Originality Vs. Established IP In Games 71
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."
I'm the worst person to try to please (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Nothing to see here folks, move along please... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Depends on the IP (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
WTF, intellectual property? (Score:5, Insightful)
Fans don't matter so much for mainstream IP (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Nothing to see here folks, move along please... (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
That's not what the article is about at all. The article says that you can't make a game that everyone considers faithful to the original IP because different fans have different interpretations of it. Furthermore, the best you can do is concentrate on making the game as enjoyable as possible in its own right, rather than being overly concerned with making it true to the IP.
Re:So what if the faithful screams? (Score:2, Insightful)
But they are also a very vocal part, that gets seen by others.
Re:I'm the worst person to try to please (Score:3, Insightful)
Watching the movie feels exactly like reading the book, except better because you can see the crazy visuals, and reading the book is exactly like reading the movie script, except better because you get to imagine the crazy visuals and make them crazier.