MMR: Why Video Games Based on Movies Aren't Working

[jgjgjg]

I suspect part of what's going on is also "PEBCAK" in nature. Your average gamer, and average reviewer, are aging. With age (for many folks) comes maturity and maturity unfortunately brings higher expectations.

As we get older we get bored faster with juvenile solutions to juvenile problems despite the quality of the adrenaline rush. Think about it: most games, especially most FPS style games, entail 20 something punk solutions to 20 something punk problems. By the time you're 40, a lot of the "whoa dude, cool!" has worn off the process of putting a bullet into a zombie.

So....MOST of us playing now require things of our games that we simply didn't require 20 years ago.

Here's an honest question that requires an honest answer. Let's say Alien came out today for the first time, you'd never seen it. No memories, no adolescent glow attached, just the movie. Would you still think it was cool? Would you still go back to the theatre multiple times to see it?

I suspect that "back in the day" when the only two things you had on your mind were fighting and getting laid, Alien was a rush and that's the ONLY thing you expect: plot was utterly irrelevant. Now that you've got a mortgage and some pimply faced pr!ck is trying to screw your daughter, the joys of Alien just ain't gonna cut it. Same thing with our games....

 

[infornography42]

You make an interesting point, but to be honest.... I never really liked the Alien movies. Too much thriller, not enough substance.

Then again I never really liked the entire horror movie genre so to each their own.

The problem we have however is mostly one of relative quality. The consistancy on which video games based on movies, and conversely, movies based on video games suck is much higher than for other genres, and they have some fierce competition in some areas.

Also there is the problem of expectations of character. You've already met and are familiar with the characters of the story and the story itself, but for some reason crossing mediums like this seems to screw it all up. The characters don't act like themselves and the story is completely wrong. This cheapening of our expectations is nearly always a disapointment.

 

[jgjgjg]

You make an interesting point, but to be honest.... I never really liked the Alien movies. Too much thriller, not enough substance.

Then again I never really liked the entire horror movie genre so to each their own.

The problem we have however is mostly one of relative quality. The consistancy on which video games based on movies, and conversely, movies based on video games suck is much higher than for other genres, and they have some fierce competition in some areas.

Also there is the problem of expectations of character. You've already met and are familiar with the characters of the story and the story itself, but for some reason crossing mediums like this seems to screw it all up. The characters don't act like themselves and the story is completely wrong. This cheapening of our expectations is nearly always a disapointment.

Good points. Also, for some reason the "cheap thrill" in games just doesn't pack the punch it does in movies. And it's that cheap thrill that fill the impending void everytime the character and plot start to go flat.