I know we discussed about many films, videos, and Machinima based on game engine, and game itself. here's another awesome video related to game! Even though this video is not based on game engine, people got socialized, and worked together to make a film based on Tekken game. I think it would be another way game players would enjoy the game with game community people
it's very fun! enjoy it!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Machinima like movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1kFNxpp-Ak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgDTU0w39Nc&feature=channel
There are a lot of Machinima out there. Some are about love stories and for some other ones, the author made them funny which are like comedy.
Machinima.com has made some very interesting and long Machinimas about Grand Theft Auto IV. I have no ideas how they do it because when I used to play the game, I didn't know that people can actually do the actions that are similar to those in the videos. The actions and everything are just too complicated to do in the game and I have no ideas how they do it.
Anyways, these two videos are special in a way that they are long movies and not just short clips like others. Its go two episodes and they are also very fun to watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgDTU0w39Nc&feature=channel
There are a lot of Machinima out there. Some are about love stories and for some other ones, the author made them funny which are like comedy.
Machinima.com has made some very interesting and long Machinimas about Grand Theft Auto IV. I have no ideas how they do it because when I used to play the game, I didn't know that people can actually do the actions that are similar to those in the videos. The actions and everything are just too complicated to do in the game and I have no ideas how they do it.
Anyways, these two videos are special in a way that they are long movies and not just short clips like others. Its go two episodes and they are also very fun to watch!
Browser's Kingdom
This is mostly a sprite movie but would this be considered a machinima?
Browser's Kingdom Link
-Vircell D.
Browser's Kingdom Link
-Vircell D.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Machinima
Before reading this article i didn't think i had any knowledge as to what Machinima is, after further review i've come to realize that not only do i know what Machinima is but that i use it quite often when i play Video Games that can be seen as challenging. Lowwod breaks down Machinima in respect to WOW, although im not familiar with the game i feel that Lowwod did a good job of giving examples of Machinima, and also showcasing its origins. Lowood also gives us readers reasons for increasing participation and popularity of machinima in the Video Game culture. He uses examples of pioneers such as JuniorX and Daddar to show how these videos came about.
Personally i use Machinima myself quite often. Whether its for pure entertainment or help that i need with a game ive used it on several occasions. With todays technology and Youtube, we are connected with other gamers on a daily basis. Through these websites other gamers can showcase how to take on acertain situation within a game, or they can showoff their talents by putting up a high score, or showing how fast they can beat a game. Whenever i really need help with a game i will use Machinima myself to figure out how it can be passed, compared to early years in Gaming when strategy guides and other sources where needed we can now use Machinima. In all Machinima can be seen as an art form of creativity from different gamers, it can also be seen as a way of people showcasing their talents, but more than both of tose machinima can been seen as a way for gamers to help other gamers.
Question: Do you see Machinma as a helpful tool? and if so how?
Machinima is an element that I look forward to seeing throughout the video game culture. In my early stages of gaming, I would watch friends and family tackle the hardest boards on popular games like Mortal Kombat for sega genesis or Crash Bandicoot for the playstation console. I would watch their gameplay because it would hype me to play the game or it will help me learn the controls better. Now with the increse of technology, you can watch recorded gameplay online or watch people from around the world play challenging levels.
Now, I'm still a fan of machinima and the features they offer gamers. An example from experience, my first encounter with Halo was from a video movie online. It was basically highlights of gameplay, which featured some of the most amazing views and deaths that made me instantly interested in the game. I feel machinima is an active way to help bridge that gap between beginner game players and experts. The visual effects of machinima can easily attract the eyes of gamers, and is another way to get people intersted in games.
Now, I'm still a fan of machinima and the features they offer gamers. An example from experience, my first encounter with Halo was from a video movie online. It was basically highlights of gameplay, which featured some of the most amazing views and deaths that made me instantly interested in the game. I feel machinima is an active way to help bridge that gap between beginner game players and experts. The visual effects of machinima can easily attract the eyes of gamers, and is another way to get people intersted in games.
Movie in a Game
Machinima, a subset of video entertainment created by recording in-video-game actions, is a thing that has become increasingly common in the World of Warcraft community. This is not surprising in a game which places so much emphasis on its social element - players are constantly looking for new ways to interact with each other. Players are always looking for a chance to tell the story about the time they tackled that one hard quest, but it's even better if they can show it.
The movement started with JuniorX, who posted videos detailing aspects of gameplay while the game was still in beta mode, giving newcomers or non-testers an opportunity to observe the game and understand its mechanics before actually playing. This is similar in style to the speed runs or instructional demos that have long been a staple of machinima.
After a time, the player Daddar posted a video of a "bank raid" - basically his character performing the difficult task of single-handedly taking down the bank's guards and looting the place. This video spawned a large number of imitators and commentators who were inspired by his feat, all the more impressive because of its video presentation. The posting of gameplay videos became ever more common as people began to record their great accomplishments or spectacular failures. This is exemplified in the popular Leeroy Jenkins video, in which the title character throws all caution to the wind and charges headlong into a difficult dungeon, effectively killing his entire team. Beyond simply showing off a great victory, this video appealed to players' emotions of frustration at something similar happening to them - the death of a party from one player's stupidity is a common occurrence. Jenkins does this with great flair and reckless abandon, becoming an epitome of this kind of tragic failure.
In Tristan Pope's "Not Just Another Love Story," he used WoW's engine to tell a continuous plot, performed by many character actors playing out roles through their in-game avatars, their actions recorded and edited into a Hollywood-style movie. Using familiar game elements, including aspects of the game's actual story and player culture, he was able to make the film appeal to a large number of WoW players. He was also able to overcome the problem of the inability to access the game's graphics files by way of creative staging and movement - though the way he did so in some instances led to a bit of controversy over the appropriateness of his videos' content.
Do you think that the WoW machinima movement will continue to move forward and change in the way it has up to this point, and continue to gain more variety? Or has it reached a plateau at which video makers will continue to create videos of these same established types?
The movement started with JuniorX, who posted videos detailing aspects of gameplay while the game was still in beta mode, giving newcomers or non-testers an opportunity to observe the game and understand its mechanics before actually playing. This is similar in style to the speed runs or instructional demos that have long been a staple of machinima.
After a time, the player Daddar posted a video of a "bank raid" - basically his character performing the difficult task of single-handedly taking down the bank's guards and looting the place. This video spawned a large number of imitators and commentators who were inspired by his feat, all the more impressive because of its video presentation. The posting of gameplay videos became ever more common as people began to record their great accomplishments or spectacular failures. This is exemplified in the popular Leeroy Jenkins video, in which the title character throws all caution to the wind and charges headlong into a difficult dungeon, effectively killing his entire team. Beyond simply showing off a great victory, this video appealed to players' emotions of frustration at something similar happening to them - the death of a party from one player's stupidity is a common occurrence. Jenkins does this with great flair and reckless abandon, becoming an epitome of this kind of tragic failure.
In Tristan Pope's "Not Just Another Love Story," he used WoW's engine to tell a continuous plot, performed by many character actors playing out roles through their in-game avatars, their actions recorded and edited into a Hollywood-style movie. Using familiar game elements, including aspects of the game's actual story and player culture, he was able to make the film appeal to a large number of WoW players. He was also able to overcome the problem of the inability to access the game's graphics files by way of creative staging and movement - though the way he did so in some instances led to a bit of controversy over the appropriateness of his videos' content.
Do you think that the WoW machinima movement will continue to move forward and change in the way it has up to this point, and continue to gain more variety? Or has it reached a plateau at which video makers will continue to create videos of these same established types?
WoW Funeral March (real)
This video is a machinima from WoW. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgDTwg_60g8
This is an actual funeral (real) of one of the players in WoW clan. Other members of the guild took this video as a way to pay a tribute to the dead member of their clan. It was very touching and made me realize that game in general (including machinima) can be "real" just like real world. Take a look at the video and comments regarding the video and let me know what you guys think.
This is an actual funeral (real) of one of the players in WoW clan. Other members of the guild took this video as a way to pay a tribute to the dead member of their clan. It was very touching and made me realize that game in general (including machinima) can be "real" just like real world. Take a look at the video and comments regarding the video and let me know what you guys think.
Machinima: new mainstream medium?
In the article, “Storyline, Dance/Music, or PVP? Game Movies and Community Players in World of Warcraft” by Henry Lowood, Lowood basically discusses about player-created game movies, “Machinima”. Before reading this article, I honeslty never heard of the term “Machinima”. According to machinima.org, Machinima is “filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies”. It also defines Machinima as the “convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development”. I think it is important to notice the latter part of the definition. Lowood briefly goes over short 10years of Machinima history where it started from FPS and RTS games mainly for the purpose of replays. However, the article mainly uses the game-flimmaking in World of Warcraft to explore the role and history of Machinima.
As Lowood suggests, game-filmmkaing in WoW first started for PvP purpose where “it built the foundation of competitive play as a mode of performance”. By specificailly looking at the pvp of Rogue character, players used the video as the guide to learn new moves and skills that they were unaware of. WoW game moviemakers such as JuniorX, Daddar, and Pals for Life all contributed siginificantly on game-filmmaking in WoW community. JuniorX, the first WoW movie maker, made Dancemovie series that revealed new discovery of new tricks that other players were not familiar with. Daddar’s The Ironforge Bank Robbery also revealed the unknown feature of “terrorist attack” on enemy town. In a way, these movies not only serve as an entertainment, but serve as a guide to a new gameplay.
