Grant Morrison On Battlestar Galactica Game

Thanks to GameSpot for their interview with Grant Morrison regarding his writing on the new Battlestar Galactica game. Morrison is the noted British comic-book writer known for titles such as The Invisibles, and says of the Galactica re-imagining: "There seemed to be endless dramatic possibilities in the big biblical sweep of the Galactica concept, so I went with warrior-monks, high-tech cloisters, and the doom-laden struggle of man against pitiless machine." He also suggests that, in writing for videogames, "...the script format is quite different from a comic book script or a movie script... more 'fractal,' for want of a better word."

I wish...

[NanoGator]

.. they'd release a "Story DVD" with games like this so you don't have to beat the game to find out what happens.

Wing Commander II drove me nuts with that when I reached a level I couldn't beat.

MMMmmmm.

[Flingles]

A good story line is a must for a good computer game (see Final Fantasy)
A good story line does not always mean a good game (see Enter The Matrix)

Re:MMMmmmm.

[Chris Mattern]

> A good story line is a must for a good computer game

Indeed. I wouldn't have enjoyed Tetris nearly as much if it hadn't been for that great story line...

Chris Mattern

Re:Robot Version of Tatoo

[JCMay]

Not only is it the wrong show, but he doesn't even know the character's [jeffbots.com] name [toymania.com]!

Grant Morrison

[dTaylorSingletary]

Grant Morrison is an amazing writer. His talent lies in his ability to tie many, disparate story lines together with a psychedelic, post-modern bent that incorporates the outer fringes of knowledge and dadaist imaginings. His work in the Doom Patrol was particularly striking to me.

In that comic book, he had a character that I was believe called Johnny on the Street. He was the street, one that talked through the existance of what shops were at one time there, and the street roamed from cosmic location to location, a temporary autonomous zone of sorts.

I've been wondering what he has been up to, and it's good to know he's working on a video game. I'd be very interested to see how this turns out.

I was always hoping he'd start writing a TV show like Twin Peaks, or even more so in the current cultural climate of Six Feet Under and what have you; he could get away with making something very interesting.

Re:Grant Morrison

[StocDred]

Grant Morrison is an amazing writer. His talent lies in his ability to tie many, disparate story lines together with a psychedelic, post-modern bent that incorporates the outer fringes of knowledge and dadaist imaginings.

Well, he didn't do any of that in his run on JLA, in my view. Every JLA storyline was a climactic End-Of-The-World fightfest that got increasingly unbelievable... no characterization whatsoever. It's like somebody at DC told the guy "Please give us a regular series of big superhero event

Re:Grant Morrison

[pjack76]

Actually it was "Danny the Street", who is by far my all time favorite character from anything I've ever read. I was so sad when Grant wrote him off the book... My favorite bit was that Danny was a transvestite street, because he had all sorts of lady's lingerie and perfume shops on him and so on. I mean, wasn't it ridiculous enough to have a sentient city block as a character? Also, I'm a big big fan of Grant's work on the X-Men, he has completely transformed the series into something rich and strange

Re:Grant Morrison

[JimPooley]

Danny the Street was gay more than anything else. He even talked in Palare, which I'd only heard in old BBC Radio comedies.

Why Galactica?

[NedR]

I haven't read much of Morrison's stuff, but his run on New X-Men was pretty good. It's going to be interesting to see what he can do with writing a game. But I wonder if even he can actually make something worthwhile out of Battlestar Galactica. I mean, that show actually causes me physical pain, if I ever accidentally watch it. Sure, he revitalized the X-Men, but they always had the potential to be good. Writing a good script for Battlestar Galactica would kind of be like trying to write Ultimate Gho

"Writing" videogames

[bigbigbison]

Remember that the Matrix videogame was heavilly hyped as being "written and directed by the Waschowski borthers" we all know how that turned out.

Writing a game is very very differnt than writing more traditional mediums. Each has their own language and style. I am always leary when I hear that "so and so" name writer has been brought in to "write" a videogame. It's also kind of sad that the videgame industry feels that they need to hire this outside talent rather than trust that people who make games fo

Re:"Writing" videogames

[PainKilleR-CE]

Writing a game is very very differnt than writing more traditional mediums. Each has their own language and style. I am always leary when I hear that "so and so" name writer has been brought in to "write" a videogame. It's also kind of sad that the videgame industry feels that they need to hire this outside talent rather than trust that people who make games for a living actually know how to make games.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that this started after it was hyped that Valve hired a writer to do the s

Strange ... possible inconsistency

[tm2b]

How odd. It sounds from the interview like the Exodus will have been happening when Adama was young.

However, in the TV Show/Movie, the Exodus starts with the Cylon betrayal at Caprica, when the Galactica gathers the survivors and high-tails it out of there. Morrison surely can't be unaware of this, so I wonder how he's going to put the search for Earth that far back?

Hmmm. Well, at least this might go some distance to explaining Adama's almost fanatical faith that Earth exists and the the fleet will be able to find it one day. Too bad Galactica 1980 was waiting at the end of the journey. :(

I thought the Game was in the old continuity

[tm2b]

Well, the thing is, my understanding was that while the new "mini-series" and the SciFi Channel is doing is a "reenvisioning," this new game [gameshark.com] is supposed to take place within the old continuity and has Hichard Hatch and Dirk Benedict doing voice talent (perhaps to game as "flashbacks?" Or maybe Richard Hatch plays Adama. We already know who Starbuck's father is, but I don't think Fred Astaire will be appearing.

According to this link above:

Set 40 years before the events of the television series, the Ba

Your expectations are too high

[Xenophon Fenderson,]

On the one hand, it's a remake of a classic. On the other, tt's a licensed game. Both will suck by definition. Why work yourselves into a lather over it now? You'll only be more disappointed when it actually starts sucking later.

Re:Your expectations are too high

[tm2b]

Nonsense. Some licensed games are excellent. Look at Star Wars games... true, a lot of stinkers, but we got:

• T.I.E. Fighter
• Knights of the Old Republic, and
• Starfighter / Jedi Starfighter

Re:Your expectations are too high

[ruprechtjones]

Yeah, but with a prequel like this, it has a lot of potential. Like anything (ahem, the Star Wars prequels), it can fall flat on its face in the eyes of the true fans, or it can take off and create a whole new corner of the universe previously unexplored.

I think this could be cool, I've often wondered about the earlier conflicts in this war, and this could scratch my itch. But the ultimate end-all-be-all will be the game-play. If that sucks, the story means nothing.

Hurrah for mythos!

[Torgo's Pizza]

I'm glad that I'm reading that Grant Morrison is taking into account the show's mythos an religious undertones into the game. (Hang on... I'm not getting preachy here. Hear me out.) Whether you agree or disagree with a particular philosophy is inconsequential to the design of a game.

As someone stated earlier (let me fix the statement so that it is true) all games that have good stores are great games. Ultima is another RPG series without the Avatar and the symbolism he embodies. C&C is just anothe

Re:Hurrah for mythos!

[lidocaineus]

Mormonism? Being a mormon buff (don't ask), can I ask you for some references to that particular idea? I wasn't exactly a BSG fan and never really paid much attention to it (I do have the basic idea down), so I'm curious as to how it fits together.

Re:Hurrah for mythos!

[Torgo's Pizza]

Using a search engine with "Battlestar Galactica" and "mormon" will pull up quite a few, but to save you the trouble here is a link [michaellorenzen.com] to a good resource with a bibliography. Larsen is himself a Mormon (as well as myself) and did what most writers do: write about what you know. Once you know the source material for the show, a lot of it takes on new meaning and at least for me, makes it a lot more fun to watch.