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Video Game Adaptation In the Works For A Song of Fire and Ice
Posted by
Soulskill
on Thu May 14, 2009 04:52 AM
from the goons-everywhere-rejoice dept.
from the goons-everywhere-rejoice dept.
On Wednesday, French game development studio Cyanide announced that they will be working with George R. R. Martin to bring his popular fantasy series, A Song of Fire and Ice, to the realm of video games. The press release implies that there will be more than one game, and the games will come out for PCs and "next-gen consoles." Apparently an HBO television series is in the works as well, in addition to board and card games related to the books.
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Oh god (Score:3, Insightful)
The books suck (Score:5, Insightful)
The story is so formulaic. Here's the formula:
1) Create a likable character.
2) Create a hideous character.
3) Have Character #2 rape Character #1.
4) Have multiple other people rape Character #1.
5) Kill Character #1 in an ignoble fashion.
6) Choose a new Character #1. Repeat steps 3-5.
"Murphy's Law of George R.R. Martin":
If you like a character, that character will be maimed, raped, and/or killed in the next book. There are no exceptions.
Parent
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Re:The books suck (Score:4, Funny)
"Murphy's Law of George R.R. Martin":
If you like a character, that character will be maimed, raped, and/or killed in the next book. There are no exceptions.
Yes there are. I liked a character that didn't even survive the FIRST book!
Parent
You mean "A Song of Ice and Fire", right? (Score:4, Funny)
Or is this one of those Chinese knockoffs, like "backstroke of the west" or "Harry potter and the big Funnel"?
I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)
... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!
Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)
... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!
and artists would prefer if fans stopped thinking of them as their bitches.
But that's not very likely is it?
Parent
Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
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He made this promise or his manager/publisher made this promise? Crucial difference.
Not when his name's on the book. His name was used to promote the promise. If he doesn't like it, he should work with a publisher who doesn't tell lies in his name. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Martin's fans (and I'm one) have been fairly patient overall. It is a huge (and wonderful) work and certainly requires a lot of time to make it as good as it is. It's not like he came to my house and signed a contract with me to finish at any particular time. On the other hand, starting a series like this does seem to make a kind of promise to the readers that it will (at least eventually) be finished.
Where people lose patience is when it seems that lots of other things (calendars, figurines, tv series, games....) are taking up more of Martin's time than the books, and when those fans care about the books and not about the tchotchkes they (the fans, not the tchotchkes) - however selfishly and unrealistically - feel slighted and cranky.
Parent
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They are our bitches. Without readership they make no money. End of story.
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They are our bitches. Without readership they make no money. End of story.
You need to start perusing some real art, this pop culture crap seems to be rotting your brain away.
Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Informative)
You may want to read Neil Gaiman's comments on the issue [neilgaiman.com], as it seems the grandparent poster has.
Although I think that R. K. Milholland's take on a similar issue [superstupor.com] is right on target too.
Parent
Nobody's Bitch. (Score:5, Insightful)
I would like it if writers stopped thinking of their customers as their bitch. If he does not understand the impatience and irritation of his paying customers in not delivering product according to a promised schedule, he's not going to have the franchise grow very much farther than it already has. A professional writer is an artist, true... but more importantly, a professional writer is a paid professional. It's a major disservice to the craft of writing to string your readers along the way he has.
It's one thing to say, "Hey, guys... I lost my mojo on this. I may come back to it in a few years or I may not." Hey, whatever, crap like that happens. Stick to single-volume novels, and your readers will give you another chance.
It's another thing to sneer at your readers and insult them for questioning your grandiose "art." That's not only rude, it's dishonest.
It's not the reader's fault you managed to paint yourself into a corner with your sub-plots. It's not the reader's fault you can't break the story down into novel-length chapters... it's your failing as an =artist=.
Entitlement? Demanding your readers adore you and your works uncritically after having failed them so spectacularly is probably one of the grossest examples of "sense of entitlement" I've come across.