Tristan Pope’s Not Just Another Love Story is a great example of another dimension of Machinima in WoW. This romantic staged game film was a huge hit and revolution to WoW community. Romeo&Juliet love story of Troll male and Human female featured many player actors and was “masterfully choreographed series of scenes”. In a way, this video was just like real films that involve acting, staging, writing of script, camera positioning, etc. However, the fact that struck me the most was banning of this video due to censorship issue. The Blizzard gave an example of Ken and Barbie at Toys R Us example to shut this movie down. However, this incident reminded me of early era of filmmaking history in 1930s where Hays Code (MPAA) was adopted due to censorship issues. In a way, non-commerical player-created game movies are facing and sharing similar history with filmmaking history. In another words, Machinima has a potential to become a new genre in commercial filmaking industry.
In Korea, there is already a commercialized game video market where there is a televsion channel airing replays/live gameplays of Starcraft, Warcraft III, FPS games, etc. It’s little different from Lowood’s topic of discussion, but South Korea’s Game TV channel is, in fact, an outcome of Machinima culture. The major audience of the game channel are players of the game who wish to learn new skills and other information.
Do you think there is a possiblity and room for Machinima to be commercialized as in Korea now? Do you think there is a possibility that Machinima will replace or become mainstream in film industry?
Various types of Machinima
Player-created game videos have been used in various ways. For example, players created their own narrative movie with creative and theatrical skill and recorded replays for spreading know-how about how to deal with some obstacles those gamers usually faces in strategy game and first-person gam. The game videos played very important role in game community. Game Beginners would be able to find a solution from watching some videos posted on the game community. Moreover, Game developer was very positively supportive on this creative video. In the article, the Henry wrote “Blizzard has sponsored WoW events…as means of generating new content and shared culture around the game, and allowing creators to provide links to facilitate downloading of video files.
The manichima can be also used as music video. Here’s example of Manichima music video – Halo 2. The maker made a machinima music video with Dance All Night song! When we see the comments on the video, almost everyone seems to be very satisfied with the music and machinima.
it is very creative, and good case in which gamers would make another pleasure from the game. Moreover, players would have chance to get more socialized by making a video because, people usually can’t make the video alone, and many people should get involved in for making a video scene.
Players are able to learn how to overcome some obstacles by watching some player-created video. For example, in the one of the most popular and successful game, Uncharted 2, it was pretty difficult to find all the treasures while I was playing. I found a guide video from Youtube. It was actually recorded video by master player, not an official game developer. It was really helpful to find all the information I couldn’t find alone. Here’s the website you can find.
Here's another very useful example of player-created video; Although it is not mentioned in the article, I think this type of video has one of the longest histories in Machinima. Tekken, one of the most popular fighting games since 1994, was the one in which lots of game players shared their combo video since 1995. Since the combo (combination of punching and kicking) was essential part to beat opposing players, people were eager to share great combos. However, it was pretty hard to look at the game directly, so players decided to make their own video recording combos, and share them through internet. Here’s Tekken1 video. of course, you can find more in other version of Tekken.
(I only want to post up one video because three video screen would be too long to scroll down)
You can enjoy the Machinima in several ways such as movie, music video, replay, guide and combo video. Here’s my question. Which type of Machinima do you think is the most useful for game players? Or are they all important to game players?
World of Warcraft and Machinima
South Park machinima
In this article, the author shows the framework, content, and the use of game movies based on MMOG. The machinima raises new questions about contributions game-based performances make to player communities. Henry Lowood emphasizes on the history of WoW Machinima and its successful WoW movie, Tristan Pope’s Not Just Another Love Story. According to Wikipedia, Machinima, also known as game film, is defined as ‘the use of real-time graphics rendering engines (a game engine), mostly three-dimensional (3-D), to generate computer animation. The term also refers to works that incorporate this animation technique. Some machinima-based artists, sometimes called machinimists or machinimators, are fan laborers and often use graphics engines from vide games”. Excerpt from the reading, “Players of competitive multiplyaer games are certainly consumers who also produce and spectators who also participate”. In short, players improve and enhance the fun parts of game in a way that other players would find game very entertaining. Machina creates an atmosphere where both players and game benefits from each other.
There are a numerous websites out there that are specifically for WoW machinima. These websites provide tools and examples of some of the successful machinimas, so that people could watch them and learn more about the machinima. The websites also teach people how to create a good machinima. Blizzard has watched enthusiastically as the community pushed movie making in Azeroth from an unexplored, unproven experiment to a broadly utilized and intricate craft, producing thousands of videos ranging across every type and genre. Since the game film culture in WoW has grown large, opportunities such as BlizzCon and other movie contests challenged community artists to push the limits, and time and time again, players stepped up to the plate and delivered memorable works that turned heads not just in the Blizzard community, but in the digital film making community as a whole. These machinima contests and communities prove Blizzard’s passion on game films. There are so many WoW films offered on warcraftmovies.com. They support 18 million Machinima downloads in its first year, an average of 52000 per day.
I have never enjoyed watching machinima before because I was never into it and didn’t have much knowledge about it. Now that I know about it, it is interesting to see how people create their own small game film by themselves with a limited film making tools. I assume that creating a film would take many hours and require persistent efforts.
Knowing that film making is a difficult process, I want to ask class if anyone has ever created a game film before.
The Beauty of Machinima
The term machinima has been around for years now. Gamers create these game montage movies for entertainment and take pride in them. In his article, Henry Lowood explores the user-created movies that come from World of Warcraft. Lowood, although he appreciates them, isn’t investigating the visual aspects of the WoW movies, but rather how they connect with the game’s social space, community, and technology. He introduces the term "community players" whom are those who use their creativity and technological skills to produce their own ideas into movies. Lowood says they are “consumers who also produce.”
Although I have never played WoW, it is obvious why there are so many player-created movies. The flexibility of the game mechanics and diverse customization of characters almost encourages people with creative minds, computer skills, and extra time on their hands to create movies. With that said, different "community players" represent a good percentage of gamers. Whether the machinima is serious or funny, gamers with varied preferences seem to enjoy them because they can oftentimes relate to the story. Therefore, game movies can accurately represent gaming culture.
I have not seen too many game movies, but there is one that is classic. I remember a while back watching Halo’s Red vs. Blue. Throughout Halo’s lifetime, a bunch of these videos were made, and most Halo fans have probably heard of it. Rob actually has an entire post dedicated to the series. Anyway, here’s the first episode that started it all.
http://www.machinima.com/film/view&id=275
WOW and machinima
In the article "Storyline, Dance/Music, or PvP? Game Movies and Community Players in World of Warcraft" Henry Lowood talks about the history of player created videos in the World of Warcraft. He starts by talking about how these movies are most common as player guides. They are players showing other players how to preform certain accomplishments in the game or showing different player strategies.Often these videos can be a way to excite current players of future players about the game and its possibilities as shown by Lowood's example of the "Ironforge Bank Robbery". With the user "Daddar" making a movie of his robbery of this bank in the game world he was able to excite players by showing them something that they once thought was impossible. It showcased a specific player type, the undead rogue, and got many players excited for the retail launch of the game.
Lowood also talks about the use of machinima in WOW with Pope's "Not Another Love Story". It is a video created using the WOW game engine to tell a cinematic love story. What I found impressive about that was the level of coordination required by multiple players in order to film some of the bigger scenes in the movie. It really shows how much a player community is needed in order to make something like that because one guy can not control every character at once. Machinima to me is just the further blurring between the worlds of movies and games. It is a creative outlet for players that allow them to use a game world to tell their own stories and share a connection with other players.
Do you think that there will ever be a specific game just for machinima? Do you think something like that would ever take off or would it just always be a small niche thing?
Lowood also talks about the use of machinima in WOW with Pope's "Not Another Love Story". It is a video created using the WOW game engine to tell a cinematic love story. What I found impressive about that was the level of coordination required by multiple players in order to film some of the bigger scenes in the movie. It really shows how much a player community is needed in order to make something like that because one guy can not control every character at once. Machinima to me is just the further blurring between the worlds of movies and games. It is a creative outlet for players that allow them to use a game world to tell their own stories and share a connection with other players.
Do you think that there will ever be a specific game just for machinima? Do you think something like that would ever take off or would it just always be a small niche thing?
WOW and machinima
In the article "Storyline, Dance/Music, or PvP? Game Movies and Community Players in World of Warcraft" Henry Lowood talks about the history of player created videos in the World of Warcraft. He starts by talking about how these movies are most common as player guides. They are players showing other players how to preform certain accomplishments in the game or showing different player strategies.Often these videos can be a way to excite current players of future players about the game and its possibilities as shown by Lowood's example of the "Ironforge Bank Robbery". With the user "Daddar" making a movie of his robbery of this bank in the game world he was able to excite players by showing them something that they once thought was impossible. It showcased a specific player type, the undead rogue, and got many players excited for the retail launch of the game.
