knows, Maté may have had other supplies the subject of this week’s issue In response to “In 3-D” from The influences for his telling of the Battle at of The Escapist, “Silver Screen, Gold Escapist Forum: Why are we discussing Thermoplylae. Disc.” Inside you’ll find our authors the word pussy more than 3D games? I saw a preview for the movie 300 not discussing some of the complexities, too long ago. Being a history major, with Will there be further adaptation of this troubles and highlights of licensing and - ReedRichards a concentration on ancient, with an story? Have no doubts about it. There is adapting materials from one media to affinity for the Greeks of the time, I was already an adaptation underway for a another. Enjoy! naturally intrigued. And so, I looked into Playstation Portable title in the near the background and making of the movie. future. 300: March to Glory seems to be Cheers, an action/brawler promising lots of blood And lo, 300, the movie, is an adaptation and guts. Which, I suppose, is an of ’s five part graphic novel of element of what happened at the same title. Frank Miller’s 300 (the … graphic novel) received acclaim and awards, including three Eisner awards in Some might say, “When are we going to 1999, the year after publish. And no doubt, get some original material?” when looking Miller’s (Sin City) gritty, dark style will play at the lengthy chain of adaptations and heavily on the movie, bringing the gritty licenses such as the one following behind and dark story an interesting depth. those 300 Spartans. Others, might note In response to “In 3-D” from The that as one of the more stirring battles in Escapist Forum: Allen, Thanks for But from where did Miller pull inspiration ancient history, if not of all time, and it is taking the time to clarify [the for his graphic novel? From the ancient a story that can and should be told over questionable language]. However, the historians? Nope. As a young child, Miller and over. Still others fear deeply what word “pussy” is so often used in a watched a 1962 Rudolph Maté film each new iteration of the tale might do derogatory way towards women that it entitled The 300 Spartans which sparked to break the memory of this epic didn’t even cross my mind that you were desire to create his graphic novel. moment in history. going for a different image. The words “queer” and “bitch” also have harmless At this point, all signs point to the These are but a few of the issues facing origins, but I would hope that, as a original works of Herodotus and others creative media when making new films/ jounalist, you would use those words who recorded the deeds of those 300 games/TV series/graphic novels/etc. To with a little more caution. hundred Spartans millennia ago as the license, or not to license? That is the influence forThe 300 Spartans. But who question. And it is the question that - mkt In response to “Bittersweet The question is: how is music Sheer non-linear brilliance. Consider also Symphony” from The Escapist progression to follow? Consider film Ennio Morricone, the composer of Forum: This is very resonant (music pun! music for a moment: Film music has its spaghetti westerns, whom, though har!) with me, as it was just Saturday I start in the Piano accompanist for silent usually theme based in his score writing was in the audience at Video Games Live. film, usually improvising music to the due to professional necessity, still blurred Canceled out from under my feet twice, it events on the screen, having to change the line between sound and music, was (and I’m still complaining), but it was style and mood on a dime as the action ,making music that is equal parts sound well worth the wait. on the screen dictates. The progression effects and notes. There are many other of the music - the way the music “Goes” examples. I listen to a lot of video game music, and - has necessarily been re-configured I relish any opportunity to go see an radically. When sound came around, this In the gaming world, the piano orchestra perform, so this was a sort of new approach got necessarily blurred accompanist equivalent is the guy who chocolate-and-peanut-butter combination. somewhat with the employment of made music for Super Mario Land, say, “serious” composers, coming from or 1943, little loops of FM synthesized - Bongo Bill Europe and landing jobs in the film sound that changed on a dime, broke off, industry, who were crafting scores that reconfigured and blended with the sound In response to “Play On” from The harkened back to their training and effects triggered by player actions. Escapist Forum: As a music composer musical backgrounds, namely “common from the “other side” (i.e. non mass- era” European music. The great majority Now, musicians are in on the deal, and media related music) I am very excited of film scores, therefore, became instant the same process of copying occurs- only about the possibilities in music for imitations of great orchestral music from now it’s a copy of a copy: From late 19th computer games. I believe music has the late 19th century: Majestically century romantic scores, to film scores, always progressed in a manner parallel orchestrated, with “big sound” and a to game scores. What’s missing is a to the main expressive art forms of the slavish attitude towards the notion of composer that would take the form of times it was made in: The symphony at “theme”- a theme for every character, a interactive action and modular the age of the novel, modern scores battle theme, a love theme and so on. progression, and run with it. To make (Stravinsky, Bartok etc.) at the age of music that is wholly modular - bits that cinema, post modern music at the age of Those guys were NOT the only ones fit together any which way and make T.V. I think computer games and other making scores for film, though; consider musical sense, short segments of music modular forms of dramatic narrative are Carl Stalling, who composed the music that operate well in the beginning, the art-form of today. for all the Looney Tunes animations: middle, and end of sections, and still sound beautiful. The potential is endless Oblivion because, after I got past the name any great hero that does, real or and could inform the music world at large. cool graphics and amazing world, it was fictional. I can’t. All the ones I can name just another finish-the-quest RPG. I either die when they’re done, or they go I guess this is my main source of could list other similar games that I on to do something else heroic. frustration: I believe computer games stopped playing when I could no longer present the form of the now, and their ignore the fact it was just another stock - ZacQuickSilver music doesn’t follow. game, dressed up in cool graphics, storyline, game quirks, or whatever else - TrickllE it had.

