Agents Capitalize On Videogame Popularity

Thanks to WXXI/LA Times for their article discussing the new breed of agents and brokers capitalizing on Hollywood's infatuation with video games. According to the piece: "Pamela Colburn... an investment banker who once managed billion-dollar hostile takeovers, now worries about whether actors who appear buff on movie screens will seem puny in video games alongside pixelated monsters." The reason for this increase in interest? The article explains: "A decade ago, when the $25-billion global games industry was less than half the size it is today, there was little need for agents because game technology wasn't advanced enough to support dramatic music scores, lifelike animation, spectacular explosions and lengthy dialogue - in short, the kind of cinematic experiences common in games today."

Comments

Cut Scenes

[n0wak]

They speak different languages. A cut scene in a game is a pre-rendered scene inserted between game play to advance the story. In film, a cut scene is something that lands on the cutting-room floor that nobody sees.

This is a case where I'd like to see games act more like movies. Cut the cut-scenes, and give me gameplay.

Re:Cut Scenes

[SirLantos]

This is a case where I'd like to see games act more like movies. Cut the cut-scenes, and give me gameplay.

I would have to respectfully disagree with that staement. I LOVE a good story in my game. Cut-scenes are often a welcome break from playing and well done ones make me want to keep playing the game. I never truly enjoyed FPSs until Half-Life put a killer story in with it.

Should the story/cut scenes overshadow the game play...absolutly not. In the end game play is the most important thing, but I still like a little "movie magic".

Just my opinion,
SirLantos

Re:Cut Scenes

[PainKilleR-CE]

I would have to respectfully disagree with that staement. I LOVE a good story in my game. Cut-scenes are often a welcome break from playing and well done ones make me want to keep playing the game. I never truly enjoyed FPSs until Half-Life put a killer story in with it.

Half-Life didn't use cut-scenes, it used scripted sequences (you could still move around during most of the sequences, they all took place in the game engine) built to trigger off a certain event (usually the player entering a particular area).

Cut-scenes can be built using the game engine, but until recently were more often pre-rendered with significantly better graphics than the game engine could produce, and by definition cut-scenes in games take control away from the user and simply display the scene.

Re:Cut Scenes

[SirLantos]

I am well aware of that.

However, I was refering to the fact that the original poster seemed not to care about the story at all. I suppose I should have been more clear.

Sorry,
SirLantos

all this money... and still the games suck

[MerlynEmrys67]

(doesn't the topic say it all ???)

Wonderful...

[Dark Nexus]

Now we can go see even MORE horrible movies based on video games, and even MORE horrible video games based on movies!

But then, maybe I'm just being cynical and they WON'T just sit back on their liscences and rely on the known name of the game/movie for the other to succeed.

she lied to me

[patch-rustem]

From the article:

"I never thought I'd have to pay attention to someone's girth-to-height ratio," Colburn said. "It brings a whole new level of detail to the negotiating process."

so size does matter

Blurring boundaries

[tiled_rainbows]

My guess is that movies and games are going to get closer until they are not so much two separate media but a continuum, with totally traditional, non-interactive linear films at one end, totally freeform, nonlinear games at the other end, and all this other stuff in between. It's the in-between bits that we've only just started exploring. But I reckon you won't get 'the game of the film' or 'the film of the game', but just the 'game/film/generical entertainment thingy', possibly with a user-definable level of interactivity.
For all those of you who have ever shouted at your TV screen when the character in an otherwise OK movie make a really dumb move, this is a Good Thing.

My other prediction is that most of the stuff produced by the big studios will be mindless pap as always, but also, as always, people will continue to produce the odd title that is genuinely fun or beautiful or thought-provoking.

You were on *fire* darling!

[Andy Smith]

there was little need for agents because game technology wasn't advanced enough to support dramatic music scores, lifelike animation, spectacular explosions and lengthy dialogue

Spectacular explosions need agents?

Good thing its happening now..

[darkmayo]

and not back when the atari was king.

Agent: "That blob is my client... you have got to be joking, where is the sexiness, you can hardly see his manly jaw. "

at least now they can make the game characters look like the actors (one thing that Enter the Matrix did pretty well.)

For the better

[Metal_Demon]

First of all on a mildly OT note, when I first saw this I thought it was about actors making sure they aren't put into crappy games (the matrix folks outta be pissed), which is something I think I'd worry about these days if I was an actor. What with all the movie/game mingling and all. Also I'd like to mention that a crappy movie can make a game look bad as well *coughTombRaidercough*.