Lowood also talks about the use of machinima in WOW with Pope's "Not Another Love Story". It is a video created using the WOW game engine to tell a cinematic love story. What I found impressive about that was the level of coordination required by multiple players in order to film some of the bigger scenes in the movie. It really shows how much a player community is needed in order to make something like that because one guy can not control every character at once. Machinima to me is just the further blurring between the worlds of movies and games. It is a creative outlet for players that allow them to use a game world to tell their own stories and share a connection with other players.
Do you think that there will ever be a specific game just for machinima? Do you think something like that would ever take off or would it just always be a small niche thing?
Lowood also talks about the use of machinima in WOW with Pope's "Not Another Love Story". It is a video created using the WOW game engine to tell a cinematic love story. What I found impressive about that was the level of coordination required by multiple players in order to film some of the bigger scenes in the movie. It really shows how much a player community is needed in order to make something like that because one guy can not control every character at once. Machinima to me is just the further blurring between the worlds of movies and games. It is a creative outlet for players that allow them to use a game world to tell their own stories and share a connection with other players.
Do you think that there will ever be a specific game just for machinima? Do you think something like that would ever take off or would it just always be a small niche thing?
Machinima?
I have become very confused by the term machinima. I think this article should have defined the term, because I used to think that it only applied to videos created from videogames with a story, like a movie, but Lowood talks about a bunch of other types of videos and fails to really classify them as separate or part of machinima. The internet didn't really give me a straight definition, either...
Anyway, I still found the article interesting. The topic of JuniorX struck a bit of a familiar chord with me. I recently watched a whole lot of Starcraft II beta footage before I got a beta key, much like those interested in WoW watched JuniorX's videos. While I'm not sure if this would be classified as machinima, I have been watching many SCII shoutcasts (HDstarcraft's channel, for example). These served to get me up to speed on how the game works and is played before I had a chance to play myself. I also am able to see new strategies that I can employ in-game.
JuniorX's Dancemovie reminded me of dance parties in WoW. I only played it for a little less than a year, but it was a fun game. As Lowood said in the article, a little bit of game knowledge goes a long way in helping to understand videos made about the game. Of course, some videos require no real game knowledge, like Leeroy Jenkin's famous charge.
So, help me out... What exactly is machinima?
Anyway, I still found the article interesting. The topic of JuniorX struck a bit of a familiar chord with me. I recently watched a whole lot of Starcraft II beta footage before I got a beta key, much like those interested in WoW watched JuniorX's videos. While I'm not sure if this would be classified as machinima, I have been watching many SCII shoutcasts (HDstarcraft's channel, for example). These served to get me up to speed on how the game works and is played before I had a chance to play myself. I also am able to see new strategies that I can employ in-game.
JuniorX's Dancemovie reminded me of dance parties in WoW. I only played it for a little less than a year, but it was a fun game. As Lowood said in the article, a little bit of game knowledge goes a long way in helping to understand videos made about the game. Of course, some videos require no real game knowledge, like Leeroy Jenkin's famous charge.
So, help me out... What exactly is machinima?
WoW Machiima and Censorship
Game videos have been always whenever people decided to record the game play. In the World of Warcraft, there are videos to replay for everything: walkthroughs, secrets, and so on. Sites like Warcraft Movies have created an online community dedicated for video makers to interact with other creators. Players have created narratives using the game engine. Aside from combat, they used talking gestures and other emotes like dancing and laughing to create those narratives. In the reading, Lowood talks about WoW and the machinima made from it. One of the issues that came out of people making games is censorship. One such case was about Tristan Pope and his movie, Not Just Another Love Story. The problem was that some people in the online community and Blizzard felt that the content was too sexualized even if it only used actions implemented into the game. Blizzard barred its links.
Even though the game belongs to Blizzard, it is still a fan-made movie that was used without any exploits and just game engine. I feel that if it is in the game the player can do whatever they want to do. If there is a exploited or a mod I could see some issues coming up from it. I remembered the issues with GTA: San Andreas and “Hot Coffee”. The “mini-game” was actually programmed into the game but it was not supposed to be shown. It was an mod that helped it make available. My question is in Blizzard’s case, is it right to for a company to do? Consider the end-user rights agreement.
-Vircell D.
Even though the game belongs to Blizzard, it is still a fan-made movie that was used without any exploits and just game engine. I feel that if it is in the game the player can do whatever they want to do. If there is a exploited or a mod I could see some issues coming up from it. I remembered the issues with GTA: San Andreas and “Hot Coffee”. The “mini-game” was actually programmed into the game but it was not supposed to be shown. It was an mod that helped it make available. My question is in Blizzard’s case, is it right to for a company to do? Consider the end-user rights agreement.
-Vircell D.
Monday, September 27, 2010
My favorite Machinima, Counter-Strike For Kids (Machinima)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB6fq9Aadwk
PICK UP A WHEEL GUN! PICK UP WHEEL GUN!
PICK UP A WHEEL GUN! PICK UP WHEEL GUN!
Machinima Favorites
For anyone who's ever played Portal before, here is a machinima you might enjoy:
[WARNING: May contain violence, suggestive content, and crude language]
Machinima for the People!!!
In Henry Lowood's article "Storyline, Dance/Music, or Pvp?" the author analyzes the existence of gamers who play for other players, " [using] computer games to create their own narratives, culture, and performance" (p.363). More specifically, Lowood is referring to machinima, or rather, the machinima created by game consumers. Machinima refers to player generated films and videos, created through the use of a game engine that is typically not intended for the purpose. With roots tracing back to the earliest real-time strategy (RTS) games and first person shooters (FPS) that offered the option to save gameplay footage as replay material, machinima has grown wildly over the years. Whether posting replays of amazing feats or horrible defeats, the game community responded by embracing the ability to build a community around user generated videos and content that offered tips for overcoming in-game obstacles, showcasing exploits or glitches, and finally, for pure enjoyment.
In Tristan Pope's machinima "Not Just Another Love Story," Pope exploited the potential that could be found in the World of Warcraft as a means of producing video. By putting together a group of willing, in-game actors, Pope was able to display the capability of the game engine and the play that could exist within its limitations. More importantly, he demonstrated that the gaming community had the ability to not only interpret a game according to their needs, but to do so beyond what the developers could have imagined possible. Rather than playing the game as it was meant to be played, the players who collaborated with Pope's efforts played within the constraints of the game to create an "original" narrative and an experience that opened the eyes of fellow gamers. Depending on your views of the game industry, this creativity was unsurprisingly shut down and discouraged by Blizzard who claimed that the content violated the World of Warcraft user agreement. In the end, the controversy surrounding Pope's machinima "demonstrated that game movies could function as a medium for public discussion and negotiation of issues important to the player community" (p. 380). In other words, machinima has become a means of reaching the community in a similar manner to film and music and the impact it may have on our game-immersed society is something to be seriously considered.
Do you think that the growing awareness of machinima as a communication medium will yield positive results? Do you see it as a tool with the potential to empower users or simply as a means of producing entertainment media?
[WARNING: May contain violence, suggestive content, and crude language]
Machinima for the People!!!
In Henry Lowood's article "Storyline, Dance/Music, or Pvp?" the author analyzes the existence of gamers who play for other players, " [using] computer games to create their own narratives, culture, and performance" (p.363). More specifically, Lowood is referring to machinima, or rather, the machinima created by game consumers. Machinima refers to player generated films and videos, created through the use of a game engine that is typically not intended for the purpose. With roots tracing back to the earliest real-time strategy (RTS) games and first person shooters (FPS) that offered the option to save gameplay footage as replay material, machinima has grown wildly over the years. Whether posting replays of amazing feats or horrible defeats, the game community responded by embracing the ability to build a community around user generated videos and content that offered tips for overcoming in-game obstacles, showcasing exploits or glitches, and finally, for pure enjoyment.
In Tristan Pope's machinima "Not Just Another Love Story," Pope exploited the potential that could be found in the World of Warcraft as a means of producing video. By putting together a group of willing, in-game actors, Pope was able to display the capability of the game engine and the play that could exist within its limitations. More importantly, he demonstrated that the gaming community had the ability to not only interpret a game according to their needs, but to do so beyond what the developers could have imagined possible. Rather than playing the game as it was meant to be played, the players who collaborated with Pope's efforts played within the constraints of the game to create an "original" narrative and an experience that opened the eyes of fellow gamers. Depending on your views of the game industry, this creativity was unsurprisingly shut down and discouraged by Blizzard who claimed that the content violated the World of Warcraft user agreement. In the end, the controversy surrounding Pope's machinima "demonstrated that game movies could function as a medium for public discussion and negotiation of issues important to the player community" (p. 380). In other words, machinima has become a means of reaching the community in a similar manner to film and music and the impact it may have on our game-immersed society is something to be seriously considered.
Do you think that the growing awareness of machinima as a communication medium will yield positive results? Do you see it as a tool with the potential to empower users or simply as a means of producing entertainment media?