In response to “Reward Card” from To say it differently, my issue is not that The Escapist Daily: I enjoy the there are not enough carrots, but that competitive side of Gamerscores many of the carrots are as old as D&D: amongst friends. Where a few of us have save the world, rescue the princess, live all downloaded Contra, for example, we happily ever after, or whatever. Real are all trying to get an achievement that carrots that are 25 years old are none of the others have for bragging impossible to find: they’ve decomposed. rights. If I log on and see that one of Somehow, however, some people in the them has just one-credited the first gaming industry believe that 25 year-old level, for example, competitive nature virtual carrots are still fresh. Those kicks in and I have to equal them. people, as far as I am concerned, are dead wrong. - rjwtaylor I don’t want to save the world, or destroy In response to “Reward Card” from it: I want to change it in small ways I can The Escapist Daily: I can offer one feel. I don’t want to rescue the princess: reason why I don’t play a lot of games I want to see what she does to the all the way through: at some level, kingdom after I save her. And sorry, but they’re all the same. I stopped playing true heroes don’t live happily ever after: Waaaay down with Jack Thompson and l Alone in the Dark (2005; Rotten StarForce copy protection, German Tomatoes 1 percent, Metacritic 9 filmmaker Uwe Boll occupies the lowest percent) circle of the gaming community’s pantheon of demons. Though many producer- l BloodRayne (2006; 5 directors across the decades have made percent, Metacritic 18 percent) unwatchable films, the work of Dr. Boll (he has a 1995 doctorate in literature from the l and forthcoming films based on University of Cologne) has inspired in many (as In the Name of the gamers a singular contempt. King: A Dungeon Siege Tale), Postal and Far Cry. There are two main reasons. First, Boll strikes close to home; he has relentlessly Second, perhaps more important, Boll is chosen to adapt popular computer and unrepentant. He cannily exploits, not to video games: say “revels in,” reviewers’ aggrieved reactions. In September 2006, in a l House of the Dead (2003; Rotten highly publicized stunt christened Tomatoes score 4 percent, Metacritic “Raging Boll,” the director challenged 15 percent) four film critics to boxing matches in . Having chosen his opponents for their lack of training, Boll (an experienced fighter) handily defeated them all. He plans to include footage from the bouts on the Postal DVD.

Like that of his companion devils, Boll’s work provokes heated condemnation in gaming forums, as well as on film hobbyist sites such as BollBashers. Noting his dismal and declining box- office grosses –BloodRayne grossed less Tax shelter accounting can be tough corporation in Munich that “owns” my million left after you take the loss, you than $3.6 million worldwide – bewildered reading. To make it worth your while, film, wink-wink nudge-nudge. The shell pay tax of only 4.5 million euros, leaving viewers often ask, “Why do people keep I’m giving you 100 million euros. The will lease back to my studio all rights for you 5.5 million. funding his movies?” catch is, you must become a native 15 years, in a “production service German investor. agreement” and a “distribution service Ach du lieber! You’ve lost nearly 95 Thus – uniquely in the history of film – agreement.” After the lease expires, I’ll million, right? No, we’re not done yet. consideration of Boll leads quickly and Having just made 100 million euros, you buy back the film, cheap. With only 10 Follow me closely here: Under the German naturally to a discussion of the German have only moments to celebrate before tax code. your German tax accountant tells you the bad news: You’re in a 45-percent tax *** bracket, so you must pay the government 45 million euros. Ach! That In 2005-06, Edward Jay Epstein wrote leaves you only 55 million. Can nothing the “Hollywood Economist” column for be done? Slate magazine. His April 25, 2005 column, “How to Finance a Hollywood Blockbuster,” Now I – a high-flying Hollywood movie showed how Paramount financed the producer, well tanned from California’s second Tomb Raider movie, budgeted at summer sun – visit you. For 90 million $94 million, for only $7 million out of euros, you can have the copyright to a pocket. The rest came from cable and film I want to make. To encourage native overseas sales, and most of all from cultural industries, your country’s wealthy German investors seeking tax German Tax Fund makes film production shelters. Epstein has documented movie costs immediately tax-deductible. You’ll financing at length in The Big Picture: write off the 90 million as an instant loss The New Logic of Money and Power in and pay taxes only on the 10 million Hollywood (Random House, 2005). euros left.

