Adaptation: From Interactive to Non-Interactive

Apologies for the late posting time; had a bit of a pet-related emergency that took a lot of time and induced a lot of stress.  But now it's up, and I hope you enjoy it.

Many gamers have given up on movies based on video games.  All we've gotten from the practice are a ton of horrible movies and one absolutely awful director, and the few decent films we have gotten weren't terrible, but also weren't actually adaptations of the game, just similar stories with the same name.  

Unfortunately, a common reaction to this fact (and every time a film adaptation of a game is announced) is to exclaim that there will never be a good video game movie because, based on past failures, it's impossible to make one.  However, if you'll allow me to be quite frank, that's stupid.  This is art, dependent on nothing more than a skillful depiction of our own creativity; some things may be difficult, but nothing is impossible.

Artistic sensibilities aside, there are identifiable reasons why these films have not worked, which always means it is possible to improve.  If you can identify the problems, you can work on solutions.  So let's see about identifying some of them.  

If you've played Diablo,
you'll get this picture.

First of all, the interesting thing about adaptation when it comes to video games is that there is an interactive component that must be dealt with.  In the past, all a film adaptation had to deal with was the translation of words into images, or from the single-perspective staging of theater into the multi-angle setup the medium allows.  Granted, these were not easy; each medium has unique properties that others are hard-pressed to incorporate, or sometimes downright impossible.  But none of these elements have ever been so vital to the work as interactivity can be.  It is difficult to portray the words of a book with moving pictures, and it is hard work to accurately adapt the works of Shakespeare to a filmic medium, but at least it can be done.  Interactivity, on the other hand, simply does not exist (at least in any meaningful way) outside of video games.  

This was a compelling choice, but much more so when you
had to make it than it would be if Ethan did it himself.

Now of course for most games, the only effect this has is that which I discussed last week, which really isn't a huge hurdle to overcome.  Interactivity inherently connects the player with their characters in a way passive media does not, but we all know that connection is not required to create a compelling, personally identifiable character; we can all name many characters from film, literature, or theater we are far more connected to than many characters I could also name from video games.  And the fact is, none of the game-based films have had to contend with this much; very few, if any, of the games that have been adapted even had multiple endings, let alone the complex and multifaceted choices found in games like Mass Effect or Heavy Rain.  So really, though this is a problem, it has rarely been confronted, so there is not much to talk about.  

My one recommendation with this is to be creative.  Look at Clannad: the game's main romance has two endings, and the good one is unlocked when you play through all the game's different romance arcs.  The anime based on it (which I highly recommend as long as you don't mind crying like a baby), rather than choosing the good one as canonical, manages to fit both in.  The result is, unfortunately, less than perfect; I had to look up the ending online after watching it to fully understand it.  But it was a valiant effort.  The point is simply that, while interactivity cannot really be a part of film, that does not mean complete linearity is the only option.  Be creative.

However, on to the problems that have been more relevant to video game movies thus far.  The most obvious is that there is yet to be any real talent put into them.  Sure, there will be some noteworthy actors here and there, and it's true that not every director is as bad as Uwe Boll, but in general video games just haven't gotten the same talent behind their movies that literature and theater have.  Thankfully, this one will likely change over time; we live in a world where Kenneth Branagh, famous for directing and acting in Shakespearian film adaptations, directed Thor, a movie based on a Marvel comic.  Considering the parallels between comics and video games in their fight to earn artistic recognition, I think it's safe to say video game films will eventually get their due talent.  

Another big one is that, for some reason, very few of the games that have the narrative strength to do well in a filmic context have actually been adapted.  Why did we get a Bloodrayne movie?  Why is there a movie based on Dungeon Siege?  Where is our Beyond Good and Evil film, our epic Ocarina of Time movie, or that Halo adaptation that was supposed to be made way back when?  These games have good stories and would be pretty naturally adapted to the big screen; so why do we keep getting the non-story-centric games adapted?  

