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Originality Vs. Established IP In Games
Ten Ton Hammer has an article about the differences between developing a game based upon existing intellectual property and the creation of an entirely new story and setting. They make the point that while doing the former may result in an easier time building a fan base, those same fans will often be the hardest to please.
"By creating a game based on a popular IP, the company in question has a huge responsibility to 'do it right.' Unfortunately, not everyone realizes the reality of one little secret — every single fan out there has a different idea of what 'right' is. ... Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. For a person that may be familiar with the movies and little else, it's a great game with an impressive amount of depth and attention to detail. For the mass of fanatical fans that have spent more time poring over every book Tolkien ever wrote than even Tolkien himself, any deviation from the lore of his world is paramount to sacrilege on the most horrific scale."
If something transitions from one medium to another, whether it's from novels to movies, from movies to games, etc, it doesn't matter.
If it's faithful to the original, I will disdain the transition for being unoriginal.
If it tries to be original, I will blame it for straying from the source material.
*sigh*
I guess I'm really just an awful person when it comes to these things.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
As a longtime fan of the "First post" universe, I'm extremely disappointed with this version. All my favorite characters, specifically "post" got cut. Totally butchered it.
They are a extremely small part of any fan base for a certain IP.
Well, maybe he's referring to First Post 2099 where Post was killed by his evil twin psot.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Gee, this seems rather obvious.
Do we really need a slash dot story telling us that if you set out to make a movie, game, coloring book, lunch pail, or Barbie dress based on a theme from some outside source you generally make a commitment to have at least a passing resemblance to said source.
Won't Slash Dotters look at this and express their deep disappointment that there is really nothing behind this story, and it doesn't even bear the tiny-est resemblance to an actual Slash Dot story?
Nah! What was I thinking.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
You're talking about a guy who spent 50+ years writing the Silmarillion (and died with it unfinished) and would rewrite passages dozens of times. I don't think anyone is quite that obsessed with his work (mainly because someone that obsessed would almost need to stop eating and sleeping to fit it all in).
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
A bit of intresting trivia. Ever wonder why some action figures of real people don't look all the real? Because they don't want to be. Look to much like the real person and you got to pay for the right to use their face. So, the commitment you mention is not actually always there. So now you know why some action figures are minitature statues and others all have the same face, men, women and aliens.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
i have severe short term memory loss. what were we talking about again?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
You really can't get any more diversified with conflicting viewpoints than Touhou lore.
Then again, ZUN did state in official material that Gensokyo is what we make of it effectively giving creative interpretation of it over to the fans with him just creating the basic layout and characteristics of each character.
And looking at the size of Touhou fandom I'd have to admit it's not that bad of an idea. Although if someone would try to make something similar to his style, most of the fandom would more than likely cry out that the art is way too good and therefore must be shunned.
Existing IP was an original creation as well at one point. How do you tell a bad movie/book? When it doesn't even respect its own IP from before the break/previous chapter. We call them plotholes.
Whenever you create a world, which is really what any writer does, the visitor is going to expect at least some kind of continuety. That the middle follows the beginning and the end connects to both. If you start the journey with "A long time ago..." you don't expect space ships do you? That would be silly.
Lotro has us expecting certain things. There should be elves, a force of evil, dwarves (only male) and hobbits. Lotro provides that. But how far do you go? Some people complain about the new Rune-keeper class, which fills the role of a glass cannon which Lotro really didn't have. Fans claim the game was fine without a glass cannon and breaking the lore to add a class just to appeal to WoW players is a bad idea. The problem is the entire game breaks the lore.
Females, in battle. OOPS!
Hobbits, fighting. No no.
Dwarves, out of the mines.
Elves, fighting on the front in numbers.
All races being roughly equal while according to Lore, Elves would be the absolute top, dwarves second, man (Aragon is NOT a man), a distant third and hobbits trailing way behind.
Elves starting story line being several hundred years before anyone else, yet when you emerge in the game world proper, you are the same level as a young human.
All of the above is "needed" to make Lotro a game. You can't have Elves be real elves because they would be impossible to balance. People are going to want to play dwarves so screw them being holed up in their mines. Hobbits not leaving the Shire? It is a beautifull area of the game but you could hardly expect people to spend 2+ years there.
