From OddWorld to Hollywood

Game designer Lorne Lanning, creator of the well-known series of titles centered in Oddworld (Abe's Oddysee, Stranger's Wrath, etc.), has been "away" from gaming for quite a while now. After announcing the next title in the Oddworld Cycle, he surprised everyone by turning his company and his attention to the world of movies and television. Edge caught up with him for an interview on what it is like to work in the world of Hollywood, the reasons behind his decision to change the focus of his creative efforts, and the details of his new project Citizen Siege (a title both movie and game). Particularly interesting are his comments on games as a medium. He comments: "I have no doubt that games are the most powerful medium we've ever had, but we're still in the tinker-toy stage. We just have to blow out to the point where a game can change the face of political opinion, like a movie does. Lord David Puttnam was firmly convinced that the civil rights movement in America was enabled to happen because it was filmed for television, and offered insight and compassion to the audience. It made issues relevant, and enabled people to see from a different perspective. That's when a medium really has power - the idea of the artist, mythologically, is to show us the way, or the wrong way, even."

Comments

Bad Signs

[MBraynard]

Oddworld games - at least the one or two I played - have a decidedly anti-corporate tone. Given the Lannings comments on the Civil Rights movement and older media like movies, I wonder if he wants to push his games to be more of an activist vehicle than they have in the past.

Which is all well and fine... as long as the games are still principally fun and he doesn't forget that the reason people load up Abe + co not to learn a lesson but for the same reason people head to the movie house - to have an escape and to get some enjoyment.

Better that than having games that get the same 'You must go see this film - the message is so powerful' swill (Siriana) that tries to guilt you into going to some film rather than to one you would enjoy (Borat).

Re:Bad Signs

[ArmyOfFun]

as long as the games are still principally fun and he doesn't forget that the reason people load up Abe + co not to learn a lesson but for the same reason people head to the movie house - to have an escape and to get some enjoyment.

Traditionally, most video games have been just an escape, or a simple form of entertainment. That is what the "game" part of "video game" has meant. If that's all you want from your leisure activities, that's ok. But some of us are also entertained by new thoughts or different opinions.

Lanning seems to think that video games can join the ranks of movies, music and books, in that games can also deliver a message from their creator about the world at large or the condition of the human spirit. Now, you may not be interested in movies or games that have a message as their primary draw but why worry that some creators want to imbue such things into their art? It's not an either or proposition, you can go to the theater and see Borat and Syriana (or just one or neither). On the other hand, people who want more philosophy in their games have traditionally few choices. I see little reason why that should be the case.

Re:Bad Signs

[MBraynard]

It would not work because the 'lesson' from a movie lasts only about 90 minutes - maybe 120. You can't make the major focus of a game you play for 20-40 hours a 'lesson' about how bad global warming is.

It's like this - how many SPORTS do you know that are created to try and teach a lesson? Video Games are more like SPORTS than they are like books/movies/etc. Sure, they can have a theme (Oddworld), but it's really a sport about getting your little friends from one side of the map to the other.

Re:Bad Signs

[ArmyOfFun]

You can't make the major focus of a game you play for 20-40 hours a 'lesson' about how bad global warming is.

Let's say I want to make global warming 'message' game. We'd have characters talking about how hot it is, how there's less land than there used to be. Or noting that some creatures are out of place or that there are fewer of them than before. We could have levels where you're trying to escape from a melting and collapsing iceberg. You could have different endings depending on what vehicles you used, use of renewable items versus manufactured ones, etc...

Video Games are more like SPORTS than they are like books/movies/etc

Currently they are, sure. Yet, it's not hard to imagine a game swinging in completely the opposite way. The most extreme example would be a "choose your own adventure" knock off.

Lannings was talking about possibilities, not necessarily the ways things are now. Things like Facade show a future where games can feel much more like a traditional movie or play than like a sport. And where you have resolutions that don't necessarily include violence (or some physical act). One thing about Facade is that while the narrative changes depending on what you do, the major themes stay mostly the same.

Re:Bad Signs

[Raenex]

I played Stranger's Wrath, and like you said, it had an anti-corporate message. And it was funny! That seems like proof positive to me that entertaining and message can be mixed in a game.

uhh

[nomadic]

the reasons behind his decision to change the focus of his creative efforts

Besides the better money, larger audience, better parties, more cultural relevance, and greater prestige?

Re:From OddWorld to Hollywood

['nother poster]

I do believe that you are confuling Oddworld with La-La Land.

Art and Entertainment

[Anonymous Coward]

If we want games to be taken seriously, we should applaud folks like Lanning who see the medium as having potential beyond mindless entertainment.

All mediums have content. IMHO, the message of many games is "Entertaining yourself is the highest aim of life." That's all well and good, but the world is bigger than that.

Hopefully, games in the future will fill more of the space on both axes: entertainment (Britney Spears, Epic Movie) and "art" (Beethoven, The Pianist). Great stuff is often strong in both respects (e.g. Shakespeare).

Just one man's opinion. Feel free to disagree, and I'm certain you will! : ]

Reasons?

[Rob T Firefly]

the reasons behind his decision to change the focus of his creative efforts

Simple.. Hollywood has nicer money hats.

Oddworld Games and Movie

[Kardall]

If he makes a movie that's fine. If he makes a game, all the power to him. Regardless of the developers political agenda are, people will play the game if they want to. As long as I can fart in the general direction of then I'll play it as well.

Most of the games out there have some sort of political undertone, but how many kids pay attention to them? The kids out there today don't care what the game stands for, as long as they get to do what they want to do. If a game is sporting street racing, they want to be able to smash a car against the rails in hopes to crush some innocent bystandard. If a company sports a way to comb a barbies hair, they will play it to see what kind of funky styles they can do that no other barbie would wear. It fits for all genders across all genres. It even spans across age groups, as the 10 year olds are playing GTA: Vice City because they want to stab a hooker, rob a store, etc.

Keep making games, kids will keep playing them. Oddworld was definately one of the better side scrolling games to come out when it looked like it was going to be a dying breed of gamestyles. It kinda brought new life to the genre.

Re:Oh spare us

[Dogtanian]

It's sad when an artist wants to reduce their art to propaganda... you may as well just go into marketing or advertising and be honest with yourself about what you're doing. Wrong; in advertising- rightly or wrongly- you're whoring your art out for someone else's message, in almost all cases to sell a product.

You might not like people trying to get across their own message and may even consider it propoganda, but to imply that it's selling out in the same way that advertising or marketing is, is nonsense.

But is Hollywood ready...

[bckrispi]

for a story that involves taking psychic control of one's own explosive farts?

Re:Oh spare us

[Dogtanian]

You can keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better Why would it make me feel better? I'm not an artist, and I'm not a particular fan of the guy that created Oddworld (I played the first in the series the better part of 10 years ago, and that's it).

about yourself but propaganda is the basest form of art. Do you classify *any* form of art which has more than purely aesthetic value (and *nothing* else) as propaganda? And do you lump this all together with the worst pack-of-lies, misleading, simplifying, fallacious, emotion-inducing, crowd-pandering propaganda out there?

What's worse, artists who do it are usually self-righteous pricks who've convinced themselves that they're on some sort of high moral ground. Some of them are.

Anyhow, you missed the point I was making. Whether or not you view them both as equally reprehensible, there's a difference between using your art to push your own point-of-view and hiring it out to push someone else's for money.