Well, the answer to that one is actually another reason in and of itself; budget.  Studio execs don't seem to see enough money in video game movies to pay the fees necessary to adapt a worthwhile game.  Fox and Universal even turned down the Halo movie based on budget reasons, which I think we can all agree was a very stupid move; of all games to turn down for budget reasons, they really thought a Halo film wouldn't make enough money back?

Though would-be Halo director Neill Blomkamp went on to
make District 9, so I think I can forgive that in the end.  

The unfortunate truth is that films take money to make, especially action-oriented films with heavy requirements for special effects.  Video games exist almost solely in the genre that would require such effects in a film adaptation, so this especially true of them.  However, they are also not particularly respected as art yet, meaning that to most studios, what matters is not so much whether a game makes good artistic sense to adapt to film, but whether they can cheaply acquire the rights and make a profit.  Unfortunately, under these criteria the best candidates for film adaptation are more along the lines of gaming's blockbusters than its artistic triumphs.  

In these ways, many projects have been doomed from the start, but what goes wrong with projects that have real potential?  This is the most important thing about it.  

Anyone adapting a work must have respect for the source material.  Not necessarily a driven desire to be completely faithful to it (prioritizing complete fidelity to the source material above all else is a grave mistake in adaptation), but a genuine desire to see the work done justice within another medium.  Game adaptations have, thus far, lacked this almost entirely.  

A good example was almost the Uncharted movie, which I talked about a bit in one of my smaller Wednesday posts.  In short, director-at-the-time David Russel had planned on making the film about a family that protects important artifacts from those who would steal and abuse them, which any fan of the games can tell you has absolutely nothing to do with Uncharted outside of the involvement of important historical artifacts.  

Thankfully, he was taken off the project due to "creative differences."  Issue being, David Russel wasn't planning on making an Uncharted movie.  He was planning on using the lucrative name of Uncharted to make his own movie with similar themes.  In an interview, he said he respected the source material, but did so noting only the gameplay and cinematic style of the game without a word to the story or characters.    

And therein lies the problem; directors don't see their video game-based projects as adaptation of a story so much as adaptation of a toy.  They see a game with a setting and gameplay style they like and decide to use those things to make a movie, without consideration of the fact that they are adapting a work of art that already has a story and characters.  It's like if someone saw a Batman action figure and decided to make a movie about a boy raised by bats in the jungle who grows up to become the villain of a horror flick; you could get it from the basic concept of what Batman is, sure, but you would have to completely disregard the story and character themselves in order to get it, to view Batman as a toy and concept instead of a story and a fully realized work of narrative art.

Come on, with no knowledge of the actual Batman, you know
that mistake could easily be made.  

Until the adapter in question treats video games as a narrative art that is to be legitimately adapted, we will continue to get movies with vague similarities to the games on which they are based instead of actual adaptations of the interactive stories we love.  So it may just largely come down to the eventual cultural acceptance of video games as an art form, combined with their mainstream incorporation to make studios more willing to greenlight films based on more deserving games.  

All this is just analysis and theoretical work, but the main thing to take from it is that there is still hope.  There is nothing that inherently makes game-to-film adaptation impossible, but the cultural relevance and opinion of video games is perhaps not yet to the point where they are particularly likely to succeed.  This is unfortunate, but it is by no means permanent.  When a studio takes a risk and a writer and director respect the game's artistic merits, we will get a good adaptation.  And there will be much rejoicing.  

Remember to "Like" Binary Narrative on Facebook, and I'll see you next week!

ENGL 1337: Games as Lit.

We people of the last few generations have had the privilege of growing up with a new and exciting artistic medium.  Over the last three decades, video games have grown from entertaining pastimes to full-fledged interactive stories, taking storytelling places no other medium could have ever dreamed.  The children of the twenty-first century have seen it become possible to be a part of a story, which is, as Yahtzee put it, "a development as artistically significant as the moment Picasso realized which end of the brush was which."

