair as doing the same for music or paintings. Many games that don't ammount to much narratively (e.g. Super Mario Bros.) were groundbreaking gameplay-wise and instrumental on defining the potential unique to videogames as a new medium.

[Joe from Scarybug]

Portal is the Young Frankenstein of games.

[Max Szlagor]

Shadow of the Colossus, easily. It was one of the first games to truly evoke emotion and made me think deeply about what my actions meant for the characters and the world. Several of the games in the Final Fantasy series also qualify because I feel a genuine attachment to the worlds and characters in a way that other games simply can't match.

[Paul Senzee]

Ultima V is #1, for me. It has all of what's revolutionary about Ultima IV and adds much greater depth, more shades of gray and is vastly more polished. And I second the nomination of GTA 3. It's hard to realize how influential it was now - in an era when almost all games have adopted many of its principal innovations and made them their own.