Every Story Needs a Hero
When researching video game convergence with other sources of media, it is important to consider player-created game movies. Players have expressed their creativity by creating their own narratives while utilizing an existing platform. Not only do these stories often involve extending the original lore of the game into their creation, some are purely innovative. Henry Lowood’s “Storyline, Dance/Music, or PvP?: Games Movies and Community Players in World of Warcraft” provides The Ironforge Band Robbery as an example of such novelty. Daddar’s dramatic in-game exploit revolutionized the perspective of not only World of Warcraft, but massively multiplayer online games in general. Lowood adds that, “Daddar’s video also demonstrated the arrival of WoW movies as a central focus of the game and fan culture growing up around the game, by then clearly destined to set new standards in terms of both sales and popularity.” Thus, the convergence of such media has great economic benefits. While players create their own tales with the games presented to them, every story needs a hero.
Leeroy Jenkins is an icon known to nearly every avid gamer for his incompetence while playing World of Warcraft. Leeroy Jenkins’ stupidity captured a universal experience felt by players of every multiplayer game: death by an inept playing partner. Although this happens all the time, Ben Schulz (the creator of Leeroy Jenkins), demonstrated this is in a comedic fashion. The fact that the scene is globally recognized shows how perceptive the public is to video games as film. Many pop culture references have been made parodying this event. In the South Park episode, “Make Love, Not Warcraft”, the antagonist was named Jenkins.
For those gamers that have played MMOs, do you fantasize your own adventures and create your own stories? Have you made your own short film from gaming?
Red vs Blue
http://redvsblue.com/archive/?id=58
http://redvsblue.com/archive/?id=62
YOUR TOAST HAS BEEN BURNED, AND NO AMOUNT OF SCRAPING WILL REMOVE THE BLACK PARTS!
Red vs Blue has for a long time been one of the most well known and well-received machinima on the internet. It uses the Halo multiplayer mode to record character motions which are then dubbed over by human actors. The popularity of the series has inspired many imitators, and the developers at Bungie (the company behind Halo) have even implemented certain things into later Halo games with Red vs Blue in mind.
But why did it catch on? Well, RvB started off as a comedy series with a unique delivery (the Halo engine) and effective jokes about Halo, about its characters, and about people. These two aspects combined to create a small internet boom as the video spread virally among fans of the game, who themselves were numerous. People who played Halo were able to identify with the characters because the series was filmed by playing the game, which meant that the characters were almost players themselves. People who didn't play Halo were able to identify with them simply because they were very funny.
As both viewers and creators grew more and more attached to the characters, the series began to develop a stronger storyline, while retaining the comedy that had made it popular in the first place, allowing it to draw in more people while retaining old viewers. With the release of each new Halo game, the creators had more and more opportunities to make better and better videos, to the point where they now have almost a cinematic quality. With Halo 3's introduction of the ability to record footage from a multiplayer battle and view it from different angles, the crew were able to create scenes beyond the limits of their previously-used "cameraman" character and make good-looking slow-motion scenes, cinematic camera angles, etc. While some old fans were turned off by this aspect (I myself find the 3rd season to be the best balance between comedy, plot, and showiness), the sheer spectacle it provides is really eye-opening as to how powerful a vehicle for video production machinima can be.
Red vs. Blue is a pioneering machinima production that continually pushes the boundaries of the game engine that supports it and shows how effectively a game engine can be used to create relatively high-quality cinematic media for a low budget (basically just a console, a game, some microphones, and a computer). It's definitely worth checking out.
Splinter Cell: Bob and Steve
I have always been a fan of G4's Splinter Cell comedic duo Bob and Steve. Youtube has all 6 of them posted. Here's a link to the second one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pGGPd3CgOU&feature=related
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pGGPd3CgOU&feature=related
Enjoy.
We deserve better!
In the excerpt from Robert Brookey's book, Hollywood Gamer, the convergence of film/cinema and video games is discussed in-depth. More specifically, as we are seeing more and more video games being created off of movies, or "spun-off" of movies, it is a topic worth noting. Although there have been a few disasters in the past such as the ET spin-off disaster and the Super Mario Brothers video game to film attempt, the film industries are still very much interested in the production of film-based video games. "Of the top ten highest-grossing films of 2006, eight had video game releases... the previous year, seven of the top ten grossing films had video game releases, and the same was true of 2007 (pp. 4-5). It was also noted that this all happens during a generation where films have become more game-like and vice versa resulting in a film industry trend where video game spin-offs have become more of a rule than an exception (p.5). So why have the two industries become so closely related?
In allowing a film to be turned into a video game, the film company, or the licensor, puts little at stake as they have everything to gain but literally, very little to lose. It is the licensee who bears the financial risk while guaranteeing the licensor a royalty guarantee. However, in terms of the close relationship between the two industries, they have much to offer each other. First and foremost, a video game spin-off will already have a built-in market due to the movie's release as well as the millions of dollars spent on advertising for that movie (p. 17). As such, video game adaptations of films require very little true advertisement, instead just an announcement of the game's coming along with some other minimal information. Furthermore, the game does not need to be original: being a spin-off, it is expected to follow the storyline of its film counterpart, or at the very least, the characters must maintain a likeness in appearance and voice to those of the film. Moreover, as the content and image-editing processes of films and video games have grown increasingly similar over the years, it has now become extraordinarily simple for such material to be transferred from a film into a video-game with minimal editing and work.
My question is, do you think that this convergence of the film industry and video game industry is leading to an unimaginative and unoriginal video game industry? Are the consumers once again being robbed of creative content with potentially compelling narrative due to the financial motivations of these industries?
In allowing a film to be turned into a video game, the film company, or the licensor, puts little at stake as they have everything to gain but literally, very little to lose. It is the licensee who bears the financial risk while guaranteeing the licensor a royalty guarantee. However, in terms of the close relationship between the two industries, they have much to offer each other. First and foremost, a video game spin-off will already have a built-in market due to the movie's release as well as the millions of dollars spent on advertising for that movie (p. 17). As such, video game adaptations of films require very little true advertisement, instead just an announcement of the game's coming along with some other minimal information. Furthermore, the game does not need to be original: being a spin-off, it is expected to follow the storyline of its film counterpart, or at the very least, the characters must maintain a likeness in appearance and voice to those of the film. Moreover, as the content and image-editing processes of films and video games have grown increasingly similar over the years, it has now become extraordinarily simple for such material to be transferred from a film into a video-game with minimal editing and work.
My question is, do you think that this convergence of the film industry and video game industry is leading to an unimaginative and unoriginal video game industry? Are the consumers once again being robbed of creative content with potentially compelling narrative due to the financial motivations of these industries?
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Is it a Game or Film?
Both the gaming and film industry have joined forces to take over the media. For the past couple of decades, there have many films that have been created into very popular video games and vice versa. It has even come to a point where it is looked at as "mandatory" for certain film genres to create games to compliment the movie. For example, Spiderman and many of the marvel comic films have had video games come out right before a movie premier. In some cases, these games may even have a plot that resemble the movie or even have scenes right out of the film.
It is good that both the game and film industry has teamed together because not only will this create more profit, it will allow these industries to grow to even higher levels and the technology will improve in graphics and special effects. There are scenes in the video games that resemble the same amount of detail and special effects, which leads me to believe that they use similar technology.
But do all video games make good movies? Not in particular. For example, i know that Halo has come out with a couple movies but the success of these films did not come close to that of the actual game. With that, i believe certain games cannot be created into films because the plot may better if the consumer were to actually be engaged rather than to watch it.
Film & Video games
When Looking at the history of video games, there are several that had crossed over and tried to be made into actual cinematic films, and also several films that had been transformed into video games. Brookey talks about this in his text and puts his input as to why some if not most have not been very successful in there transformation into different platforms. Brookey begins the text by explaining the success of the film 300 and why it did so good at the box office. He comes to the conclusion that the success was based around the high action trailers as well as the high action and graphics that the film itself ha to offer.
Brookey then goes onto explain the drop in the box office due to DVDs and home entertainment. He also breaks down how this relates to failure of video games and film transformation, this highly because with most gaming consoles they have an previous installed dvd player that people use. This ultimately lead to the blurring of the line between video games and DVDs because they were both so closely alike.
Ultimately i believe that the reason video games and movies that have changed platforms weren't successful is because with each platform its hard to mimic the best qualities. With as much success as the Mario brothers video games had once the movie was released it was nearly impossible to simulate what the video game had. There was no possible way that the video game could be correlated to real life through a movie, the same applies to street fighter. The video game was awesome, but it was nearly impossible to translate the qualities of the video game to real life through a movie.
Question: Do you think that video games that are transformed into movies would be more succesful if the movies were animated digitally rather than trying to use real life characters?
The Convergence: Film and Video game
Whenever I walk into a videogame store, it is very easy to spot a videogame that is a spin-off of a blockbuster film. In his article regarding the convergence of films into videogames, Brookey suggests that almost all top grossing films are followed by spin-off videogames of the films. "Seven of the top ten grossing films had video games releases [in year 2006], and the same was true of 2007". However, the quality of videogames that are spin-off of movies are often not satisfactory and rarely recieves good critique from both professionals and players of the game. However, even with very poor quality of video game spin-offs, the trend that blockbuster films followed by video game spin offs are continued in the market. Regarding the reason of continuous release of video game spin-offs, Brookey argues that "videogame spin-offs are strongly tied to the most successfuly films in the market and are an important tactic in the larger marketing strategy of establishing a film franchise". Video game spin-off sells mainly due to the reputation of the original film it is based on. Brookey goes into his main arguement that the convergence of film and video game has already occured.