Parent
Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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"How do you think us Wheel of Time fans feel?"
After book 6 or 7, I didn't think there was any fans left.
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But when did you last read something where even the author dies before the grand climax?
I don't know, but Atlas Shrugged was clearly an attempt to kill the reader.
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... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!
Are you sure you'd be happy with it if it came prematurely? Mostly Harmless comes to mind. Summary: Random chaotic shit, and everyone dies at the end.
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... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!
Are you sure you'd be happy with it if it came prematurely? Mostly Harmless comes to mind. Summary: Random chaotic shit, and everyone dies at the end.
HEY! Spoiler-tags motherfucker! ;)
Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)
So far, all the books written have served only to introduce us to the setting, with a vague hint of "winter is coming". We cannot actually say whether the winter is the main plot line or not.
It's like a soap opera. There's nothing happening, except characters acting and reacting. No one is accelerating the main plot (because we dont know which plot that is).
Tolkien said very early on, "here's a ring, the story will concern its destruction". David Eddings - evil god does bad things, here's a story about his demise.
And when we read those books, we form expectations about what is going to happen, and we start to trust the author when that happens. That's an important connection between author and reader.
Song of ice and fire, well, anything can happen. Hell, the bad guy in book X is the good guy in book X+2. I respect Martin because he can pull it off.
I do, however, not trust him to take sufficient care of the characters I enjoy the most - he's proven he has no qualms about killing them off (or leaving them out entirely from a book), then resurrecting them and making them evil. And then the 3 year cliffhangers...
Parent
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Dude, the story is the characters. It really is a fantasy based soap opera where all the excitement is the interaction between characters and you wondering whether your favorite will die on the next page or not.
If you really want a main plot, Daenerys (sp?) is going to come overseas with a huge army and then confront The Song of Ice and Fire (aka a main character in the books that I won't spoil), and either they fall in love or kill each other, or both. Everything else is just more reasons for more charac
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The killing off of major characters and showing the more noble side of previously loathed villains is an interesting subversion of the usual predictable fantasy tropes. I think that's part of its appeal to me - it reads more like a history, and less like another iteration of the "Monomyth [wikipedia.org] of the Hero". Or at least it would, if our history books and documentaries didn't usually reduce the real world's personalities to fantasy-esque narrative caricatures.
On the other hand, The Song of Ice & Fire's non-com
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Yes. You paid for those books. That means that George R R Martin worked for you.
He has no obligation to continue doing so, however.
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George R. R. Martin's response to you. [livejournal.com]
*sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll probably end up similar to the three hack n' slash Lord of the Rings games on the Xbox - Gameplay might be fun, but you could remove the setting entirely and not make a difference. Personally, I think the best style for this game would be something more akin to King of Dragon Pass. [a-sharp.com]
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tfa:
"Development on a game for PC and "next-gen consoles" has begun, and George R. R. Martin will help out"
so maybe wont be so bad after all eh? I guess as long as Mr Martin has some say so , or rather put Cyanide lets him.
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[Assuming the networks don't decide to remove the incest and childkilling, and so on.]
They will, I'm sure :P
But I highly doubt videogame developers are going to focus on anything but violence, violence, violence with this.
Could be an RTS... The Game of Thrones board came was pretty good (at least before they came out with the Clash of Kings expansion with the imba-as-hell Unique House Orders...)
What sort of game is it going to be? (Score:3, Interesting)
Cyanide studio (http://www.cyanide-studio.com/) has previously published mostly sports games, although they currently got a Blood Bowl esque RTS -game in develoment along with a cartoonty MMO called "Dungeon Party".
I'm personally bit wary of this SoI&F game they've announced, as their track record of games doesn't really fit in too well with what I'd hope from a SoI&F game. I think something like A Sharp's King of Dragon Pass could well enhance the Soi&F exprience far better.
