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Fight Club Game Perplexes, Amuses
Thanks to 1UP for its coverage of Vivendi's announcement of a Fight Club videogame for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. As the title might suggest, this is indeed a "3D fighting game based on David Fincher's film Fight Club", and 1UP notes that "you can see Tyler Durden and Edward Norton's nameless narrator in the first round of screens." Vivendi's official press release plays up the "gritty, visceral world" of the film, itself adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's celebrated book, and insists the title will "portray the brutality of street fighting while encompassing the action and story elements from the movie with intense visuals, untraditional moves, and bare-knuckle destruction."
If the game is going to be feature complete, it needs:
n, b, c *flicker of a spliced pr0n frame*
According to the director/actor commentary on the Fight Club DVD, the film is anti-violence. So doesn't a beat 'em up game tie-in completely miss the point?
this article is breaking the first two rules of fight club. 1. Do not talk about fight club. 2. Do not talk about fight club.
...Vivendi also announced a bird hunting game based on To Kill a Mockingbird. Players will choose from a traditional assortment of hunting weapons, including the .22 rifle, rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and the ever-popular flame thrower.
Vivendi is also planning a baseball game based on The Catcher in the Rye.
It would be a mmorpg, with you as a recruit. There would already be a hierarchy, with Tyler at the top. You would have to complete tasks, and submit a story to the effect of what/how you did your task. It is then reviewed by your superior, and depending on the believabilty of the story or simply the greatness of your story. Of course, this could all be B.S.-able by people, but it would be more interesting if people didn't and the game was subversive.
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
I don't think this game is going to be appreciated by the fans of the movie (me being one of them). Contrary to what the title may suggest, this movie is not about fighting. I cannot say that it is about non-violence, but I _can_ say what it is about.
The movie is about the human mind and the state of our society. It presents some pretty valid points about the state of the capitilistic culture we live in. And it pretty much leaves the questions about the human mind up to the viewer (or reader). Bottom line, the fans of the movie do not like this movie for the brutal fight scenes. At least I hope none do.
So, I only see this game spreading the wrong message about the movie.
my cat's breath smells like cat food
I am Jack's mild amusement at Vivendi Universal missing the plot altogether.
Rod.
Rod Begbie done this, and he's not
Palanhniuk's novels inspire a particular kind of devotion in a particular kind of people. Some of these people are gamers, to be sure, but I would argue it unlikely that many of them would be interested in a game based on the film. This thread in and of itself gives credence to my reaction to the announcement which was that there is no conceivable way to make a good game out of Fight Club. And that was my reaction before reading that press release nonsense about it being a 'gritty street fighting' game. I have to wonder if the developers even saw the film.
Whether you find the movie itself engaging or pseudo-intellectual it must be admitted that it touches on some complex ideas. Some complex, reactionary ideas. Games as they exist today are not a good medium for conveying complicated ideas. We're simply not there yet. I've had some experiences playing games like 'X-Com' and 'Hidden and Dangerous' that show me tiny glimmers of a vast and limitless potential for complicated emotional involvement with games. Certainly The Sims touches on some high emotional concepts. The thing that's different is that Fight Club already exists. It has already achieved its emotional goals and struck its nerve. If the goal is to produce the same feelings in a game, then it's a game that is about three generations ahead of its time. It's not a gritty street fighting game that borrows likenesses from big name actors.
All of that said, the problem of designing a Fight Club game is wholly intriguing. Conceptually there are some interesting directions you could go. You could play as Tyler Durden, your goal being to complete Project Mayhem before the Narrator became aware and could consciously intervene. The problem with that concept is that it's just that: a concept. What are the verbs? That idea doesn't define game play. What does the player do? Obviously there should be some fighting involved but the question to ask is 'what does fighting accomplish?' In the film it was one tool Durden used to recruit to his cult and inspire devotion in his followers. One of many tools. So perhaps the game could be a sort of Cult Builder or sim. The time you're able to spend as Tyler Durden each day could be a sort of resource, with successfully fought Narrator vs. Tyler fights earning you more time to recruit and lead your cult. As your cult grew you could carry out more and more complex missions, with the eventual goal of erasing the debt record, as in the climax of the film. There are a couple problems with this, though.
One is a lack of a defined enemy. In the film the ostensible reason to destroy satellite dishes, to trash coffee bars, and to generally disrupt modern society was some nebulous concept about freedom. Freedom for people who are dissatisfied with the role they've found in said society. In the end it all seems to have been about one man's struggle to find himself and to come to terms with his past and future. My point is that, as in the film, ideas and motives so incendiary will burn themselves out. They can't be sustained because they don't present a real sense of danger. The members of Project Mayhem aren't in mortal danger. They choose to rebel because they are unhappy, they are not fighting a defined enemy. So how do you quantify success? Erasing the debt record, I suppose. Accomplishing each mission without Meat Loaf being shot in the head by the police, I guess.
All in all, I think it would be most difficult to make Fight Club a game because its conflict is internal. Internal strife is hard enough in narrative. We're nowhere near close to being ab
"No, I'm serious," Chuck deadpans. They [20th Century Fox] just sold the rights to the Fight Club video game."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I'm serious. And ask me if I care."
"It's all assimilated. Everything," Chuck quietly jabs. "Those things demonstrate nihilism. It demonstrates that everything becomes a commodity, that everything is trivialized and destroyed."
"But that's so raw," I say, confused.
Almost playfully, Chuck smiles and says, "No, it's not, because it makes room for more stuff, more cutting-edge visions."
From ChuckPalahniuk.net