Brookey talks about similarities of film and video game industries that contributed to the convergence film and video game industry. The development of technological aspect played an important role in the convergence. The release of DVD format stands in the center of the convergence. "The DVD format holds a substantial amount of information and can therefore offers features seldom avaliable on VHS tape". The example that The Lord of the Rings film franchise only produced three films, but has multiple DVD porducts such as collector's editios, direcotr's cut, extended editions, etc that features different commentators and aditional features show that DVD format can do more than just recording of films. Also, vido game consoles such as Play Station and XBOX's tansition of game pack to DVD format allowed the factories that produce films DVDs to produce video games as well. This shows that film and video game industries confront similar business conditions and challenges.
Also, film and video game industries share similar business condition where they "must contend with hight up-front costs and a high risk of failure, both try to release titles that carry some promise of success". Thus, film and video game industries both follow popular genereic conventions where they focus on certain genres like the action/adventure for films and FPSs and RPGs for video games. Also, film and videogame industries make succesful film/videogame into sequels in order to maximize the commerical value. They also share same/similar target audience. Brookey also mentions that film spin-offs serve just like a promotional products such as T-shirt or fast-food souvenir cup except video games can carry and offer messages by inclduing "cut scenes" from or connected the film that is based on. In a way, if the film is successful in the market, the game (spin-off)'s success is somewhat guranteed or at least able to grab an attention from the fan of the film. This works as win-win for both film and videogame industries.
I personally hate video game spin-offs because they dissappoint me almost every single time. Of course, there are some exceptions, but most of the time, I can see that the producer of the video game that is spun off of the film didn't put much effort and money in making the game as much as they did in making the film. However, it is ture that the convergence of film and video game has happened or is in a progress of happening. My question would be:
Do you see the convergence of film and video game industries as a good sign in the advancement of media industries? What do you think would be the next step in the convergence of film and video game? possibly two media into one medium that both works as a film and game?
Brookey talks about similarities of film and video game industries that contributed to the convergence film and video game industry. The development of technological aspect played an important role in the convergence. The release of DVD format stands in the center of the convergence. "The DVD format holds a substantial amount of information and can therefore offers features seldom avaliable on VHS tape". The example that The Lord of the Rings film franchise only produced three films, but has multiple DVD porducts such as collector's editios, direcotr's cut, extended editions, etc that features different commentators and aditional features show that DVD format can do more than just recording of films. Also, vido game consoles such as Play Station and XBOX's tansition of game pack to DVD format allowed the factories that produce films DVDs to produce video games as well. This shows that film and video game industries confront similar business conditions and challenges.
Also, film and video game industries share similar business condition where they "must contend with hight up-front costs and a high risk of failure, both try to release titles that carry some promise of success". Thus, film and video game industries both follow popular genereic conventions where they focus on certain genres like the action/adventure for films and FPSs and RPGs for video games. Also, film and videogame industries make succesful film/videogame into sequels in order to maximize the commerical value. They also share same/similar target audience. Brookey also mentions that film spin-offs serve just like a promotional products such as T-shirt or fast-food souvenir cup except video games can carry and offer messages by inclduing "cut scenes" from or connected the film that is based on. In a way, if the film is successful in the market, the game (spin-off)'s success is somewhat guranteed or at least able to grab an attention from the fan of the film. This works as win-win for both film and videogame industries.
I personally hate video game spin-offs because they dissappoint me almost every single time. Of course, there are some exceptions, but most of the time, I can see that the producer of the video game that is spun off of the film didn't put much effort and money in making the game as much as they did in making the film. However, it is ture that the convergence of film and video game has happened or is in a progress of happening. My question would be:
Do you see the convergence of film and video game industries as a good sign in the advancement of media industries? What do you think would be the next step in the convergence of film and video game? possibly two media into one medium that both works as a film and game?
Too close?
Its no mystery that in the recent times video games and movies are very closely related, from utilizing the same media to deliver the content (DVD) to interconnectly using the same characters, plots and environments in order to tie to one another. Unfortunately while a lot of that is going around, I do not believe it's a success story.
In the past few years, the movie industry recognized that there is a lot of money to be made in video games and that resulted in a countless number of mediocre game titles covering the shelves at local GameStops. Products are rushed, predictable, short and very often lack in character. I personally don't remember the last time I bought a game because I saw a movie for it, and I honestly cannot imagine who would. One of the main strategies of developers who decide to take up making a video game based on the movie is mainly to use up the title's hype while it lasts so the game takes a few months instead of a few years to develop which can be noticed right away: crappy gameplay, silly story and lack of creativity are incredibly common in those titles. Think about it: Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, Back to the Future, Iron Man, Jurassic Park, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix... and a ton of other huge movie franchises.. Now think how many games based on those things you actually played and liked? Honestly, if the answer isnt 0, nothing, nada, zilch - then I'd be really surprised.
Now the opposite. There are a few video games that inspired movies but thank god those are rare as it's almost always the same disaster. The only difference between this switch is that a video game will not get a movie after only one installment as it takes several years for video games to build up a brand and a fan base - which thankfully results in those being a lot less common like mentioned above. Here, the best examples I can think of are Tomb Raider and Hitman: and now while with Tomb Raider I do still believe it was a waste of like an hour and a half of my life, Hitman pleasantly surprised me and I am actually looking forward to part two.
Either way, those conversions and using the franchise in different media are almost never a good idea and as soon as I see a video game based on a movie, I tend to walk out of the store or at least hit an aisle with higher end titles.
In the past few years, the movie industry recognized that there is a lot of money to be made in video games and that resulted in a countless number of mediocre game titles covering the shelves at local GameStops. Products are rushed, predictable, short and very often lack in character. I personally don't remember the last time I bought a game because I saw a movie for it, and I honestly cannot imagine who would. One of the main strategies of developers who decide to take up making a video game based on the movie is mainly to use up the title's hype while it lasts so the game takes a few months instead of a few years to develop which can be noticed right away: crappy gameplay, silly story and lack of creativity are incredibly common in those titles. Think about it: Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, Back to the Future, Iron Man, Jurassic Park, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix... and a ton of other huge movie franchises.. Now think how many games based on those things you actually played and liked? Honestly, if the answer isnt 0, nothing, nada, zilch - then I'd be really surprised.
Now the opposite. There are a few video games that inspired movies but thank god those are rare as it's almost always the same disaster. The only difference between this switch is that a video game will not get a movie after only one installment as it takes several years for video games to build up a brand and a fan base - which thankfully results in those being a lot less common like mentioned above. Here, the best examples I can think of are Tomb Raider and Hitman: and now while with Tomb Raider I do still believe it was a waste of like an hour and a half of my life, Hitman pleasantly surprised me and I am actually looking forward to part two.
Either way, those conversions and using the franchise in different media are almost never a good idea and as soon as I see a video game based on a movie, I tend to walk out of the store or at least hit an aisle with higher end titles.
Game and Film
Summer is the most important season of year for One of the earliest video games that were made based on actual movie was ET. It was produced by Warner Entertainment. They rushed to create game in order to deliver the game in time for the Christmas shopping season. Since they did not spend enough time on designing the game, the ET game turned out to be a complete failure. With its 2D terrible graphic, it was rejected by the children for whom it was marketed. Soon after, the Super Mario movie was released based on the actual Nintendo game, Super Mario Bros. This also came out to be a fail because its storyline and setting is nothing like the ones in actual Super Mario Game. Like these two examples, there have been many failures when the two industries first worked together, but later on there are some successful products created in 2000s. Pirates of the Caribbean , X-Men, 300, and The Lord of the Rings are some of the successful examples. With advanced technologies, games created in today are more like an actual film, which includes advanced graphics, cut-scenes, narratives, and storylines.
There are games based on animations produced by Disney studios, such as, Sleeping Beauty, The Rescuers, and Pete’s Dragon. Actually these animation based games gained more popularity than The ET. Since the game was based on animation, the game looked very similar to an actual Disney movie and thus attracted a lot of teen gamers. According to the reading, “The game allowed players to interact with a fully animated avatar and navigate him through various scenes. The interactivity was rather limited and game play could be frustrating.” I disagree with interactivity was rather limited and game play could be frustrating because when I played Beauty and Beast game I did not find interactivity was limited and game play was frustrating. I rather enjoyed playing the game because it was like watching an actual movie with protagonists whom I can control freely. Thus, animation based games provide players with a new and exciting visual experience.
After reading the article, I learned that in 1980s there has been lack of advanced technologies for example; The ET came out to be a total failure in design and graphic. Also, back then, the movies created based on the actual game are too different from each other in terms of graphic, storyline, and setting, and vice versa. In order for the game and film to be successful, they need to be similar in many ways.
What makes good games and films
The convergence of films and video games is commonly used in either the game or film industry today. Although there were many failures in the past, when the technology or narratives were poor-designed to produce good films from games, or another way around, there have been many successful examples coming out in recent years through the improvement of technology and graphics. However, back to the ordinary, what makes a good movie or film is not only about the technology. Instead, the right choice of films and games, with the combination of good narratives and technology, all have outstanding in order to be successful in both industries today.
