DA
06-25-2009, 12:25 PM
There's no denying that video games are huge -- some even say "recession proof." Thus, there's really no ignoring what's become the favorite pastime of millions around the world. Hollywood knows this, but that doesn't mean they like it.
"There's certainly no shortage of guys that look at games and see them as toys, and meaningless bullshit, and now look at revenue - and for their own survival's sake have to care, and have to get involved," Tigon Studio head Ian Stevens told GamesIndustry.biz.
"I think a lot of it has changed because we're making so much more money than they are."
He explained that many in Hollywood don't understand the creative process of video games, but some "really interesting things" will happen in the next decade. He's just wondering about the expecution, because "we don't speak the same language."
"Oftentimes people in Hollywood struggle to understand the creative decisions that we make - they don't get why something is more fun than something else, or why a character would need to be changed completely to work as a videogame character," he said.
"I think that's probably really hard to get unless you play games. I don't know there's an academic way to understand why Mario is fun, or what's fun about a raid in World of Warcraft, or why it's cool to shiv people in the neck when you're playing Dark Athena - I don't know there's an abstract way of explaining that."
On the other hand, game developers don't know much about stoytelling, Stevens said. There's so much "depth and vocabulary involved in film-making that we're just completely ignorant of."
"Try as we might, we're not film-makers - and those are the collaborations that are the most interesting to me, to get some of those people working together to bleed and blend those lines, and get some of the expertise into a game... as opposed to an abstract sharing of ideas, which is what we do."
Sounds like both sides have a lot to learn from one another.
"There's certainly no shortage of guys that look at games and see them as toys, and meaningless bullshit, and now look at revenue - and for their own survival's sake have to care, and have to get involved," Tigon Studio head Ian Stevens told GamesIndustry.biz.
"I think a lot of it has changed because we're making so much more money than they are."
He explained that many in Hollywood don't understand the creative process of video games, but some "really interesting things" will happen in the next decade. He's just wondering about the expecution, because "we don't speak the same language."
"Oftentimes people in Hollywood struggle to understand the creative decisions that we make - they don't get why something is more fun than something else, or why a character would need to be changed completely to work as a videogame character," he said.
"I think that's probably really hard to get unless you play games. I don't know there's an academic way to understand why Mario is fun, or what's fun about a raid in World of Warcraft, or why it's cool to shiv people in the neck when you're playing Dark Athena - I don't know there's an abstract way of explaining that."
On the other hand, game developers don't know much about stoytelling, Stevens said. There's so much "depth and vocabulary involved in film-making that we're just completely ignorant of."
"Try as we might, we're not film-makers - and those are the collaborations that are the most interesting to me, to get some of those people working together to bleed and blend those lines, and get some of the expertise into a game... as opposed to an abstract sharing of ideas, which is what we do."
Sounds like both sides have a lot to learn from one another.