In Epstein’s articles, and similar pieces in Nein, your accountant tells you, that Forbes and the Los Angeles Business deduction only applies to films made by Journal, we discern an explanation for German companies. But fear not! I, the Uwe Boll’s career. producer, advise you to set up a shell sponsored by But wait! Your accountant has just The point is, this shelter is entirely legal, noticed that, effective January 2006, the as long as a German production German government tightened the company makes the film. Because film German Tax Fund to apply solely to investment is a capital transaction, native German filmmakers and investors could normally deduct only production companies. You and I stare in depreciation; this arrangement gives an dismay. Oh no! What shall we do? immediate 100 percent write-off in order to pump funds into the film industry. In If only we knew a native German film 2004, such targeted relief schemes director with his own German sheltered $750 million that investors production company ... would otherwise have paid as taxes. The film funding arrangement is just one of Of course, this example oversimplifies a many kinds of “cross-border leasing” lot. These complicated deals can involve between Germany and America, nonrecourse loans (the investor borrows documented in February 2004 by the You’re only out 10 million, plus the 4.5 money to put into the shelter, then PBS investigative series Frontline. million you paid in taxes. You still have writes off the loan fees); equity in the Frontline offers a tax shelter FAQ. over 85 million left! And after you paid film; distinctions between “tangible” and me 90 million, and I paid you 80 million “nontangible” assets; and lots of Germany has, or had until 2006, the back (most of which I got by pre-selling middlemen – usually German banks and most generous shelters for filmmakers. foreign and cable rights to my film), I’m leasing companies. (The middlemen’s Many other Western countries have 10 million up on the deal, and I’m not hefty fees are also deductible.) And similar filmmaking tax incentive taxed in Germany. Sweet. though German tax shelters funded programs, extolled by funding major hits like The Lord of the Rings and consultants such as Peacefulfish. tax code, you can take the full 90-million OK, so you’ve invested 90 million in my Mission: Impossible 2, Hollywood usually deduction, then have your Munich shell film and taken a loss. Now, you may reserves this method for its second- *** company charge me (the American ask, what happens if my film makes string films, the ones with low profit producer) 80 million to lease back the money? Under our contract, I pay you expectations. As Movie City News editor Blogger Stuart Wood, among many rights to my movie. Because you just took the profit between seven and 20 years David Poland pointed out, if a studio others, speculates Boll’s films are a 90-million loss, you don’t have to pay from now. You’ll pay taxes on the profit expects big profits, it wants to keep the intended to lose money. Were this theory taxes on the 80 million you recouped. then. All seems well. film for itself. true, it could help explain egregious expenses such as the accidental (?) together from co-productions, tax for everybody – which means, shipment of 5,500 excess prints of shelters, territorial pre-sales and, if unfortunately, everybody. BloodRayne. From a studio’s perspective, you are lucky, as I was with my film might “Hollywood accounting” make it Truth [released in 2004 as Country On the bright side, this proves a positive desirable to push a given film from of My Skull], money from the lesson: If he can do it, you can too. break-even to tax write-off? Not so, [lottery-supported United Kingdom] Anybody can. Epstein tells The Escapist. “No, it is Film Council. (I won £2m on the never advantageous to lose money, lottery without buying a ticket.) Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA though a tax shelter may time-shift tax paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 losses to a later year.” Given Boll’s career “It took 18 lawyers to reconcile the edition) and has contributed to computer to date, and his likely performance contracts of all the participants. games from Sony Online, Origin, ahead, that is weak consolation. During those long weeks, as I waited Interplay and Looking Glass. in South Africa with my cast and Still, we may at least take heart that, crew, the picture teetered on the even in the extremely modest German verge of collapse. A feature of film industry, it’s possible to build a independent films is that most of successful career in independent film. them fall apart, often days before John Boorman, who directed Deliverance they are due to start shooting, and, (not to be confused with Boll’s even sadder, sometimes a week or forthcoming BloodRayne II: two after they have begun.” Deliverance), wrote in the British newspaper (September 6, We don’t like to think about it, but Uwe 2003) about the travails of the modern Boll represents a canonical indie success. indie filmmaker in “the arthouse ghetto Through shrewdness and persistence, Dr. of low budgets and deferred fees”: Boll has successfully gamed the system and earned millions doing exactly what “The independent film has to he wants. Tax shelter schemes for squeeze into margins and corners filmmakers have reduced barriers to not occupied by the bullying entry and helped level the playing field blockbusters. The finance is cobbled Games’ relationship with cinema is pretty and mores and turning them into cinema simple: Games rip it off. only ends in concentrated derivativeness; a photocopy of a Games are, hugely, a derivative art- photocopy. The actual original bits of form. Their best visual motifs and game culture integrated go no further scenarios are taken directly from one than the occasional first-person shot in a movie or another. What’s amazing is how movie like Doom. relatively few in number these are. This article evolved from a conversation with The real hopes for turning parasitism a designer friend of mine when we tried into symbiosis lie outside the films, to work out the smallest number of films which are directly licensed. The games we’d have to remove from existence to that resonate most are those which destroy the game industry in its current make themselves influential, likeNHL state. With a short-list of six thrown into being used sociologically in Swingers. the void, the industry would be barely And if you look outside of cinema, recognizable, full of designers stroking games’ cultural mores weigh heavy on their chin and thinking, “You know, I comics, like Scott Pilgrim, or TV series, know we have to drop our soldiers from like Spaced. an orbital vessel to the ground in some manner of ship, but God knows what we But, this process is relatively new and could use.” has a long way to go yet. At the moment, the conceptualists of Clearly, cinema is derivative culture, too. videogames are often indebted to Films