But with all the problems, using existing IP has a HUGE advantage.
As a player you don't have to sit through a huge amount of drivel as the creator tries to explain the world to you. Ever tried an Asian free MMORPG? Apart from the simplistic gameplay I am often turned off by trying to understand what the fuck is going on and why I should care. Each race, each class has some kind of really bad Sci-Fi wannabe tearjerker background and after having been introduced to new words for everything I just can't keep up. Existing IP gets rid of that. Somebody else established the currency, the political make up, the names of races and classes. You no longer need to do that.
Do you know why existing franchises keep on ticking? Because creating a new world is insanely hard. Only a few can do it. Gene Roddenberry, father of the biggest franchise of them all, only created 1 succesfull one, despite several other tries. An existing backstory allows a new story to get right down to business. No new star wars needs to explain about hyperdrive, the force or the sith. We know them and you can just skip to the good bits. The ewok songs!... what? Why are you looking at me like that.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Some fans are die-hards. Comic book and trekkie fans spring to mind.
But other fandoms are retarded, blind lemmings in a blender. I don't want to be pointing fingers, so I'll make up an example. So lets say some guy makes a couple really good movies. A couple good related books and games come out. Later, lets say about 25 years, this dude comes out with a prequel movie. It's pretty awful, and only has brand recognition going for it. Regardless, they decide to make even more movies. A bunch more related products come out, and most of them suck. HOWEVER, it ALL sells tremendously well and people act as if it's the second coming of Jesus. Just to top it all off, the guy refuses to release the original movies on DVD, but has a dozen different "Director's Cut" editions, which fans always buy the latest version of.
I know my example is over-the-top exaggeration and nothing could possibly be *that* asinine, but some names are worth millions of units sold, regardless of the product's quality.
Literally, owning some brands is like owning your own private mint.
I'm getting sick of playing game adaptation because of the inaccuracies. It can totally ruin the gaming experience. I was quite disgusted with the inaccuracies in this game. It has left a sour taste in my mouth. I don't think I will play a movie adaptation again.
... depending on how recent the IP is. The thing with tolkien and the lord of the rings is, the books have been around forever. But any game would most likely be targetting the lukewarm middle that doesn't read very much, any game appealing to tolkien's world doesn't necessarily have to be 'perfect' and I think most sane people realize that. I really think it's a minority thing to get crazy about adaptations of movies or established stories to games.
By creating a game based on a popular IP [...]
Like what?
Kevin alone at 127.0.0.1?
The Hostmask?
Destination Anycast?
Don't Loop Back?
The Last Broadcast?
Now those are movies I would watch...
Why is everyone using "intellectual property", a catch-all phrase for trademarks, copyrights etc instead of just saying "ideas", "stories" or "settings"? I don't want to sound like RMS but it's really a dumb use of the term. The LoTR game is not based on IP, it's based on a story that happens to be protected by copyright.
It's a matter of how ambitious you want to be. There have been studios that made a point of owning their IP, and began their game as the beginning of a brand, a mascot, intended to become popular. Look at Mario, has more name recognition than Mickey Mouse. To do this sort of thing you have to be a triple-A studio backed with a ton of financing and development freedom.
The last developer that notably got to this point, after years of doing work for other people's IP is Factor 5. Unfortunately they tanked with Lair, mostly not their fault, who could've predicted Sony would release at $600 :| But the game wasn't amazing either. You could mention Silicon Knights as well. Too Human in development for over 10 years, at least conceptually. While the story was ambitious it somehow didn't quite resonate, and had that miserable E3 debut.
So, if you're an up&coming developer and you catch the eye of a publisher, do you say yes or no to that Matrix derived console port? You say yes, of course. You want to work, you bide your time, pay your dues, and store up the cheddar for your shot.
Sometimes their day comes and fizzles, and sometimes it's a home-run. Sometimes it's Daikatana, sometimes it's Deus Ex. Lol, same studio (name anyway), but Romero was running the one that tanked like a fish. (One wonders if Romero still wears his 'Design is Law' t-shirts around the house... or do they even fit anymore?)
