An afterthought addendum to my earlier post:

There will never be a “Citizen Kane” of gaming.

According to Roger Ebert in his commentary on Citizen Kane (a very excellent commentary that I recommend anyone interested in the mechanics and art of film-making to seek out), Citizen Kane is “the Citizen Kane of cinema” primarily not due to its artistic message and tone, but rather because it exists as the first defining example of modern film-making.

Citizen Kane tops many film critics lists for “greatest film”, and upon viewing it I understood why.  It would never reach such a lofty spot on my personal list, but that is because I approach film as a consumer, with my view coloured heavily by my personal preferences for taste.  Critics have a much broader view of the medium than I, however, and so they see much greatness in Citizen Kane that transcends mere personal taste.

I may be incorrectly remembering and characterising Mr. Ebert’s comments, but as I recall his commentary, he was clear that Citizen Kane remains to this day the defining example of film-making.  The shots were framed in ways that film-makers still emulate to this day; the pacing, camera-work, script design and almost all other mechanical aspects of film-making used in Citizen Kane continue to be the standards by which film is judged to this day.   Citizen Kane is “the greatest film of all time” because, seventy years after its release, it continues to be the yardstick by which all other film is measured.

It is literally impossible for a single game to hold a similar role.

“Video game” is an extremely broad brush, covering a range of gameplay conventions (generally described as the game’s ‘genre’) that often bare little resemblance to each other.  Real-Time Strategy games are vastly different from First-Person Shooter games, which are in turn very different from Racing games, Sports games, Puzzle games or Platformers.  Even closely related “genres”, like First-Person and Third-Person Shooters, bear enough dissimilarity to make assigning a single “defining” game to both completely meaningless.  There will never exist a single game that stands the test of a century serving as the example against which all other games shall be judged.

It is possible that we might have a “Citizen Kane” within a singular gameplay genre.  Video games are a very young medium, but one could make a strong case that either Dune 2 or Starcraft already serves this role for the Real-Time Strategy genre.  But as much a mastercraft of its particular genre Starcraft is, it still cannot be called “the ‘Citizen Kane’ of gaming”, as its conventions and design hold no meaning whatsoever for the wide array of games that exists outside the Real-Time Strategy category.

Whatever the “genre” of film, be it drama, comedy, romance, thriller or anything else, certain conventions of film-making still apply.  Video games vary so widely in their design – through input, gameplay conventions, design mechanics, even pacing and scope – that trying to define a single example to serve as the measure for all games for years to come is a futile task.  Games are simply far too diverse a medium for there to ever exist a “Citizen Kane of gaming”.