echo films all the time. But at least cinema to the point of creative a filmmaker had a bright idea bankruptcy. Admittedly, some fare better somewhere along the line. Games than others. Even if cinema is stripped echoing film just implies that game away totally, specific genres walk away developers aren’t smart enough to think with relatively few scars. Until Lord of up ideas themselves. That films are now the Rings, fantasy cinema was only a taking from games doesn’t particularly small influence on Western Fantasy help address the imbalance either. games. They took either from a literary Taking games’ derivative plots, settings source or good-ol’ Dungeons & Dragons. pieces from Iain M. Banks’ Culture immediately attach bits of car tires to laborious process. To get bullet-time novels, its more celluloid-inspired riffs their shoulders and apply a car-grease working in games, developers just had to were more obvious. Irrational’s foundation to their features. stop the game’s progress and waggle the forthcoming BioShock – inspired by camera around a bit. objectivist classic (yes, I know: Dawn of the Dead contradiction in terms) Atlas Shrugged – When the game shops are full of games Full Metal Jacket really is in a minority. which take from George Romero movies, Pre-1970s war movies are rarely the dead will walk the earth. It will come influential on videogames. It took The following list is our best attempt to soon enough. Especially in certain sub- America’s disillusionment with Vietnam collate those who have been pillaged so genres – anything that marches with a to mix up the genre until it made more often by games, it’s almost reached the shuffling gait beneath the banner of the sense in the modern world. But of those point where we’ve forgot where the survival/horror game – the images of classics, it’s Full Metal Jacket whose component elements came from. In society falling apart (shortly followed by shadow in games is longest. terms of series, we’re taking the film the remaining humans) lingers in many a which was taken from most. designer’s mind. It would probably be Eastern fantasy games’ influences are cruel to suggest that the zombies have equally hard to tie down to a direct If any of these films had never inspired a considerable number of AI singular influence. Outside fantasy, happened, the game industry would be programmers over the years, even when sports games would be pretty much so screwed they’d even have to – ladies, not programming zombies. untouched. However, it’s interesting to hold your man, gentlemen, pour a speculate what sports games would look stiffening brandy – try being original for The Matrix like if you didn’t draw from modern a change. For all its success, The Matrix arguably television’s coverage of sporting events. would have scored higher if it was a less Mad Max 2 derivative work itself. For example, the Some other sub-genres are left bereft. Mad Max manages the rare trick of both trench coat and shades was already a Fantasy games can get away without being enormously influential and post-cyberpunk cliché, and visible in movies, just about. Science fiction curiously ignored. In terms of its look - Matrix-contemporary games like Deus games just fall apart. For as long as once described by JG Ballard as “Punk’s Ex. And we didn’t see anyone try bullet- videogames have been a rising cultural Sistine Chapel” – it entirely cemented time until the Wachowski brothers force, the primary way science fiction the idea of what anything even vaguely showed how cool it was, despite the fact has been consumed is on the silver post-apocalyptic should look like. Yes, the Wachowskis had to arrange a million screen. While Halo quietly took some come the end of the world, everyone will cameras in a circle in a particularly Why? Because it’s the most fun. As much Saving Private Ryan In short: Hero kills hordes of monsters, as the depths cut through you while Spielberg’s reinvention of the modern makes wise-cracks and wields chainsaws. watching it, the memories people take war movie acted as a sharp kick in the What could be more videogame? While from Full Metal Jacket are the ones head for games’ World War II games. Romero’s films have had more influence which – whisper it – entertain. While R. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the in a smaller number of genres, Evil Lee Ermey’s drill instructor is one of ground-level chaotic battle scenes that Dead’s influence reaches further, cinema’s greatest sadists, he’s a fun were most influential. It’s easy to especially in the early ‘90s, when id sadist to be around, and as such it’s rare compare pre-Ryan WW2 games to ones Software was doing the closest to see a drill sergeant in a game not after it and note the phenomenal videogames have come to articulating the reference his performance. increase in spectacle. The action games inchoate cry of the teenage metalhead by pre-Ryan were like Hidden and bringing album covers to life. The more The Terminator Dangerous – stately boys-own extreme demonic energy of Evil Dead was RoboCop or The Terminator? RoboCop or adventures which were often almost a clear inspiration to Doom’s gates to hell. The Terminator? RoboCop almost made understated. Post-Ryan, you’re in Allied Of course, elsewhere in the world of first- it, through the simple beauty of its ED- Assault’s recreation of the film’s opening. person shooters, 3D Realms took the 209 design, which will be re-used as long Even the more strategic games – like lighter tone – and lifted lines – to create as a designer needs a robot to have the this year’s peerless Company of Heroes Duke Nukem. While the Dawn of the dual abilities of carrying enough – are aware that it’s those minutes that Dead is what action games turn to when firepower to flatten an average town and are affixed in the majority of gamers’ they want to take themselves a little bit looking a bit like a gawky chicken. In the minds when it comes to What War seriously, when the dials are turned to end, The Terminator pulls clear, with the Should Look Like. 11, a developer is certain to consider design of the titular robots being digging out an old VHS Copy of Evil Dead. regularly pillaged – though perhaps its Perhaps most interesting is Saving panoramas of the mankind’s future war Private Ryan’s influence on games Blade Runner proved even more influential, for all their outside of the period. Its low-level Put it like this: Blade Runner invented the brief appearance. Tangentially, the first- shaking hand-camera view of the action future. While others’ view of the future is person views of the Terminator (and can be seen in other action games clear fantasy, as Ridley Scott’s world RoboCop) are clearly in mind when any attempt to ground the action. Consider unveils in front of us, there’s a nagging developer has strove to make the HUD Gears of War’s run function, complete worry that we may end up living there. an atmospheric part of the experience with camera-shake. Clearly, Blade Runner