The failure of the ET game is one of the examples due to the poor graphic design back in the old times. Although the movie at the time was loved by many children, the video game portrays "ET as a two-dimensional avatar with limited expression and limited movement did little to elicit such attachment or emotion" makes it very unpopular among children. According to Brookey, "the failure of this particular video game was due to the fact that the experience of the game was far from the experience of the film," but not the narratives in the movie. (p3)
However, when many people admire 300's amazing graphics and action effect, this movie has been criticized by many people for its lack of narratives. I personally also dislike 300 because it emphasizes too much special effects, which makes the movie seem very unrealistic and most importantly, the narrative is bad.
Although the relationship between games and films have become closer along with different reasons such as the invitation of DVD's, what makes a good movie still has to do with the right choice of films and games and the combination of good narratives and technology. Some may complain when good movies never been converted into game forms since it can be disappointing to fans and losing a lot of potential money (The Dark Night on page 5), good evaluations should still be well-implemented before the movies or games come out (although I think they should always good since they can both be very costly during the making process p15).
The failure of the ET game is one of the examples due to the poor graphic design back in the old times. Although the movie at the time was loved by many children, the video game portrays "ET as a two-dimensional avatar with limited expression and limited movement did little to elicit such attachment or emotion" makes it very unpopular among children. According to Brookey, "the failure of this particular video game was due to the fact that the experience of the game was far from the experience of the film," but not the narratives in the movie. (p3)
However, when many people admire 300's amazing graphics and action effect, this movie has been criticized by many people for its lack of narratives. I personally also dislike 300 because it emphasizes too much special effects, which makes the movie seem very unrealistic and most importantly, the narrative is bad.
Although the relationship between games and films have become closer along with different reasons such as the invitation of DVD's, what makes a good movie still has to do with the right choice of films and games and the combination of good narratives and technology. Some may complain when good movies never been converted into game forms since it can be disappointing to fans and losing a lot of potential money (The Dark Night on page 5), good evaluations should still be well-implemented before the movies or games come out (although I think they should always good since they can both be very costly during the making process p15).
Films and Games as Half-Brothers
The movie and game industries have a lot in common nowadays. Both have the majority of their costs up-front in the form of production, with no payback until the finished product is released. Both appeal to a similar target age group. Both rely on surefire "tent-pole" hits to fund their inevitable slip-up titles. Both are becoming increasingly dominated by a few large production firms. Some of these firms are even the same, as is the case with media powerhouse Sony. Brookey, in his article, points out these similarities, among others, as evidence that the game and film industries can easily relate to and understand each other, promoting a partnership between the two media that ties the two together at a business level, in addition to the increasing stylistic convergence.
Despite this, there is a well-founded stereotype that games based on movies and movies based on games will rarely turn out to be good. There are exceptions, like the Spider-Man 2 or Lord of the Rings video games, and the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, but examples like these are few and far between. Brookey touches on this point in his mention of the ET video game, discussing how the game was rushed through production to be released alongside the film, but doesn't go much further. This is definitely a large part of the issue: companies are so keen on having a tie-in that it's unusual not to - just look at the Dark Knight - and this leads to rushing and a general lack of care in the spin-off's creation. But why does this happen? And why are game-based movies so poorly received, when they're not tied to a video game's release date?
I think this happens because the two industries think themselves to be closer than they actually are, and overlook their differences in adapting cross-media titles. From watching game-based movies and playing movie-based games, it feels like the creators thought simply using characters and scenarios from the source material would instantly make the adaptation as good as the original. A movie is a narrative-based media - adapting a game like Super Mario Bros., with a very simple narrative, into a movie does admittedly require some plot embellishment, but the way it was ultimately executed resulted in an experience that contained none of what made the game appealing. It was as though the creators overlaid a sub-par action movie with Mario characters. Similarly, a game like King Kong for the Nintendo DS placed characters and settings from the Peter Jackson movie and laid them atop a near-unplayable first-person-shooter. What works well in a movie will not necessarily work well in a game, and vice-versa. Thought needs to be put into the details of the adaptation, such as with Spider-Man 2's web-slinging mechanic. Alas, this rarely seems to happen, as neither industry seems to understand the other as well as it thinks it does. This leads to some gross misinterpretations of many titles in either direction, often caused by the application of tropes from film to the concept of a game property, which itself is based on very different video game tropes, and vice-versa.
Have you seen/played any examples of good game/film crossovers? What made them stand out from other such adaptations?
Despite this, there is a well-founded stereotype that games based on movies and movies based on games will rarely turn out to be good. There are exceptions, like the Spider-Man 2 or Lord of the Rings video games, and the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, but examples like these are few and far between. Brookey touches on this point in his mention of the ET video game, discussing how the game was rushed through production to be released alongside the film, but doesn't go much further. This is definitely a large part of the issue: companies are so keen on having a tie-in that it's unusual not to - just look at the Dark Knight - and this leads to rushing and a general lack of care in the spin-off's creation. But why does this happen? And why are game-based movies so poorly received, when they're not tied to a video game's release date?
I think this happens because the two industries think themselves to be closer than they actually are, and overlook their differences in adapting cross-media titles. From watching game-based movies and playing movie-based games, it feels like the creators thought simply using characters and scenarios from the source material would instantly make the adaptation as good as the original. A movie is a narrative-based media - adapting a game like Super Mario Bros., with a very simple narrative, into a movie does admittedly require some plot embellishment, but the way it was ultimately executed resulted in an experience that contained none of what made the game appealing. It was as though the creators overlaid a sub-par action movie with Mario characters. Similarly, a game like King Kong for the Nintendo DS placed characters and settings from the Peter Jackson movie and laid them atop a near-unplayable first-person-shooter. What works well in a movie will not necessarily work well in a game, and vice-versa. Thought needs to be put into the details of the adaptation, such as with Spider-Man 2's web-slinging mechanic. Alas, this rarely seems to happen, as neither industry seems to understand the other as well as it thinks it does. This leads to some gross misinterpretations of many titles in either direction, often caused by the application of tropes from film to the concept of a game property, which itself is based on very different video game tropes, and vice-versa.
Have you seen/played any examples of good game/film crossovers? What made them stand out from other such adaptations?
Video Games and Film
In the chapter, Brookey goes over the film and gaming industries. With how successful film adaptations of books are (especially comic book adaptations), you had to see video game spinoffs of films on the way. Basically every big action movie is going to have a game based on it. It happens so frequently that it's expected and whenever a game for a big movie doesn't come out, it's considered an oddity. An example of this is The Dark Knight. "Despite a plethora of 'Dark Knight' action figures, bobbleheads and T-shirts sweeping in Bat-dollars beyond the film's $400 million record-smashing box office, no 'Dark Knight' game is following suit. Whatever held things up caused about $100 million in sales to be missed, according to estimates."
They are also close in the respect that they use the same home format. Back in the day, the two industries weren't as closely tied. Video games used a type of game cartridge unique to that system, and movies used VHS tapes. Later on, laserdiscs came around, "offering full-motion video, rendering complex, cinematic images." Laserdiscs didn't gain a large fanbase however. Hollywood limited the number of titles released on laserdisc so the gaming industry didn't have enough of a market. Eventually the DVD came out and became the main medium for movies, and eventually games.
Film and video games are high-risk businesses. Both need to have money up front to begin, and won't know if they've lost or gained money until after the release. This is especially true with the 1983 Atari video game burial. "Atari, banking on the success of the film and expecting a run on the ET game, had overproduced cartridges and was stuck with a warehouse full of stock it could not move. To clear the warehouse, the company contracted to have the cartridges buried somewhere in the New Mexico desert."
With these industries working together, do you think game adaptations of books will ever be a hit? Can you think of any that exist?
They are also close in the respect that they use the same home format. Back in the day, the two industries weren't as closely tied. Video games used a type of game cartridge unique to that system, and movies used VHS tapes. Later on, laserdiscs came around, "offering full-motion video, rendering complex, cinematic images." Laserdiscs didn't gain a large fanbase however. Hollywood limited the number of titles released on laserdisc so the gaming industry didn't have enough of a market. Eventually the DVD came out and became the main medium for movies, and eventually games.
Film and video games are high-risk businesses. Both need to have money up front to begin, and won't know if they've lost or gained money until after the release. This is especially true with the 1983 Atari video game burial. "Atari, banking on the success of the film and expecting a run on the ET game, had overproduced cartridges and was stuck with a warehouse full of stock it could not move. To clear the warehouse, the company contracted to have the cartridges buried somewhere in the New Mexico desert."
With these industries working together, do you think game adaptations of books will ever be a hit? Can you think of any that exist?
Video Game and Film
There have been many films based on video games. Various types of games have been transformed into movies. for example, fighting games like Street fighter, Tekken and virtue Fighter movies were released. Countless games being spin-off were released. On the contrary, there have been many games based on the film such as Harry-Potter, Batman series, and many Hollywood movies. The convergence between film and games has been successful run. The advancement that has been made while making games on basis of film, and films on basis of game brought new revolution to game industry.
As the writer said "video game spin-offs are often tied to the most successful films in the market and are an important tactic in the larger marketing....most profitable firms are concerned.