Unfortunately, this is not the version we have been told. 

As we have grown up, video games have been subject to everything from misunderstanding to blatant demonization.  At the very least, these generations have grown up being told that video games are wastes of time.  Sure, maybe it’s okay to spend a few minutes here and there, but too much time playing Halo will rot their brain or turn them into serial killers. 

And kids that pose like this only
help them.  Seriously kid, we're
trying to gain respect over here.

The result is that, even while video games have amazing artistic potential and value, it is squandered on people who will only get out of them what they put into them, and all they put into them is an expectation of a good, if valueless, time.  This is not the fault of the people, but the fault of the way they have been raised to view the medium of video games.  The artistic value of video games is something understood by a precious few parents, and as a result they look upon their child’s gaming pastime as a waste, and use no subtlety making sure the child understands this. 

To make matters worse, schools do the same thing, but possibly even on a larger scale.  The academic community tends to be slow in accepting new ideas, and the acceptance of video games as an artistic medium has not broken this long-standing tradition.  As a result, we see schools disallowing portable game systems from their grounds and constantly preaching the value of reading over playing those useless video games.  They then join the parents in complaining about how their children spend all day playing Call of Duty with their friends instead of reading the latest Newberry Medal winning novel. 

The guarantee this book is about nature and history, and is
the exact same as the last Newberry book your child read.  

But if video games are an artistic storytelling medium, what is keeping children from learning from them in the same manner?  Why can someone play Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and yet only talk about the battles, the cool swords, and that impossibly tough library puzzle, never mentioning the story’s strong message of the dangers of coveting honor and glory or the way the romance is developed through nuanced dialogue in gameplay? 

Unfortunately, this culture brings it upon itself.  By painting video games as a wasteful pastime unworthy of any level of attention, parents and schools encourage students to play them as nothing more than that, effectively negating any value they may have by teaching children to ignore it. 

Instead, what if video games were incorporated into the school system?  What if schools were to meet children where their attention is already focused, present to them the values of something they already enjoy and use it to make them better, well-rounded people? 

The video game, not the recent okay
movie/terrible adaptation. Seriously,
couldn't the story have been similar?

This would not look very different from the current model of book reports.  Children in a class are assigned a particular game to play.  The aforementioned game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, stands as a good example for jr. high and above.  I do not want to spoil the story (spoilers are manufactured personally by Satan in the pit of Hell), but anyone who's played it can tell you the prince’s character journey is one worth communicating and exploring, and the game itself portrays it well.  It is often praised as one of the best-written games ever made.  The gameplay ties into the story well, and the prince’s character development is deep and interesting, developed largely through thoughts and monologues while the player explores the ruined kingdom.  It would be easy to assign an essay with a prompt to explore the prince’s progression from a spoiled, glory-obsessed child to a mature man who takes responsibility for his
                                                         mistakes. 

Instead, many who play this game do so with the expectation they will be able to kill monsters in awesome ways, and they get that.  Many players even skip cutscenes whenever possible to get back to the gameplay.  They gain nothing from this experience but six to ten hours of virtual parkour and combat.  But if schools were to teach children of the narrative value of video games, teach them to play Prince of Persia and other games and pay attention to the subtleties, the characters, and the overarching themes, would this not cease to be an exercise in entertaining futility and become a worthy artistic pursuit? 

The negative portrayal of video games that children are given is not teaching them to use their time well, it is teaching them to ignore artistic value in a medium that is quickly becoming a cultural staple.  This is harming the artistic sensibilities and personal formation of entire generations, and cannot be tolerated.  Rather than resisting change and development, school systems must turn to the study of video games as a narrative medium and instill in children an appreciation not only for battle tactics and a positive kill/death ratio, but for interactive storytelling and the value that can be found therein.

See you next week!  Don't forget to Like Binary Narrative on Facebook if you like what is being said here!