is a film that has rather than mere decoration. had huge cultural impact on how everyone Evil Dead 2 portrays the day after tomorrow. Star Wars lifecycle is too iconic to take without brutal camaraderie is reprised time and If we were looking across the whole life being too obvious, but the more time over. Developers make use of the of videogames, it’s arguable that Star generalized egg-laying queen has been Marines’ hand-scanners, which chirped Wars would be the single most influential used time and time over. Any alien race, faster the closer the enemy way, to build movie in the industry’s history. Its if they’re not taking from the “Grays” of tension. The specific design of the armor, release in 1977 provided inspiration in urban folklore, is more often than not all clasps and hard edges, shows up everything from high level ideas like Giger-derived. everywhere. Even the use of dropped game types (Space Invaders was created flares as a cliffhanger comes fromAliens . in 1978. Space remained the natural But that isn’t even the primary The billowing smoke and blue light that adventure-playground for games for influence. Instead, the movie’s Colonial director James Cameron fills the years afterward) to the base Marines provide the backbone for corridors with are modern games’ implementation (even if videogame tech everything from Halo to Command & default atmosphere. could have made more realistic noises, Conquer’s view of the future. Where in with Star Wars influence, it’s entirely even the dirtiest parts of the Star Wars If we removed Aliens from existence, possible they’d still have applied an universe are elements of romance, the the list of games left without a premise exciting and iconic array of bleeps). A Colonial Marines take their own visual could have filled this article. To badly virtual sub-industry has been created cues from a post-Vietnam military with paraphrase Voltaire: If Aliens didn’t around the Star Wars franchise, and its array of firepower, gung-ho slogans exist, someone would have had to invent when a developer wishes to present an and omnipresent wise-cracks. The it. And really, that would just be too enormous space battle, he’s thinking of Colonial Marine’s weaponry provides the much work, wouldn’t it? matching what Lucas managed. backbone of most shooters. Hell, if they managed to cram a mini-gun into the Kieron Gillen has been writing about Aliens movie, they’d have a majority videogames for far too long now. His Ironically, while Alien was the original, shareholding in weapons stocks in any rock and roll dream is to form an Electro- it’s Aliens where the majority of given shooter. band with Miss Kittin and SHODAN developers go when their creative well pairing up on vocals. runs dry. For example, Giger’s original It goes on an on, and watching Aliens design for the body-horror, genitalia- can feel like an advertising video for phobic organic alien has inspired anyone game hardware. The drop-ship design who sat down to work out something specifically is borrowed whenever an icky to shoot, but the implementation in orbital landing is called for. Actually pre- games owes more to Aliens. An alien’s empting Full Metal Jacket, the easy, The cops were a bit unexpected. My first encounter with X-Strike Studios was at a videogame convention last After several years of guerilla October. Although most of the other filmmaking, Tim Ekkebus and the rest of booths had piles of games and systems the X-Strike crew were used to a certain for sale, all that X-Strike seemed to be amount of police involvement, but they offering was two young men sitting weren’t anticipating any difficulties here quietly behind a folding table, the typical on the University of Buffalo campus. The underfed, sleep-deprived 20-somethings shoot this day was for X-Strike’s you expect to see roaming a videogame production based on the Solid convention. The men were rapt in franchise, and the scene being filmed conversation and paid me no mind as I was a relatively simple one featuring the lingered around the booth. When neither movie’s villain and a pair of genome of them made an introduction, I began soldiers capturing our hero, Snake. The to walk away, but a stack of obnoxiously crew was running through yet another orange T-shirts caught my eye and take when they were suddenly raised my eyebrow. Proudly declaring “I surrounded by several UoB police Hate Uwe Boll,” they lured me back to X- cruisers, complete with shotgun-toting, Strike’s booth, where I finally noticed the Kevlar-wearing officers. tiny portable DVD player perched somewhat precariously on the edge of Looking back on the situation, Ekkebus the table. realizes that perhaps some prior warning to law enforcement might have been a That they had a movie playing wasn’t a good idea. “A genome soldier to us is just huge surprise; many booths at gaming a part of the movie, but a guy in a black conventions use them as a gimmick to ski mask holding a fake machine gun looks attract passersby. What was surprising like a terrorist to the rest of the world. was that it wasn’t the typical gamer bait Albeit a terrorist who has a camera guy of Street Fighter or Resident Evil or with him and keeps doing the same thing some hacked to ribbons anime, but over and over again, but a vile terrorist rather a homebrew homage to Metal nonetheless,” he sagely observes. Gear Solid. More surprising still was that it was actually quite good; well acted day in October ostensibly handles the art point, one has to wonder why the X- and sharply written, it suffered from department and costuming needs, Strikers go to all the trouble. Why spend none of the self-indulgence and in-jokes though everyone on staff typically ends so much time, effort and money on that typically plague fan-made films. up doing a little bit of everything. something that so few people will ever When I looked up from the DVD, the see? After all, even if one of X-Strike’s man who I would later learn was X- As with most fan-based organizations, DVDs sold a million copies, a goal from Strike’s founder was grinning broadly at everyone involved with an X-Strike which they are still very, very far, that’s me. Though he looked exhausted, Tim project is a volunteer, donating time, a mere fraction of the audience that big- Ekkebus’ enthusiasm for X-Strike’s money, transportation, talent or just budget titles like Doom and Tomb Raider movies radiated out of him in waves plain good will. The lack of financing is a enjoy, so why keep up the fight? that, if properly harnessed, could end running theme in X-Strike’s work; the our country’s dependence on foreign oil. source material for X-Strike’s first movie, According to Ekkebus, it’s quite simple River City Rumble, was chosen because and boils down to their love of games. Ekkebus started X-Strike with Juese it had a simple story, location and “One: It’s fun. Two: For the fans. Big Cutler, Ben Lathan and Chad Williams a costumes. Low Budget Espionage: studios are [so] preoccupied with