Peter Jackson on the Future of Storytelling 42
Via VoodooExtreme, an article on Team Xbox covering a panel at X06 on the future of storytelling in games. Along with Mr. Jackson, industry veterans Peter Molyneux and Greg Zeschuck weigh in on this issue. The meat of the article is a video of the presentation, which is regrettably in .wmv format. The Escapist has some highlights of the conversation up in their news section. "'I've got to the stage now where I just end up catching something on DVD and I'm more excited about games coming out in the next 2-3 months than films,' said Peter Jackson, director of Lord of The Rings and founder of Wingnut Interactive, an offshoot of his movie studio. 'That created an awareness in me of the shift in entertainment options out there, and if I'm feeling that others are too.'"
Time (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
One of my friends "thought" that he could be a videogame writer and nearly every story he wrote was focused on how his characters could be the "Uber-Leetest" characters ever; his incohearant st
Calling all English majors (Score:4, Insightful)
Any good writing class should teach you about developing characters, rising action, falling action, keeping readers interested, etc. That's the sort of stuff that needs to be applied to gaming, not graphics.
Writers underrated? (Score:3, Insightful)
I know mod makers can get in really easy, but we have such an abysmal dearth of well written games that it suggests that good writers (and there are a lot out there) simply can't submit an idea and get a developer audience to chew on it.
Once the writers start getting as much respect as the coders, and actual story lines start weighing in more heavily, we'll see a major shift in the way games are made.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm sure th
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I have degrees in Computer Science and Spanish (with a focus on literature and linguistics). I enjoy writing as a hobby, and have done a bit of writing in my own game [meridian59.com].
parent post underrated? (Score:2)
I have blueprints for full scale personality matrices that I'd love to patent, but the computing power simply is not there; this is all too evident when too many sims are present at one
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
feelings, woah, woah, woah, feelings... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm feeling, Peter, that you're feeling influential enough to generate feelings among the hoi-polloi, the better to feel your wingnut investment a bit heavier on the hip.
Just a feeling.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, what about asynchronous story telling media? (Score:2)
I'm not saying books are better than games or movies, but I do feel you live with them differently. Movies and games are an outward journey into somebody else's imagination, and books are an inward journey into your own.
Quoth TFA:
I can truthfully say that although I enjoy films, and I do play an occaional game, I have not been excited about
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Well, what about asynchronous story telling med (Score:2)
How do you come to that conclusion? Books are every bit as predefined as movies, your only term of interaction consists of page-turning, every word is prewritten by somebody elses imagination. Games, while often also heavily limited, at least offer you to interact with the world that is presented and not just consume it in a passive way.
Now I am not saying that books are bad, they hav
The future of games... (Score:2)
Personally, I'd be far more interested in hearing about the future of storytelling from someone who actually knows how to tell a story.
Like Cowboys and Indians? (Score:1)
Games could bring together both of those experiences, the depth of a meaningful story and the experience of becoming part of that story by playing the role of the main character. In my opinion, the best single player games were those that built upon tha
Who wouldn't be more interested in games? (Score:3, Insightful)
We have big screen TVs, we have voice chat over game consoles, we have the world at our fingertips for the internet The world has moved on, movies and theatres are just dying. Except for the teenagers who want to make out, but then enjoy the extra privacy they have.
I go to 1-2 movie a year for a reason (this year it was superman returns) because when I can play xenosaga get over 2 hours of movie, 60 hours of interactive story and action, and actually have characters that grow rather then have a life span of 2 hours, what use is a movie?
That's not to say every game is better than movies But let's factor in TV as TV does play a part too. Alias, Lost, 24, all captivate my attention and last twice as long as even the director's cut of all three lord of the rings for just 1 season. When they have 6 seasons of these shows all with character development what use is a 10 dollar 2 hour movie when for 40 bucks I can buy 24 hours of entertainment and have a chance to "preview" the whole dvd at home as it's broadcast there first!
DVR to allow us to watch them when ever we want? Why go to a movie theatre when you get TV on your schedule now.
Movies were good for a period but it was a step on evolution of entertainment, it's time to expand the movie to a series, or make them more interactive. Because that's where our attention is going.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I remember when interactive fiction was the best thing ever. You could tell the computer what you wanted to do and it would do it.
Pheh. You kids! Back in my day, "interactive fiction" meant you jumped to the bottom of the page, where it read something like, "To stay to help the gnome, turn to page 21. To run away, turn to page 16."
And we liked it that way!
Re: (Score:2)
Actually one of my favorites was a secret agent book where you got items or keys and passwords.
And there was a couple RPGish choose your adventure
Adventure Games or Interactive Movies? (Score:1)
If it's adventure games we're talking about, it's about damn time somebody realized that there's an entire segment of gamers that have been left with nothing to do since Lucas Arts switched to Star Wars only.
If we're talking about interactive movies --- no thanks. I don't have the patience to sit through half the cutscenes on FPS Xbox titles nowadays, so if we're talking about a choose your own adventure style Lord of the Rings title, Tom Bombadil or no Tom Bombadil, forget it.
Sorry, but.. (Score:1)
King Kong (Score:2)
Limited perspectives (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Could you explain a bit more about what makes those games/visual novel special in terms of storytelling? Since I, and probally many other slashdotters as well, havn't heard about them, which given that some don't even have an english translation isn't a big suprise.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Visual Novels (Score:1)
I'm struggling to figure out how important the graphics and interactivity are, having played a few of these things and having writing but not artistic skill. The most visually impressive "VN" game I saw ("Ori, Ochi, Onoe," sic) had me clicking hundreds of times to advance the text and making only a few, apparently trivial decisions. How can we set the audience's expectations so that they don't think they're playing an FP
Endorsement (Score:1)