Video Games and Movies
OK, so I play video games and I watch movies, but I prefer to do one or the other. Especially when I'm playing games, I certainly don't want to feel like I'm watching a stupid movie. If the story line is integrated into the game, that's great, but when it detracts from killing zombies, shooting bad guys, finishing a quest, or in any way prevents my keyboard from swinging a sword, pulling a trigger, or detonating a nuclear bomb, it sucks.
One of the first truly RPG video games I got into was Neverwinter Nights. Between "levels" there were short video clips, but you could always fast forward to the next "level". Needless to say, after two years of waiting, I was really happy that Neverwinter Nights 2 came out. That happiness lasted for about ten minutes. This stupid sequel to a great game was full of movie clips, dialogue that was stupid (which was supposed to advance the plot and decide what kind of person you were), which interfered severely (yes, severely) with game play, and you couldn't fast forward through most of them. Having played Dungeons and Dragons while growing up, I knew the value of your alignment, but those stupid dialogues didn't even come close to matching my character's alignment. It was a twisted, grotesque caricature of Neverwinter Nights, the first one, and it had a stupid plot. So, this game just plainly sucked. It was an "esperpento" of the third kind, and Valle-Inclan would have been severely disappointed.
Now, we get to an excellent example of how a story line and a game should be integrated. Elder Scrolls III and Elder Scrolls IV. Elder Scrolls III is a first person RPG fantasy world where you can go almost anywhere, you can get quests, and you can just ignore the main plot of the game and play forever. This is true of Elder Scrolls IV also. In that sense, you need to be a truly dedicated geek and gamer to play these games. Having said that, I guess I should also say that most people would probably not have the time or mental stamina to deal with such geekiness. Anyway, these two games integrated story line and game flawlessly. You can skip through all of the movie clips that come out, with the exception of the intro, which in essence you really need to watch anyway if you want to have a clue as to what is going on (I'm referring to Elder Scrolls IV). After the beginning, you can just do whatever you want without fear of some stupid animation getting in the way of you slaughtering goblins or stealing someone's toothpick.
My belief is that the "entertainment" industry has just gotten way too big for its own good. Hollywood and the game makers have wedded and this is troubling me. A movie comes out, a video about the movie also comes out. A video gets popular, and a movie is made from it. Stop this nonsense!!!! Have some creativity for monkey's sake! Learn to come up with your own ideas, which is impossible in Hollywood since they're entrenched in a drollness that is going to last a millenia, or more. I think the video game industry should just divorce itself from Hollywood and start making games again, not a hybrid of stink-house crap that only mindless dullards would enjoy.
So, now I await for the release of Dragon's Age, the true successor to the first Neverwinter Nights. But, it is troubling to see the preview clips of the game on their website. It is troubling to know that there is an integrated story line, and knowing what the current trend is, how this will be done in the game itself. I'm also anticipating the release of Starcraft II, but they're usually good about keeping the clips in the campaign version of the game, and not in the melee section, which is clear of any stupid plots that mindless zombies come up with.
This is my precious opinion and there is no merit to them, since now you can only make money from numbskull gamers who can't play games without watching movies. And if you're one of these numbskull gamers reading this, you can go to hell.