trying few years ago, after he parted ways with Project Snake, the movie that attracted to make the videogame property appeal another company called Low Budget the attention of the University of to a mass market that they forget to Pictures. “Deciding to go into videogame Buffalo’s finest, ironically has the honor cater to the fans almost at all, so what movies was a pretty natural decision for of being X-Strike’s highest budget film, ends up happening is that the mass me,” he explains. “I like making movies. topping out at around $2,000, not market doesn’t go because they hear it’s I like videogames. Hollywood videogame counting the price of printing the DVDs. a ‘videogame movie,’ and they don’t movies sucked. It just made sense.” care. … The gamers end up going and Since then, much like a rolling Katamari, The need to keep the bills paid and the hating it because it makes a mockery of X-Strike has collected more and more electricity running does create some what they love.” people who just sort of end up sticking problems with production schedules, around, including Darrin DeMarco, who though. Filming has to be squeezed in Durham’s stance is more of an irate joined after penning a script of his own, when day jobs and real life schedules preemptive strike aimed at the Uwe Bolls and Rich Durham, who signed on after permit, so it can take as long as two of the world: A “videogame movie can Ekkebus asked him to play a role in X- years for a project to make the journey only be made once before it’s … defined Strike’s first feature. Rory O’Boyle, who from script to finished DVD. A labor of as ‘bad.’ If we don’t do it first, then the was helping Ekkebus man the booth that love is one thing, but after a certain bigger studios will worry so much about making a return on their investment that It is a step in the right direction, but there to be done perfectly to satisfy the fans.” might have to be based on The they’ll butcher it. That’s what happens is still some ways to go.” DeMarco also would like to do a Belmont Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from when you go into surgery with shaky tale, but in a slightly different, vaguely Butcher Bay. hands, and that’s what happens when X-Strike will keep doing its best to keep terrifying sort of way: “Personally, I am you cast big names for no reason and videogame movies pointed in the right still in love with the idea of doing a When Susan Arendt isn’t writing news at neuter a story for a general audience.” direction with its next project, Sidequest, Castlevania rock opera.” Eek. 1up.com or her weekly gaming column, which parodies “all things RPG, from Token Female, she’s training her cat As for DeMarco, his reasoning is perhaps Final Fantasy to Earthbound,” as DeMarco X-Strike features may not have big to play DDR. the most pure of all. “I’ll offer a list as puts it. Production had been shut down budgets, eye-popping visuals or even my answer: Super Mario Bros., Double for a while due to severe scheduling particularly good lighting, but they do Dragon, Wing Commander, House of the (those darn day jobs again) and treat their subjects with genuine respect Dead, Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne.” costuming issues, but everything is back and affection, something yet to be Not the sort of rationale that easily on track now, to the point that Ekkebus accomplished by any videogame movie opens itself up to counterargument. hopes to start X-Strike’s very first sequel that’s ever made it to the metroplex. this summer. “Resident Horror picks up Let’s just hope they give the cops a Despite how it may sound, X-Strike some time after Silent Horror ends and heads up next time, or their next DVD doesn’t hate all of Hollywood’s attempts at has much more of a basis in the Resident marrying videogames and cinema. Says Evil world,” he explains. Durham, “Silent Hill worked, I believe, because [director Christophe] Gans knew So long as Hollywood keeps getting it which elements of the game would wrong, the team at X-Strike will keep translate to a more passive story, and working around uncooperative schedules which ones would need to stay part of a and squeezing every last dime until it game rather than a movie.” DeMarco screams in order to do right by gamers, agrees, saying, “Silent Hill has come the but what if they didn’t have to? If time closest in terms of capturing the essence and money were no object, what would of the source material. They captured the their dream game movie be? Ekkebus world of Silent Hill very well visually in the taps some all-time favorites, saying “The film.” He still sees plenty of room for Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, improvement, however, observing that the Chrono Trigger and Castlevania III: movie had “a very watered-down script, Dracula’s Curse. All absolutely amazing with some lame dialogue and storytelling. games from the past that would … need As one of the grandfathers of the side years, the technical limitations of home scrolling action genre, Mega Man serves consoles played a major role in shaping as the perfect example of how simple but the face of Mega Man. “One of the clever design can overpower a lack of biggest driving forces behind the spectacular technical accoutrements. evolution of the Mega Man series is the More than its contribution to how games available hardware,” he said. “Back in were played, it is by looking at the growth the Nintendo Entertainment System and evolution of the Mega Man series, as days, there was only enough space to well as some of videogames’ other accommodate a simple story of good vs. timeless properties, that one gets a evil like the one with Mega Man squaring strong sense of how outfits like Capcom off against Dr. Wily’s army of robots. have been able to draw on their past to Now, with greater capacity and expand their offerings beyond the realm expression capabilities on hardware, we of videogames, while at the same time can put together much more complicated creating new titles that loyalists can enjoy stories, like the ones in [Mega Man] ZX.” and new players can appreciate. Truly, if one had put down the controller In the beginning, the story was really after Mega Man 3 and only now picked up quite simple: Man creates robots. Man one of the Game Boy or PS2 games, much turns evil. Robots turn evil. Good robot would prove unrecognizable. Quantum must save man. That structure, plus or leaps in graphical capabilities and memory minus a couple of side plots, accounted storage have allowed Inafune and his for the first handful ofMega Man games. team to make the Mega Man story denser But while he may have kept the plot and richer, and to push at the bounds of relatively sparse, in developing his blue the side scrolling action genre. robot hunter for the NES, series creator Keiji Inafune relied on inventive level Mega Man, of course, is not the only and boss design to hook gamers. franchise to see its structure and lore change dramatically with an Inafune, who