Sure, doing a game adaptation has its pitfalls, that's clear. The biggest pitfalls fall in areas that can be the hardest to get right. It's damned easy to create the world's visuals. No one cares anymore. You have a hi-rez texture-map of Trinity's face for your Matrix game and know enough code to slap it onto a wireframe (mirrored), whoop-dee-do. Let's see a trick learned in your sophomore year of college. The real trick is matching tone, mood, atmosphere, scope -- those things that movie-makers try so desperately hard to build into their films, and if they're done right are so subtle that you only feel them, never mechanically note them. After that there's the question of whether the game-play is slick or not, and that can be tricky too. The master of gameplay is Nintendo. Miyamoto's made how many Mario / Zelda / Metroid / etc., etc., etc., etc., games now? And yet each one sells like crack? That's because the story is only a frame, the game is in the gameplay, the control mechanics, that feedback of visuals and control. The answer to the question: what is a game? Miyamoto knows it, and you play it in his games.
The last major pitfall: running out of time and financing. When they rely on the name more than the game. We've all played stuff that was an adaptation that was utter sh!t. Going all the way back to the industry slayer: E.T. the Extraterrestrial for the Atari. I played that goddamn thing left and right, and it was annoying as hell. Or take that Little Mermaid game for the NES my sister talked my little brother in purchasing one Christmas long ago, though I warned him about it and he later was quite upset.
There's always gonna be some stuff that just should not be adapted. Who's gonna try and make a game out of "Pride and Prejudice", or "Angela's Ashes"? There's just not enough action. And dating simulators never really took off in the States (thank god, that's a new level of pathetic :P).
"I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist"
In the video game domain, Fallout 3 is another example of a game where a small and vocal minority wigged out that Bethesda DARE change anything about their beloved isometric franchise. Even so, Fallout 3 was able to strike a balance between offering a modern realtime experience while adhering fairly close to what came before. The ranting of more obsessive fans had no impact on the game's popularity.
I'm sure games franchises do benefit from fan approval but it isn't necessary to make every last one happy, especially the fanatics.
Hobbits not leaving the Shire? It is a beautifull area of the game but you could hardly expect people to spend 2+ years there.
People have played in a single town in Nintendo's Animal Crossing for longer than that. And people used to play The Sims Online.
"Original IPs are risky! Let's revive more 20 year old dead series with franchise necromancy so EA and Activision can keep their shitty publishing outfits rolling on volume alone!"
"Buh-buh-but riiiiisk! I dun wanna make new things! Our latest crop of idiots from DeVry didn't learn how to be creative! New franchises aren't guaranteed to make me money! The fans will buy anything, you'll see! Marketing said so!"
"Oh and uh-uh, what's a video game? Hold that thought, I need to go take another cruise using that money I bonused myself from that latest handful of independent companies we just took over and liquidated! Tell me how the project goes, and remember - your quality assurance budget is twenty five cents. That's five times what you got last time, so make it count!" -
A Typical Video Game Industry Executive
I read a lot of blah blah and not much really hinting at the things which (IMO) would matter with these issues. Simply because there are lots of movies which have been created based on books and which did an excellent job of truly visualizing the book. Just like there are plenty of horror scenario's available as well. Heck, if you don't believe that then take a look at Disney's Junglebook. Wonderful movie, fully aimed at kids right? Because, that is what Junglebook is all about; a kids story. Bzzz, WRONG. The Junglebook written by Kipling shows you a totally different junglebook where things transpire a lot differently.
But what about the /why/ in this whole thing? For me its slowly getting more and more obvious since it seems as if the amount of bad movies (from the original stories point of view) is only increasing. For me, especially in this time and era, its whether or not a movie is fully driven by money and the amount of freedom a producer allows himself in the favor of lowering the costs and thus stash up a larger dose of cash.
Because I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of directors out there who are truly devoted to getting their story right on the screen. The best example I can come up with are the first 2 XMen movies. I bought a LOT of xmen comics in my teens and it was by far one of my favorite stories. I even liked the cartoon series (which ofcourse came long after I stopped collecting comics) a lot because while it did allow itself a little freedom the overal story was quite decently done. And the animation was quite appealing too.
