Sequels!
As in everything, movie sequels are vastly different from game sequels. For one, we see a lot more of the latter. All of the games I am eagerly awaiting (Halo 2, Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within) as well as most of the best games released recently (Tony Hawk Underground 2, Mortal Kombat: Deception, Otogi 2) are all sequels. Now, while the movie crowd will look amazed at the sheer number of sequels, this isn't exactly anything new for gamers.
The reasoning for this goes back to the difference between video games and movies. Because video games are a very interactive media, the main focus of development and creativity goes into the gameplay, rather than the story. With a few notable exceptions, the best storylines in games would be at about the same quality of story as the Terminator series: The story is by and large an excuse to blow shit up. They can easily be intrinsically crafted, such as the Max Payne or Starcraft story lines, but none of them are going to win oscars in a movie conversion.
So, since the main focus of creativity is the gameplay, developers don't want to spend a lot of time engineering a backstory. One of their old games that sold ten million copies can be dredged up so the story can be reused, either by creating an entirely new story that the hero has to deal with or delving into a unfulfilled sub-plot in the original. Either way, the new game gets the face of the old classic.
Also, the most notable thing is that, well, the game designers for the really great companies are fan-boys. They love their characters. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone at Bungie who doesn't love Master Chief, or to find someone at Blizzard who doesn't wish they could start making a new Starcraft game. While part of it is the marketing, the laziness, or the fans clamoring for a sequel, its also the developer's intense willingness to revisit their old universes.
Of course, there's the marketing, and the fanboys who are willing to violently attack developer's headquarters, but that's only a small part of it. And you bet your ASS I'm getting Halo 2 by the 11th!
The reasoning for this goes back to the difference between video games and movies. Because video games are a very interactive media, the main focus of development and creativity goes into the gameplay, rather than the story. With a few notable exceptions, the best storylines in games would be at about the same quality of story as the Terminator series: The story is by and large an excuse to blow shit up. They can easily be intrinsically crafted, such as the Max Payne or Starcraft story lines, but none of them are going to win oscars in a movie conversion.
So, since the main focus of creativity is the gameplay, developers don't want to spend a lot of time engineering a backstory. One of their old games that sold ten million copies can be dredged up so the story can be reused, either by creating an entirely new story that the hero has to deal with or delving into a unfulfilled sub-plot in the original. Either way, the new game gets the face of the old classic.
Also, the most notable thing is that, well, the game designers for the really great companies are fan-boys. They love their characters. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone at Bungie who doesn't love Master Chief, or to find someone at Blizzard who doesn't wish they could start making a new Starcraft game. While part of it is the marketing, the laziness, or the fans clamoring for a sequel, its also the developer's intense willingness to revisit their old universes.
Of course, there's the marketing, and the fanboys who are willing to violently attack developer's headquarters, but that's only a small part of it. And you bet your ASS I'm getting Halo 2 by the 11th!
posted by Wraithy at 10/24/2004 11:30:00 PM
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