Doom Takes A Shot At Gamers

The Washington Post has a piece discussing the suck that is a movie based on a videogame. From the article: "At the heart of this competitive marriage is this question: How do you successfully turn an interactive experience (playing an Xbox game) into a passive one (watching a movie version of an Xbox game)? For whatever reasons, the recent crop of video game movies -- including 2003's 'House of the Dead' and this year's 'Alone in the Dark,' both helmed by the German director Uwe Boll -- have consistently disappointed gamers. Someone even started a Web site called Uwebollsucks.com. Is it for real? A joke? No one is sure."

Comments

Xbox Game?

[WebScud]

Did they just say Doom is an Xbox game? PC port if anything.

Re:How do you successfully turn a game into a movi

[NanoGator]

"The story?

Have you played Doom? Ever?"

Weeeeelllll think about it. Doom isn't story driven, but at least it's a setting. So how do you turn that into a movie? Use the setting to tell a story. Where'd the monsters come from? Where is there a single marine there? Besides the obvious, what sort of conflicts would this character have? Etc.

Okay, it's still pretty shallow. But you know what? This would still make for an amusing parody. That was the charm of Red Vs. Blue. The world that Halo takes place in is fundamentally absurd. Cars with unlimited ammo? Respawning? The dude that was stuck with a pink uniform? Cute. "I've found armor! Now I can take a bullet to the face!"

Doom's Apologist

[Errandboy of Doom]

Action games lack story, obvious view. So bear with me as I try to explain why the original Doom actually had a pretty good one.

It's basically magnified Mary Shelley. You're battling against tides of evil, all unleashed by man's own hubris, his own self-congratulating experimentation. But Frankenstein's been around a while, so this much would just be cliche. So here's the real punch: the game actually makes you feel powerful towards the end of the game. For a while, you actually think you can take on hell and save the world.

Then you see a cute little bunny in a meadow, with its head on a pike. Shudder... The horror didn't stem from the imagery nearly as much as it stemmed from the reflection upon your own impotence before the march of impeneterable Doom (tm) (well, the imagery definitely helped).

Think about that. You're a complete badass with the Biggest Fucking Gun in the solar system. And you're a failure. It wasn't just horrifying because of the visceral graphics, it was also horrifying because of how it completed the arc of the main character, an arc they achieved without having him ever say a meaningful word. A modern Greek tragedy without any dialogue, that's no small accomplishment.

Doom isn't about blowing up monsters, it's about inevitable failure and crushing depression, brought on by the self-same technology that allows you, one tiny soldier, to maybe survive, if just for today. But save the planet? From Hell? Sorry.

Sure, this ignores the sequels, but it's hard enough defending one of the Doom games, so cut me some slack!!!

Re:I liked it.

[Morinaga]

It's ok that a licensed product of your company would have "low expectations" from it's founder? I understand that game developers probably don't have the same kind of influence over movies as say Rowlings, Grisham etc... but it almost sounds like id have very little quality control.

Is this simply the result of the licensing parent just not having enough muscle power to influence direction?