Perfect example can be found in the movie "Resident Evil". The Resident Evil by Capcom (original name was Bio Hazard) had one of the greatest selling hit when the game was released. The game was basically developed with movie-effect technology. To play the game was like playing, and watching a movie, or making a movie itself. Both new version of games and films of Resident Evil are being developed. This shows how the convergence between video games and film has influence on the game, and film industry.
However, there is still high risk on both businesses. Peter Dekom said" profit margins are shrinking across the board, because the costs of film production are rising and demands of profit are growing therefore, the business increasingly risky". There have been many failure of video game spin-offs, for example, the Tekken (recently released but, terribly failed), and Street Fighter (known as one of most weird movies in the history of film), and Final Fantasy. The gamers for those games were numerous across the world because of the popularity of those games. However, It didn't really mean that the films would be successful due to the number of gamers.
As Tekken gamer, I have been waiting for the movie for long time, and when it was released, i tried to know how the movie is through social media such as twitter, and facebook. Everyone was like the movie shouldn't have come out. The Game developer finally got not only bad reputation, but also lost a lot of money.
My question is this: even though the business is increasing risky, do you still think it is film worth making based on a games?
Video Games as a Cultural Industry
Video games being spin offs of movies is a very intelligent business tactic in today's society. Much revenue is being made for many movies that are being made into video games. Not only does this produce more advertising and product for the specific movie, but it generates more revenue for the producers of the movie and video game spin off. However, not all spin offs are successful and produce a positive revenue. As we talked about many times in class, the ET movie and video game spin off is a prime example of this essentially failing miserably.
The author gives an example of the video game that was released for the movie The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. The game was released a month before the movie came out. Not only did this give viewers a chance to get a taste of what the movie may be like, but it also stood as silent advertising for the movie. It constantly reminded the consumer that there is a movie coming out and the repetition and constant exposure increases the chances of more and more people that would likely go to the theater to watch the movie version of this video game.
With that being said, this shows how the video game and movie industries both function as a cultural industry. In our culture many people enjoy playing video games and many people enjoy watching movies at a theater, mainly for the experience. When both mediums are combined, a large cultural bond is formed that shapes and links the video game and movie industry together.
Do you believe ultimately this helps or hurts either industry in the long run?
The author gives an example of the video game that was released for the movie The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. The game was released a month before the movie came out. Not only did this give viewers a chance to get a taste of what the movie may be like, but it also stood as silent advertising for the movie. It constantly reminded the consumer that there is a movie coming out and the repetition and constant exposure increases the chances of more and more people that would likely go to the theater to watch the movie version of this video game.
With that being said, this shows how the video game and movie industries both function as a cultural industry. In our culture many people enjoy playing video games and many people enjoy watching movies at a theater, mainly for the experience. When both mediums are combined, a large cultural bond is formed that shapes and links the video game and movie industry together.
Do you believe ultimately this helps or hurts either industry in the long run?
Gaming in a Film Universe
The Star Wars saga is one most successful film franchise of all time. They have expanded to forms of media from books, TV shows, and of course, video games. Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures is one of many Star Wars games. It can be considered a spinoff to both the TV show and feature film, The Clone Wars. The MMO game has reached a million users in a week. Here shows the convergence of film and video games. It is also a successful one as well.
Gamasutra Article
-Vircell D.
Gamasutra Article
-Vircell D.
Convergence of Film and Video Games
Every time a big blockbuster movie comes, there has to be some sort of video game that comes out near a release of the movie. Brookey states, “[it] is a way for both film studios and game producers to hedge their bets and give their products an advantage.” He goes on to say that these video games are just part of an ancillary product campaign; making it similar to a promotional movie cup. Video games based on movies do give promotional value to let people know that the movie is coming out. With the generated excitement, the revenue from these games is beneficial to both studios and game producers if it is successful. The film studios, however, do have the advantage in this as they can profit from just licensing fees which gives them an incentive to green light a game. It leaves the game producers with the revenue of the units sold.
As I do not mind them making money, the quality of these types of games often bug me. The only good movie-based games that I have played ever was probably the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King. From what I have seen over the years, most of these games felt really rushed or there was not much thought going into making the games. They do make a lot of money by just releasing a questionable product. It makes both film studios and game producers seem like exploiting the fan base. My question is that are they?
-Vircell D.
As I do not mind them making money, the quality of these types of games often bug me. The only good movie-based games that I have played ever was probably the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King. From what I have seen over the years, most of these games felt really rushed or there was not much thought going into making the games. They do make a lot of money by just releasing a questionable product. It makes both film studios and game producers seem like exploiting the fan base. My question is that are they?
-Vircell D.
One-source development - Game and Cinema.
Convergence between computer game and movies have been occurred since long time ago, but not until recently that it has been so dramatic and profound that nowadays it seems like almost it is something must-to-do. In these world, as Brookey puts it,
"Why is there no video game based on "Dark knights"? .... whatever held things up (game development) cause about $100 million in sales to be missed"
*In defense of the film (or lack of development of game), I believe Dark Knight was 1) almost too perfect to be translated into computer game 2) I don't know if a lot of people would feel right about playing a person or fighting against a person that committed suicide shortly after a movie, because he (deceased Heath Ledger) allegedly was so into a movie that he could not get over the depression after his role of 'Joker'
*Rest in Peace, Heath Ledger, you will be missed.
As Brookey describes it, one of the main reason that computer game was suddenly combined with movies was that movies are not making enough money to compensate, and therefore this one-source development has started to kick in. One of the reason, in my opinion, that the revenue of movies were decreased was that (not mentioning lack of good ones) people are now more used to play video games and they do miss the interactiveness they had in computer/console games.
Many early one-source developments were more often than not a failure; very famous example of E.T.,less famous ones such as Mario Brothers, Mortal Combat, Street Fighters, Tekken, and other names fill up the lists. So why now it is finding its market?
Many computer games/movies early on did not consider much about its contents being used in different platforms. Take for an example, a Mario Brothers. As Janet Maslin from New York Times observed, it was...
"This bizarre, Special effects-filled movie doesn't have the jaunty hop-and-zap spirit of the Nintendo video game from which it takes-ahem-its inspiration..."
Nowadays, however, sometimes games are meant to be created, and other way around as well. In my opinion, Avatar, by James Cameron, was definitely one of the best example. As I was watching the film - as much as I was impressed and enjoyed its 3D experiences -, I can't help but thinking if this were out in game, how much success it would have.
And there lies my question for you: Which games would find success if it were made out to movie? and which movies would find success in game market?
"Why is there no video game based on "Dark knights"? .... whatever held things up (game development) cause about $100 million in sales to be missed"
*In defense of the film (or lack of development of game), I believe Dark Knight was 1) almost too perfect to be translated into computer game 2) I don't know if a lot of people would feel right about playing a person or fighting against a person that committed suicide shortly after a movie, because he (deceased Heath Ledger) allegedly was so into a movie that he could not get over the depression after his role of 'Joker'
*Rest in Peace, Heath Ledger, you will be missed.
As Brookey describes it, one of the main reason that computer game was suddenly combined with movies was that movies are not making enough money to compensate, and therefore this one-source development has started to kick in. One of the reason, in my opinion, that the revenue of movies were decreased was that (not mentioning lack of good ones) people are now more used to play video games and they do miss the interactiveness they had in computer/console games.
Many early one-source developments were more often than not a failure; very famous example of E.T.,less famous ones such as Mario Brothers, Mortal Combat, Street Fighters, Tekken, and other names fill up the lists. So why now it is finding its market?
Many computer games/movies early on did not consider much about its contents being used in different platforms. Take for an example, a Mario Brothers. As Janet Maslin from New York Times observed, it was...
"This bizarre, Special effects-filled movie doesn't have the jaunty hop-and-zap spirit of the Nintendo video game from which it takes-ahem-its inspiration..."
Nowadays, however, sometimes games are meant to be created, and other way around as well. In my opinion, Avatar, by James Cameron, was definitely one of the best example. As I was watching the film - as much as I was impressed and enjoyed its 3D experiences -, I can't help but thinking if this were out in game, how much success it would have.
And there lies my question for you: Which games would find success if it were made out to movie? and which movies would find success in game market?
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Studying Film Spin-off Games
Robert Brookey’s “Hollywood Gamer” discusses the study of video game spin-offs of films. When measuring the real persuasive power of video games, it is important to consider procedural rhetoric, that is, “the practice of authoring arguments through processes… Arguments are made not through the construction of words or images, but through the authorship of rules of behavior, the construction of dynamic models.” This first chapter introduces the familiar discussion of narrratology versus ludology. When studying video game spin-offs, it is more applicable to view games from a ludologist’s perspective. That is, to study the game by focusing on the act of play rather than view video games as narrative texts. This is because video game spin-offs’ storylines and settings often parallel, intersect and extend those of the films they are based on. The author uses Kingdom Hearts as an example. While introducing an original, main story involving new characters, many of the maps, characters and subplots are derived from Disney tales. While the narratives and texts in these games are already known, it is through the interaction with the player that the story is advanced and experienced. Games offer players options to mold existing stories into their very own. This gives players the satisfaction and freedom not found in other forms of media such as movies. Players not only watch the story unfold, but they actually live it themselves. The notion that active participation imparts player empowerment instills an effective sense of procedural rhetoric.