And now the movies.. They put top actors in place (IMO no one could have played Xavier better than Patrick Stewart and the dude playing Wolverine also does an outstanding job) and were quite faithful to the story. Unfortunately that stopped with the release of the 3rd movie, at least IMO. I have it in my dvd collection but I really dislike it a lot. But, iirc it also wasn't directed by the same person who did the first 2 movies. I think that example shines out in itself as to the why.
Its easy to say that when money is involved you get issues, but I believe its the people who try to make this all happen. Some can really live into a story and some can only live into the idea of their bank account getting bigger.
As you already pointed out, the final MMORPG usually changes things or introduces completely new elements to balance the game. At this point, the original IP does not really explain the changed world anymore.
Besides, a huge amount of drivel is not necessary to explain the background. One page of text per faction will do, and the details of gameplay need explaining anyway, even with existing IP. If you have a passable author that will write a lengthy background story, fine, but that is strictly optional.
But the main reason I prefer games based on original concepts is that they tend to be more original in terms of gameplay too. My impression is that games based on existing IP usually try to emulate that world by tailoring some existing genre to more or less fit the IP. Without doing more than the balance changes mentioned above.
Really original games tend to revolve around their innovation and make the background story match that. If they bother at all. For instance Doom, which was innovative by being one of the first FPS - the background story essentially was "Marine, we have lost control with the mars base. Go and clear it out!".
C - the footgun of programming languages
Is that the one where psot, having killed post, is hunted down by what turns out to be a previously unknown triplet, tops?
I don't recall the 95 successive scenes in the film where E.T. fell into a friggin canyon.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
As a longtime fan of the "First post" universe, I'm extremely disappointed with this version. All my favorite characters, specifically "post" got cut. Totally butchered it.
Usually you can find a whole bunch of versions if you can look past the positioning.
tomorrow who's gonna fuss
You have three games with any new game before it gets old. After this you either have to completely reinvent (Resident Evil 4), or you are doomed to stagnation (Megaman) or else will run the series into the ground (Sonic the Hedgehog). You have one game to introduce things(Sonic 1/Crash Bandicoot), one sequel to experiment with and ramp it up a notch(Sonic 2/The Wrath of Cortex), and number three is the to release the perfected, definitive work(Sonic 3&K/ Crash Bandicoot Warped).
With this in mind, new IP is absolutely essential. Gamers want something fresh, and you don't necessarily need a completely new paradigm or control scheme or expierience.
Take a look at Gear of War. The lead developer openly admitted that they took inspiration from several sources. The cover system is directly out of Kill/Switch, the over the shoulder view is from Resident Evil 4. The Kryll enemies were lifted directly from the movie "Pitch Black". Basically, something can still be fresh my taking inspiration from other sources, not by making up a new world as it goes along(Summoner 2).
Eventually, people will get bored of the same old thing. Players and developers both. Even Rockstar , having released their three games; GTA 3, Vice City, and their magnum opis San Andreas, decided to almost completely overhaul their biggest IP in GTA 4, primarily because they were sick of the same old thing. Creativity will stagnate unless you are actually being creative.
Three games, release the definitive title, then move on.
May the Maths Be with you!
"For a person that may be familiar with the movies and little else, it's a great game with an impressive amount of depth and attention to detail. For the mass of fanatical fans that have spent more time poring over every book Tolkien ever wrote than even Tolkien himself, any deviation from the lore of his world is paramount to sacrilege on the most horrific scale."
Seems to imply that there are few people that have watched the movies and little else while many more people read all of the books in a fanatical way. I would propose that first, many more people have seen the movies than have read the books. I would also propose that even among those that read the books, not a huge percentage cared much about the deviation from the books enough to matter. I didn't RTFA, but hopefully there are some better examples in it.
IMHO, perfect example of "IP" MMO done right: LoTRo. Great game and had lots of fun. Perfect example of "IP" MMO done wrong: SWG. Good idea, but, went south. Looking forward to Stargate and KOTOR...
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
Yes, but psot's dog, spot, saves him by biting tops' neck before he can pull the trigger.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Yeah, but that's only after Anonymous Coward changed his original vision, in the original version tops shot first.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!