On the Presentation of Media

I originally posted this on the Eternity's End devlog, but I thought it'd be fun if I shared it here, too:

Hey all. Illy here. No updates today, instead, I'm giving you a little peek into the life of a game developer ;)

Well, first off, I just got a Wii today, and I should be ordering a trio of books by next week (Gamer Theory, Simulacra and Simulation, and the Disgaea Manga.)

And I've been watching Discovery Channel's ever-so-sublime "Planet Earth" series (Against my will, oddly enough.)

So, as you can see, I've been intaking a lot of media as well as outputting it. As such, I've come up with a few conclusions about media in general, and how it's presented:

To me, there seems to be four ways to present media: There is interactive media (Games), printed word (Books, comics, newspaper, etc.), non-visual (Radio, music, etc.), and non-interactive (Movies, television, etc.)

Now, of course, the highest form of media, is of course, interactive. It simply is the most immersing, since one not only listens to the story, but takes command of it.

Next up comes printed word, the second-most immersing form of media. Although it is both the most technologically un-advanced as well as a passive media, I find it that it is almost as immersive as a game for one reason: One has to use his own imagination to visualize the scene the words portray.

Now, in dead-last comes everyone's beloved television and movies, AKA non-interactive media. To me, a great story portrayed by television and movies (Like Planet Earth, for example,) is easily ruined because it's portrayed through this form of media. It's like going to a dirt-biking stadium with training wheels. Sure, you can still get some thrill out of it, but it's just not the same.

(You'll notice that I left out non-visual media. I simply did this because it's too reliant on content to generalize.)

Now, another thing I've seemed to notice is how media seems to deteriorate when passing between certain mediums, even if it's going up in the ladder. The biggest one's I've noticed are:

Printed Word into Non-Interactive (Example: The Harry Potter movies. Sure, they're interesting for first-timers, but to hardcore fans of the series, there are a lot of disappointments)
Non-Interactive into Interactive (Example: Games based on cartoons or movies, like Spongebob or Spiderman. These are often horribly made in order to make a quick buck, and are never quality pieces of media)
Interactive into Non-Interactive (Example: Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. I, personally, found the movie rather interesting, but I've never played the game. I'll take the word of the hardcore fans for this one.)
Interactive into Non-Interactive, then back (Exapmle: Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, again, and it's offspring: Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus. Horrible game, even for a Vincent fan like me.)

Strangely enough, any other transition between two mediums is acceptable. Thoughts, anyone?