Are you a gamer that prefers original stories or do you like to play games that are spin-offs of films?
Cut-Scenes in Video Games
Since the early days of the video game industry, cut-scenes have been incorporated to relay information to the player. Simon Nielson argues that “many games with a sophisticated story use this technique to situate player actions in a fictional world that can thus be described with great authorial control.” While many argue that cut-scenes primarily exist in games to boast graphical capabilities by rendering pixilated heroes doing simple activities like talking to each other, they in fact have more purpose. Firstly, they introduce a central narrative tension. Many games use cinematic sequences to set up the scenery, mood and characters of the game. Two introductory cut-scenes that I remember recently hooking me in were those in Fable II and Lost Odyssey.
Cut-scenes also allow the game to shape the storyline in a new way. For instance, when a certain area is reached in a game, the player may be interrupted with an event to move the narrative along. Depending on the genre, many games utilize cut-scenes to compensate for missing game narratives. Platforming games, in general, suffer from a lack of storyline due to the limitations of the game mechanics. However, they can make for this with usage of cut-scenes. The Grand Theft Auto series is a prime example of this. The start of every mission begins with a cut-scene to introduce the purpose of the mission, set the mood and introduce characters, but the rest of the game is non-interrupted. Nielson also states that they are a great way of converging games with film. As seen with the two links above from Fable II and Lost Odyssey, the camera work and sound effects are as well-crafted as a feature film. Lastly, cut-scenes may provide players with useful information. For instance, before each stage in Super Mario Galaxy, the camera scans the map and eventually shows the location of the star the player is supposed to find.
Many critics dispute the usage of cut-scenes in video games, claiming that they are too much of a burden for the actual gameplay and provide too many interruptions. However, a recent trend in video games is to avoid cut-scenes entirely. Popularized by Half-Life, the player retains control of the character at all times, including during non-interactive scripted sequences. This can be witnessed is such games like Splinter Cell, Bioshock, Dead Space and Assassins Creed.
While I personally enjoy watching cut-scenes, I think that developers can get too dependent of them. Games like Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX incorporated them in a perfect way. They served their purpose of progressing the story, setting the mood, displaying beautiful graphics, and weren’t too long. Any cut-scene that does not allow the option to pause and lasts more than 30 minutes is pretty ridiculous. I remember my brother finishing Star Ocean: The Last Hope around 1:00AM. He had to wake up for work the next morning at 5:30. The ending cut-scene of that game lasted nearly two hours and he was not able to pause through it. Thus, he was forced to stay up all night. What do you guys think about this? Are developers too dependent on cut-scenes or are they too much of a distraction to the actual gameplay? Have you ever had a similar situation like my brother’s?
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Nintendo Wii as a Social Mimetic Activity
November 19, 2006 marked the date that further revolutionized the video game industry. This was the day the Nintendo Wii was released to the public. It exposed people to a physical interface that mimicked the action in games. As Jules states in, “Return to Player Space: The Success of Mimetic Interface Games”, mimetic interface games add “fun in new ways, because players can learn from watching each other, because failure becomes an enjoyable spectacle, and because the games thereby become more immediately social than those played with standard game controllers.” Indeed, the Wii’s allowance of mimetic action attracts much attention. According to www.vgchartz.com, of the current generation of home consoles, the Nintendo Wii leads in sales. To me, it seems as if every family household owns a Wii. To the masses, its intuitive control deems to be a major selling point. Unlike its recent predecessors or current competition, the Nintendo Wii features only a few buttons. The system emphasizes game events in player space. Instead of clicking buttons to hit a baseball, players act as if the Wiimote actually is the bat, and they simply swing away. This makes it more engaging to participate in. Mimetic games Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero boomed in popularity during their time. People were able to simulate dancing and playing guitar without holding a standard controller in their hand. Eventually, Rock Band allowed gamers the ability to sing, play drums, and play bass. Even different guitar models became available in stores for people to buy for their own aesthetic pleasure.
The interaction involved in playing the Nintendo Wii causes it to be more of a social activity than its competition: the XBOX360 and the Playstation 3. Anybody that has played WarioWare: Smooth Moves will know what I am talking about. Advertisements such as this one show that playing the Wii is a family bonding activity.
If you haven’t noticed, nobody in the commercial is playing alone. The commercial suggests the social aspects of playing the Wii. Do you think that consoles that utilize motion control like the Wii are the future of gaming, or like any other fad, the hype will slowly die down soon?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Fan Trailers
http://kotaku.com/5643389/the-pokemon-movie-for-grown+ups
I was browsing through Kotaku and found this video that I thought was rather awesome. It's a fan-made fake trailer for a nonexistent live action Pokemon movie.
Given that our topic for Monday is Game Convergence, it seems a relevant topic that games have inspired fans to create trailers like this - the Pokemon trailer is hardly the first of its kind. I think it really goes to show how closely related games and movies are in the minds of fans.
Have you seen any of these types of fan trailers before? What do you think it says about games as a narrative medium? Are there any fan trailers you'd like to share that you think are particularly cool or well-made?
I was browsing through Kotaku and found this video that I thought was rather awesome. It's a fan-made fake trailer for a nonexistent live action Pokemon movie.
Given that our topic for Monday is Game Convergence, it seems a relevant topic that games have inspired fans to create trailers like this - the Pokemon trailer is hardly the first of its kind. I think it really goes to show how closely related games and movies are in the minds of fans.
Have you seen any of these types of fan trailers before? What do you think it says about games as a narrative medium? Are there any fan trailers you'd like to share that you think are particularly cool or well-made?
Mid-term question suggestion.
Although it may not have to do with what we have learned, since we are under Media Studies, I was thinking maybe incorporating game music into some kind of discussion might be very fun topic.
(waiting for your approval...)
I do believe cinematic clips and music do play much role in computer gaming; for example, I can still vividly remember an awesome game music from DOS based games (barring the MIDI quality)
Have a nice night.
(waiting for your approval...)
I do believe cinematic clips and music do play much role in computer gaming; for example, I can still vividly remember an awesome game music from DOS based games (barring the MIDI quality)
Have a nice night.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The smartness behind dying in a game
Lisbeth Klastrup's "What makes World of Warcraft a World? A Note on Death and Dying" talks about different perspectives as we look at characters dying in a game situation. Unlike real people can only die once, game players die very often in online game. In fact, dying is an everyday event in online game and it serves as a tool to make the game more interesting and memorable to game players. Therefore, the policy of dying should be very well-designed and smart so people will keep on playing the game.
According to Klastrup, reduction of health often happens in game when a character dies. Players often are frustrated from this kind of punishment because it wastes money and time in order to reclaim the character's dead body (p146.) The game designers also give options to players after the death. They can ask a member of their party to resurrect her through healing skills, simply "release spirit" in a nearby safety zone, or wait until the characters got sent back to the safety zone (p148.) By giving out more options after the death, players will feel the sense of freedom (not just only a single option) so they will be more willing to stay in the game.
Although the dying process and options seem very simple, the knowledge about how harsh the punishments should be is actually very crucial as to keep the game interesting. Since the purpose of the punishments is to remind players to watch out for their characters more, the game designers often face the challenge "of providing a form of death penalty serve re enough that it results in a certain excitement, which forces players to death seriously," but "they must not make it so hard that players are scared away from the game at an early point" (p146.) And in my opinion, they have done a very good job in terms of designing the level of punishments.
Other than the original purpose of punishments, there is one thing that I can recall from my gaming experience that used to mean a lot to me. It is the friendship that develops from a helping behavior by a member of my party or even a random player. I still remember how much I appreciated them when I used to play online game everyday, and I would do everything to help them out next time as my payback. It is maybe one thing that the game developers did not pay too much attention to when they developed the game but an experience that actually meant a lot to me in the past.
My question: have you ever made friend online because of his/her helping behavior? please talk about your experience
According to Klastrup, reduction of health often happens in game when a character dies. Players often are frustrated from this kind of punishment because it wastes money and time in order to reclaim the character's dead body (p146.) The game designers also give options to players after the death. They can ask a member of their party to resurrect her through healing skills, simply "release spirit" in a nearby safety zone, or wait until the characters got sent back to the safety zone (p148.) By giving out more options after the death, players will feel the sense of freedom (not just only a single option) so they will be more willing to stay in the game.
Although the dying process and options seem very simple, the knowledge about how harsh the punishments should be is actually very crucial as to keep the game interesting. Since the purpose of the punishments is to remind players to watch out for their characters more, the game designers often face the challenge "of providing a form of death penalty serve re enough that it results in a certain excitement, which forces players to death seriously," but "they must not make it so hard that players are scared away from the game at an early point" (p146.) And in my opinion, they have done a very good job in terms of designing the level of punishments.
Other than the original purpose of punishments, there is one thing that I can recall from my gaming experience that used to mean a lot to me. It is the friendship that develops from a helping behavior by a member of my party or even a random player. I still remember how much I appreciated them when I used to play online game everyday, and I would do everything to help them out next time as my payback. It is maybe one thing that the game developers did not pay too much attention to when they developed the game but an experience that actually meant a lot to me in the past.
My question: have you ever made friend online because of his/her helping behavior? please talk about your experience
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