still oversees the creative improvement in technology. Nintendo’s aspects of the Mega Man series, Mario and friends have also benefited explained that, especially in the early immensely from collaboration between old faces, new technology and just the Successfully progressing from one Similarly, Mega Man’s father, Inafune, right blend of nostalgia and creativity. generation of console to the next is an keeps a tight hold on the intellectual admirable feat in itself, but making the property that has proved so profitable for Super Mario Bros. broke onto the scene leap from successful game franchise to Capcom. “All of the [Mega Man] cartoon with the familiar story of a pair of heroes ubiquitous marketing icon isn’t always an and movie scenarios are checked over — plumbers in this case — out to rescue easy one, especially in today’s incestuous carefully by the game team to ensure a kidnapped princess. From those humble and highly self-referential cultural consistency, so there is a lot of beginnings, Nintendo allowed their landscape. At least in the case of Mega coordination between the games and designers to build this simple structure Man and Mario, this process occurred cartoons,” Inafune said. “When we are into an entire world, the Mushroom naturally with personalities created making the games, for example, we send Kingdom, populated with various relatively early in the console boom off a list of new characters to help the goombas, koopas, toads and Yoshi. (1987 and 1985 respectively). In these cartoon creators incorporate them into situations, early popularity begat their shows. We have a great working Nintendo of America’s senior director of increased exposure, a greater variety of relationship. In the credits for the press relations, Beth Llewelyn, explained titles and, eventually, more popularity. cartoons, my name is always listed as that changes to the Mario Bros. franchise From there, it was just a matter of some supervisor, and that shows how close come from many different people within savvy marketing, and game characters myself and the rest of us on the game the company: The goal was always to suddenly became television stars. side are to the making of the series.” keep things fresh, but at the same time stay true to the games’ roots. Much like Managing this process is an important As Inafune and his team relied on Mega Man, developers allowed Mario to aspect of Nintendo’s operation. “Mario increased technical horsepower to change as the hardware improved. “In has also been a huge licensing success improve on Mega Man’s gameplay, Super Mario World, they found that it for us over the years – appearing on Capcom was able to lean on newly was really fun to fly Mario around, so licensed products or in other created scenarios, more complex plots they gave him a cape. Of course, Super entertainment properties. Mario is a and a surfeit of new enemies to populate Mario Bros. 3 had several other beloved character among kids and the Mega Man television programming. costumes that gave Mario special adults,” Llewelyn said. “Nintendo goes to Likewise, Nintendo has allowed the abilities. And in Super Mario 64, the great lengths to ensure we are managing natural progression of the Mario Bros. change to 3-D gave Mario several new this character franchise effectively by legend to drive “non-traditional” Mario ways to interact with his environments, maintaining the appropriate level of expressions, which include games like and the environments themselves were exposure to fuel his popularity.” Mario Party and Super Mario Strikers, but dramatically new,” Llewelyn said. also a cartoon, a debatably ill-conceived consistency, and it makes the game film and literally thousands of toys. boring, then it’s pointless. We try to reinvent the series and evolve it to make Unlike Capcom with its handling of Mega it interesting over time. Of course, we Man, Nintendo has seemed to truly walk always work to make sure that it keeps a tight-rope of over-saturation, with the unique feeling that makes it a ‘Mega many critics and industry wonks openly Man game,’” he said. It is through this questioning whether the market might line of thought that we are able to draw be reaching a tipping point on the a line between the original Mega Man, Mushroom Kingdom. But, as Llewelyn Mega Man X and newer games like Mega noted, if game sales are any indication, Man ZX or the Battle Networks series. it seems that the public’s desire for products driven by Mario and company It is in transferring the style of these has hardly abated. properties from game systems to more passive media like television or video that “Mario games sell very well, and we have developers run the highest risk of losing not seen any kind of fatigue among this feeling of unity. Games are unique in consumers. The great thing about Mario their ability to leverage various stimuli is that while he and the characters from (visual, audio, gameplay and control) to his universe might be familiar, every affect our experiences. Often, television game is completely different. Super Mario shows featuring these characters (of Strikers is a soccer game, but with crazy which, both Mario and Mega Man have Mario twists that fans love,” she wrote. had several) attempt to compensate for this lack of interaction with improved or This point also resonated with Inafune’s re-imagined visuals, an effect that often experience with the Mega Man franchise. pulls gamers further from the source He pointed out that while a consistent material and therefore further from their narrative is an important part of keeping initial reason for engaging the other fans happy, it is of even greater media in the first place. importance to maintain a consistency of style. “If [narrative] consistency is It is not uncommon to hear gamers or maintained just for the sake of game critics bemoan the glut of franchise games or tie-ins, but in fact it is often be successes, but it is through both the these very franchises that drive successes and failure that developers innovation. Strong game properties, and gamers alike learn about where while they may be accused of a lack of they’ve been and where they might be depth in terms of design (think: Mega headed. Mans 1 through 6), actually allow developers greater freedom to explore Jon Schnaars is a freelance writer with aspects of game design they may interests in genre and representation in otherwise shy away from. The ideal gaming. He blogs full-time about issues example of this is The Legend of Zelda, in psychology and mental health for which continues to be a source of Treatment Online. creative design. It was only through pushing at the boundaries of what the franchise had to offer that developers came up with Z-targeting or showed the full capabilities of cell-shading. Similarly, Super Mario 64 and Mega Man Battle Networks were able to take leaps only by drawing on established characters and game scenarios, all the while utilizing a style that was distinctly their own.

