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From OddWorld to Hollywood
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:58 PM
from the long-car-trip dept.
from the long-car-trip dept.
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."
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Re: (Score:1)
Bad Signs (Score:4, Interesting)
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).
Art and Entertainment (Score:1, Interesting)
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 re
Re: (Score:1)
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
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:1)
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 use
Re: (Score:2)
uhh (Score:1)
Besides the better money, larger audience, better parties, more cultural relevance, and greater prestige?
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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 po
Reasons? (Score:2)
Oddworld Games and Movie (Score:1)
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
But is Hollywood ready... (Score:3, Funny)