The true Lord of ‘Lord of the Rings’
September 16th 2006 03:57
I find it interesting that mainstream Hollywood movies are losing the big bucks rather quickly. It probably has a lot to do with the fact it has hit a creative vacuum. We were given such great movies of late, some of the best in history, from Star Wars Episode 3 all the way down to Pirates of the Caribbean and everything in between (The Incredibles, Batman and others, I am looking at you). Don’t get me wrong, they are still coming, but it’s all few and far in between.
Now we are being given crap, absolute crap, the best they could do was ‘Superman Returns’, and that was… well not a very good movie (apparently, I haven’t seen it yet). George Lucas himself stated that ‘Mission Impossible 3’ was boring after it reached the top of the box offices around the world. He was right though, on the audiences behalf, as it appears all that box office success centered around the hype behind it as ‘Mission Impossible 3’ lost a lot of its ground come the second week.
Fear not though, it appears you, the humble audience, is simply looking for alternative areas to get your entertainment from… and the alternative area is? Videogames of course!
While videogames are continuing to make bigger and bigger bucks movies are slipping and slipping. Looking at both media it’s not hard to understand why videogame profits are rocketing. Back during the early days of gaming there was hardly any detail on screen, it was a two dimensional image, a two dimensional cartoony image that the player controlled in a limited fashion carrying out a menial task, sometimes with absolutely no explanation. But that was back then, and how times have changed.
Nowadays games are being judged for their narrative structures, their art directions among other things. These elements are helping these games find mass appeal. This is in large part due to the technological enhancements, now the game world is in full 3D and there is enough grunt in modern technology to push some really good art direction.
Action sequences in videogames are now more… shall we say actiony? Even more so than some, heck, most movies. It sure has come a long way, If you compare for instance the original version of “Legend of Zelda” with the upcoming “Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess”, tell me how much cooler is the new one? “Legend of Zelda” of the videogame world is the equivalent of “Lord of the Rings” of the movie world, except it is far cheaper to make a game than a movie by a long shot. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will also last longer (reportedly Twilight Princess has a gameplay time of 100 hours) and also gives you far more freedom to explore. Imagine “Middle Earth” and wherever you want to go in Middle Earth you can go to, that is what “Twilight Princess” is all about.
Will videogames replace movies completely? I doubt it. But will videogames eventually become the entertainment medium of choice for the masses? Well if you asked me that say a few years ago I would have laughed in your face. But now that some of the big players are expanding their markets, Nintendo being the biggest, I think it very well might. With the success of the Nintendo DS in every target audience from five year old girls to fifty year old codgers, the Nintendo DS has games to suit everyone and has proven that there is indeed a market for everyone in the world of videogames.
Not quite so Super are we?
Fear not though, it appears you, the humble audience, is simply looking for alternative areas to get your entertainment from… and the alternative area is? Videogames of course!
Metal Gear Solid 4 (Main) and Metal Gear (Top right)
Nowadays games are being judged for their narrative structures, their art directions among other things. These elements are helping these games find mass appeal. This is in large part due to the technological enhancements, now the game world is in full 3D and there is enough grunt in modern technology to push some really good art direction.
Action sequences from Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Main) and Legend of Zelda (top right)
Will videogames replace movies completely? I doubt it. But will videogames eventually become the entertainment medium of choice for the masses? Well if you asked me that say a few years ago I would have laughed in your face. But now that some of the big players are expanding their markets, Nintendo being the biggest, I think it very well might. With the success of the Nintendo DS in every target audience from five year old girls to fifty year old codgers, the Nintendo DS has games to suit everyone and has proven that there is indeed a market for everyone in the world of videogames.
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Comment by Joy
Thanks for replying to my prompt, by the way.
Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
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Yeah thats the thing that I didn't work intot he entry, that there are a lot of casual games you can download and play for free, and the fact female gamers out number male ones by like 30% because women tend to play minesweeper, the sims and the like....
Comment by Joy
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I suppose the paying ones are better though in the end.
Its funny how these simpler games are the source of the actual majority of what people play, yet I dedicated my blog entry to all the fancy ones that are yet to come out...
Comment by Joy
Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
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Nintendo is reluctant to relaes it for the gamecube because they know well enough it will sell heaps of Nintendo Wii's if it became an exclusive. But they also promised us fanboys/girls that it would be also released on the gamecube.
I think it's only actualy going to get released on the gamecube in north america, I think there was a statement that said 'in north america', so they might not be intending on releasing it elsewere on the gamecube...
Comment by Joy
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techy.Bytes
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I don't mind though, I probably won't be buying it anyway...
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Comment by Espie
Gifted Parenting
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Comment by Ahmed
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Yeah, generaly older people prefer to be entertained, but not if nintendo has it's way
You'll be swinging your arms every which way when that sucker finds it's way into you rliving room. Get ready to find excuses to punish your child(ren) randomly to get time on that machine
Comment by Ragin Cajun
Observer's Post
Death By Myopia
Comment by Ragin Cajun
Observer's Post
Death By Myopia
*Sorry about the double post. I don't know what the hell happened.
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I never knew who 'mother' was until that guy got off the wheel chair, and the other one exclaimed 'mother!?', I thought it was the guy on the wheelchair who was mother, but then when he threw that jug of slime down I found out it was the slime that was mother.
What a revelation, I was shocked.
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Sisi, I think you'll find Harry Potter games constitute the lower 30% of games that entertain a lot.
Comment by Sisi
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