FMV games as a new form of hybrid media

The present study is dedicated to the issue of distinguishing FMV games as a specific digital media format. During the research, unique features of FMV games are identified that set them apart from cinema and traditional video games. The article examines FMV games as a controversial and debated phenomenon. An attempt is made to answer whether this form truly represents a unique phenomenon and if it can be classified as a separate form of media. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that FMV games are a vibrant phenomenon in the interactive entertainment industry, which has its audience, specifics, and ways of interacting with users. This creates a need for a clear theoretical understanding and highlighting it as a new form of hybrid media. In the process of writing the article the author used the methods of comparative, historical, and structural analysis of FMV games, which allowed for the identification of their features and the specifics of their evolution. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the historical analysis and typologization of FMV games based on the principle of the influence of FMV elements on the structure of the works; in the structural analysis of FMV games and an attempt to define FMV games as a separate form of hybrid media that differs from cinema and traditional video games. The author conducted a similar study within the framework of analyzing the nature of interactive films. This study also addresses the structural differences between FMV games and interactive cinema. As a result of the research, the following objectives were achieved: to discover significant differences between FMV games, cinema (including its interactive branch), and traditional video games; to propose a classification of FMV games as "hybrid media"; to analyze the role of the user when interacting with modern FMV games, which differs from the familiar roles of gamer, film viewer, and the specific role of focalizer (in interactive cinema).

hybrid, video games, FMV-games, full motion video, user role, gamer, player, screen media, agency, interactivity