Now as far as what this article is really about. I think that this could be a good thing. In order to make less crappy game based movies and movie based games the developers and directors need to communicate better, and as the article points out they don't really speak the same language. Anyways if game devs have more say in the movies and directors have more say in the games (not that it help enter the matrix) they should be able to create better mingling media without everybody saying character x would never do something like that. Just my $0.02!

Get these people out of here

[Lord_Dweomer]

I wish to god some other billion dollar industry would spring up for Hollywood to capitalize on. Seriously, LEAVE MY DAMN GAMES ALONE! I hate that...whenever something cool comes along and is underground....or at least not as commercialized as everything else in the world....Hollywood always decides to make it the 'next big thing' and they butcher it in the process. I don't want some agent ruining a game by making them take the lifelike gore out just because it would look bad if her client got shot up in the game. Oh well, least they won't touch all the games I play.

What we have to look forward to?

[Lord_Dweomer]

"Colburn and her squad of entertainment lawyers, executives and bankers strapped together financing and cut the legal deals needed to pull off the game based on the film ``The Matrix Reloaded.'' They also secured the video game rights for the ``Terminator 3'' movie."

Great.....as if the Matrix game didn't suck enough, they need to mak a horrible Terminator 3 game. Just what everybody wants. However, I do admit to being a little excited about reading this:

"Gamers are coming into positions of power in Hollywood,'' said Devlin, who worked with CAA's Shapiro to option the rights for a movie based on the ``MechWarrior'' game franchise."

Mechwarrior? Movie? Hollywood quality special effects? HOLY SHITBALLS BATMAN!!! I think every single mech lover in the world has been dying to see mechs done up in a movie that looked extremely realistic. There have been a few mech movies so far...but they didn't look THAT good...except RoboJox or w/e it is. But this one is based on the Battletech universe, which makes me jump for joy.

Re:What we have to look forward to?

[Sylver Dragon]

Mechwarrior? Movie? Hollywood quality special effects? HOLY SHITBALLS BATMAN!!! I think every single mech lover in the world has been dying to see mechs done up in a movie that looked extremely realistic. There have been a few mech movies so far...but they didn't look THAT good...except RoboJox or w/e it is. But this one is based on the Battletech universe, which makes me jump for joy.

I agree, I would love to see a good Mechwarrior movie, but therein lies the catch, a good Mechwarrior movie. I'm a little afraid that it will get the Wing Commander treatment. I loved the Wing Commander series, and when I heard they were doing a movie, I thought, great this should be cool. Sadly, the acting is so bad in that movie, its painful. They would have done better to simply use the cut-scenes out of the video game. Then you have Tomb Raider, I wasn't a fan of the games, but boy did that first movie ever screw that title up. I still haven't bothered with the second one, and probably won't unless it comes on TV and I am too drunk to reach the remote.
I guess the point to this rant is, has a game ever been made into to a good movie? Even outside of video games, the prospects aren't that good. D&D? If ever there was a more fetid, steaming, pile of crap, I've not seen it. Anybody know of a game to movie port that was worth the time to watch?

forget tie-ins -- games need content

[isoSasquatch]

Buried in this article, which is mostly about big, stupid agents making big, stupid deals so that big, stupid movies can have big, stupid games to go with them, is an interesting mention of bringing a "Hollywood sensibility" to game-making. Vin Diesel having a game company may not fulfill that promise, but I would love to see more content-driven games where the story and the ideas behind the game drive it more than the technology that makes it possible. Since technology inevitably plateaus, game developers will have to eventually use content to sell games, which I hope will mean more writers working on games to make them more like interactive narrative experiences.

I feel like video games can be a narrative medium even more powerful than film, but game-makers have only scratched the surface of how it can be used to tell stories in a new way.

Actors probably don't even play their games...

[UltimaL337Star]

And the only comment a game developer will ever hear directly from an actor will be, "Make my goodies bigger"

ummm why do we care what she thinks?

[shaitand]

"Pamela Colburn... an investment banker who once managed billion-dollar hostile takeovers, now worries about whether actors who appear buff on movie screens will seem puny in video games alongside pixelated monsters."

Exactly how is an investment broken qualified to give the opinion of Agents? They are completely seperate, completely unrelated jobs...

Damn.

[mrseigen]

Here I was hoping that these agents were moving programmers and the people who actually build the game, and it turns out just to be some dorks who sell you an actor to go with your license.

We need less licensed games -- and less shit.