With Mega Man, Keiji Infune created not only a cash cow, but also a corporate logo. While companies like Capcom benefit from the recognition and marketability of franchise characters, these same franchises allow for greater exploration between both media and the games themselves. The outcomes of these experimentations might not always I have a confession to make. I’m not proud, but I nine games based on Lord of the Rings (including have to tell the truth. I was one of the five or so one based on The Hobbit) and at least five games people in the world that thought the movie Hudson based on Harry Potter. Hawk was wonderful. I thought the satire was well done and hysterical. I liked it so much, I actually Speaking of the boy wizard that bought J.K. Rowling went out and bought the GameBoy game Hudson a castle in Scotland, I fell for the bait again and Hawk. At that point, I realized none of the qualities bought the Quidditch Card Game. I liked card games I saw in the movie were in the game. It was and was looking for something nice and portable to dreadful, easy and I finished it in about half an hour. take on a trip. It was a dreadful game that, in theory, must have been fun, but I had no idea because the Thus was my rude introduction into franchise rules were so frikkin hard to figure out. There’s games, the games designed to go along with an something annoying and humbling about two adults established license. Frequently, the games are having trouble figuring out the rules to a kids’ game. weaker than stand-alone games, as they can rely on the draw of Harry Potter or, uh, Hudson Hawk, So, burned by Hudson Hawk and Harry Potter alike, instead of sheer game design. I turned my back on franchise titles. I ignored all licensed videogames and board games for several Board games are no different. The popular gaming years, until my husband bought Lord of the Rings, database and website, boardgamegeek.com, lists designed by famous German game designer Reiner over 200 games based on novels. These include Knizia. We figured it had to at least not suck. The games such as a 1938 classic based on Ferdinand people who licensed the game knew what they were the Bull and the 1973 game Jonathan Livingston doing; they not only got Knizia to design it, but it Seagull. Games based on novels include at least was also illustrated by John Howe, the or why “the color out of space” is same concept artist that worked on Peter supposed to be scary. Frequently in Jackson’s movies, which gives the game Arkham Horror, you will end up in a some of the best art in board games, situation where “The pinkish rays almost hands down. For fans of the books and get you,” and it’s good to know exactly movies, the game was immersive, why that’s scary. Sure, the god of the gorgeous and well worth the price of bloody tongue is not someone you want admission. It was also cooperative, to mess with, but the pinkish rays? which was a breath of fresh air, as well as quite difficult to win. Licensed games attempt to capture the feeling of the property – some, like Lord Large, sprawling epic struggles against of the Rings, are designed to have you an outside supernatural force seem to retrace the adventures in board game translate well into cooperative games. form. See if you can avoid the Nazgul First, we had Lord of the Rings place the the way Frodo did! They have to bring players as hobbits with Sauron across the humor or the desperation or advancing toward them, and shortly the excitement of the book. Others afterward we had games where the attempt to give you an original story players could band together to fight the based in the world, like Arkham Horror. elder god Cthulhu or Dracula (although You don’t go through the plots of the in Dracula’s case, someone does get to stories, but you are a character in play the bloodsucking count against all Arkham dealing with Lovecraftian the other players). monsters. You could encounter Cthulhu, the color out of space and the Dunwich Arkham Horror and Fury of Dracula put Horror all in one game (but I wouldn’t the worlds of HP Lovecraft and Bram recommend it). Stoker, respectively, into board games. The interesting things about these Some people find the story walkthroughs games is they tend to inspire one to read as lacking in excitement, since they the books and stories behind them, if already know what’s going to happen. only so you can know what a shoggoth is This flaw is inherent in the gameSherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, which pits movie thing, so he’ll probably like the or more these days) you’ll want to do Wolf Publishing. Currently she writes you against Holmes in 10 scenarios where shot glasses with the four hobbits’ heads your research. Check out freelance for several gaming publications you try to find the right clues and solve on them. It’ll match those hobbit sheets boardgamegeek.com for ratings, check and produces three podcasts. She lives the puzzle before (or, more realistically, at I got him last year.” But marketers don’t out your Friendly Local Gaming Store for in Durham, NC. the same time as) the great detective care where the money comes from, they opinions. And if all the ratings say it’s himself. The main problem is that once just care that it does. So licensing works. crap and you simply must have the you play the whole game through, you’re game based on the latest werewolf chick done. There’s no way you can play a Kids’ games are a different animal, lit, well, you might still like it. I liked mystery twice, since you already know however. Studies have shown that kids Hudson Hawk, after all. the answers going in (unless you’re one will prefer green ketchup simply because of those people who likes to cheat, and it’s green, even though taste tests show Mur Lafferty is a freelance writer and then you can get a sense of false it doesn’t taste as good as regular podcast producer. She has dabbled in as superiority when you beat Holmes). ketchup. Novelty goes a long way, and if much gaming as possible while working kids are drowning in passion for Eragon with Red Storm Entertainment and White Licensed games are, honestly, just like and A Series of Unfortunate Events, they regular games. There are some will probably enjoy anything you give wonderful ones, and there are some real them with those stamps on it. On the dogs. The issue is if we like the license, other hand, kids also have a sharp eye we expect everything connected to it to for crap and will turn up their noses to be wonderful, too, down to the plastic something that doesn’t meet their Burger King cups. Even if we know in our mysterious standards as they slather hearts that the novelization of a science their fries with green ketchup. fiction movie isn’t going to be as good as the movie, we still hope and expect it to Gamers need to consider what they want be. And that’s what the marketers want. out of a game; do they want to retell a popular story or do they just want to run It’s easy to slap a Harry Potter on amok in the world they’d enjoyed something and hope it will succeed. reading about? Often, these products are purchased not by the user, but by a well-meaning And really, like with any big purchase relative or friend. “He likes that hobbit (don’t laugh; many board games are $50 EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editors Layout Artists Director of Advertising Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Susan Briglia Russ Pitts Jason Haile Chairman of Themis Group Contributing Editors Lead Web Developer Thomas S. Kurz JR Sutich Whitney Butts Shannon Drake Web Developers Research Manager Erik Jacobson Nova Barlow Tim Turner

Contributors IT Director Susan Arendt Jason Smith Kieron Gillen Mur Lafferty Jon Schnaars Allen Varney

Issue 81, © 2007. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com