Still, I guess Cyanide has displayed ability to jump genres with their new productions, so pretty much anything is possible from the SoI&F game?
Subgames? (Score:3, Funny)
Will there be sub-games/mini-games for the following:
* Braid pulling.
* Adjusting ones dress.
* Complex embroidery design? Maybe have a web portal where other players can design complex dresses. Dress design will be rated by the length and detail of descriptions (minimum description 3000 words or one chapter). MMO even?
Excellent franchise to choose as both the TV series and games can produce multitudes of series/upgrades with no conclusion to plot or story.
A Tip for anyone contemplating reading the whole series. After book three, skip every twenty pages.
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Book 8?.. Hmm... not sure. Was that the one where 800 pages were dedicated to progressing the story 20 minutes? You know... where they nuked the ...very bad.. place? Then did book nine move the story along another 10 minutes?
Thankfully its all a blur.
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Song Of Fire ... (Score:4, Funny)
If you don't count The Wheel of Time, but that's quite different story.
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Let's hope this series will actually end in the author's lifetime ....
You just got my hopes up. (Score:2, Funny)
MTW2 mod Westeros Total War (Score:2)
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Re:Is it good? (Score:5, Informative)
A Song of Ice and Fire is, in my opinion, the best fantasy story out there. Makes Tolkien look like a confused old fairy tale uncle.
Realistic characters, lots of greys (as in bad guys act bad for a good reason and the other way around), no hesitation to kill off main characters/heroes, etc.
I'd rate it as the second best, actually, behind Stephen Erikson's Tales from the Malazan Book of the Fallen. However, they are two incredibly different styles, and while I think Erikson has the edge in execution, both of these guys are highly talented authors. Very hard to make a fair comparison between such radically different styles, I guess.
Parent
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Allow me to dissent.
"A Game of Thrones" suffers from an excess of underdeveloped characters. I counted 10-12 major characters, plus dozens of supporting cast. Daenerys, the exiled dragon princess, seemed interesting, as did Arya, the waterdancer-in-training. However, I finished the book without really caring about any of them.
In some ways, the whole book felt like nothing more than background for plot lines that won't be developed until well into the second or third novels. For example, the very first chapt
Re:Is it good? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, it is that good. The writing is only fair, but the characterisation, plotting, and world-building are absolutely outstanding. The best fantasy series I have ever read, and I'm including LOTR. It's epic.
You get war, intrigue, politics, a giant wall of ice hundreds of metres high, torture, incest, dire wolves, eunuchs, castles, tournaments, rape, duels, slavery, dragons, fratricide, patricide... all the good stuff :)
Parent
Re:Is it good? (Score:4, Interesting)
A bunch of subplots centered in a confused mishmash and a vague promise that "winter is coming".
We don't even know what that means, except that the wildlings are supposed to invade from the north. Only - the wildlings were killed off in the last book.
I see everyone begging Mr. Martin to please finish the series - but how would it be finished? There's no end condition.
Parent
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How it's going to finish is really straight-forward.
When the seven kingdoms have sufficiently weakened themselves via in-fighting, the Others will overwhelm the wall. Danerys lands on the shores of the seven kingdoms with her dragons. Jon Snow, who is clearly the prince-who-was-promised, joins forces with her to fight off the Others fulfilling the title of the series.
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While I do agree on the characterization part, I cannot agree with you about the plot, because there is none yet.
A bunch of subplots centered in a confused mishmash
True to some degree, but each subplot is well constructed. There have been hints that all the strands of the story are part of an overarching plot, though Martin has been slow getting there (particularly in the last book). I don't mind the delay, however, because the journey is so enjoyable.
a vague promise that "winter is coming".
We don't even know what that means, except that the wildlings are supposed to invade from the north. Only - the wildlings were killed off in the last book.
The Others are presumably the "big bad" of the series.
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Shit. I'm not paying $60 for a game where I survive 10 minutes...