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Video Game Adaptation In the Works For A Song of Fire and Ice 183

Posted by Soulskill from the goons-everywhere-rejoice dept.
On Wednesday, French game development studio Cyanide announced that they will be working with George R. R. Martin to bring his popular fantasy series, A Song of Fire and Ice, to the realm of video games. The press release implies that there will be more than one game, and the games will come out for PCs and "next-gen consoles." Apparently an HBO television series is in the works as well, in addition to board and card games related to the books.
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Video Game Adaptation In the Works For A Song of Fire and Ice More

Video Game Adaptation In the Works For A Song of Fire and Ice

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  • Oh god (Score:3, Insightful)

    by malkir ( 1031750 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @05:56AM (#27948975)
    The only reason they picked this story was for the detailed sex scenes, the books *are* pretty awesome though.

    • The books suck (Score:5, Insightful)

      by halivar ( 535827 ) <bfelger&gmail,com> on Thursday May 14, 2009 @10:07AM (#27950581)

      The story is so formulaic. Here's the formula:

      1) Create a likable character.
      2) Create a hideous character.
      3) Have Character #2 rape Character #1.
      4) Have multiple other people rape Character #1.
      5) Kill Character #1 in an ignoble fashion.
      6) Choose a new Character #1. Repeat steps 3-5.

      "Murphy's Law of George R.R. Martin":
      If you like a character, that character will be maimed, raped, and/or killed in the next book. There are no exceptions.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Sloppy ( 14984 )
        You are seeing a statue inside the marble block. The actual plot is that pretty much everyone is getting raped, maimed, or killed.

      • Re:The books suck (Score:4, Funny)

        by geminidomino ( 614729 ) * on Thursday May 14, 2009 @12:26PM (#27952445) Journal

        "Murphy's Law of George R.R. Martin":
        If you like a character, that character will be maimed, raped, and/or killed in the next book. There are no exceptions.

        Yes there are. I liked a character that didn't even survive the FIRST book!

      • You are incorrect. (Score:2, Insightful)

        by jasko ( 684642 )

        There is no formula in ASoIaF. That's what frustrates people so much about the series - it defies expectation.

        There's no script immunity for viewpoint characters. And, without being spoilerish, there are no villains that are simply villainous. Nobody in Westeros wakes up and says, "I think I'll go be awful today!"

        There is rape, but not like you've described it. I'm trying to think of a likeable character that gets raped - the only multiple rape I can remember is that of a character nobody likes much to begi

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by halivar ( 535827 )

          Either you haven't read these books, or your reading comprehension is poor at best.

          Oh, geez. I gotta be so literal.

          Ok. Robb Stark wasn't penetrated by icky things. But that dude got raped, numsayin'?

      • Yeah, it's so awful. I mean, nobody else has been copying Shakespeare for the last several hundred years but George R. R. Martin.

      • That's the biggest and most successful meta-spoiler I've ever read.

        Thanks asshole!

  • You mean "A Song of Ice and Fire", right? (Score:4, Funny)

    by The_mad_linguist ( 1019680 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @05:59AM (#27948987)

    Or is this one of those Chinese knockoffs, like "backstroke of the west" or "Harry potter and the big Funnel"?

    • At first I thought it was this [youtube.com] movie (soundtrack here [youtube.com]), and I thought, wow a video game about an 80s ski movie with break dancing. That would be funny in a kitschy sort of way -- I can see it now, EA sports presents Fire and Ice, win races and get your character's hair perm to twice as frizzy, or add some new break dancing moves to your characters repertoire.

  • I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Choozy ( 1260872 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @06:03AM (#27949007)

    ... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!

    • Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Swizec ( 978239 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @06:06AM (#27949015) Homepage

      ... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!

      and artists would prefer if fans stopped thinking of them as their bitches.

      But that's not very likely is it?

      • Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Informative)

        by tritonman ( 998572 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @07:16AM (#27949315)
        Well, he made a promise... At the end of his previous book he said that most of the work for the next book was already finished and he was splitting it into two books. He said that IT WILL BE PUBLISHED NEXT YEAR! This was in 2005. Ok just 4 years later and still nothing, it probably won't come out this year either!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Swizec ( 978239 )
          He made this promise or his manager/publisher made this promise? Crucial difference.

          • He made this promise or his manager/publisher made this promise? Crucial difference.

            Not when his name's on the book. His name was used to promote the promise. If he doesn't like it, he should work with a publisher who doesn't tell lies in his name. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by 2short ( 466733 )
            He has repeatedly offered assurances the next book was almost done.

            The problem appears to be that he really likes planning out plots. He came up with a nice tight plot outline for a trilogy, but as he was writing it, he's not interested in just going through with his original plan. So for every book he writes, the projected length of the series gets 2 books longer.

            Whatever. What might have been an iconic pillar of modern fantasy will not be because he'll with it unfinished. It's his own art that is dama

      • Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jefu ( 53450 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @08:38AM (#27949745) Homepage Journal

        I think Martin's fans (and I'm one) have been fairly patient overall. It is a huge (and wonderful) work and certainly requires a lot of time to make it as good as it is. It's not like he came to my house and signed a contract with me to finish at any particular time. On the other hand, starting a series like this does seem to make a kind of promise to the readers that it will (at least eventually) be finished.

        Where people lose patience is when it seems that lots of other things (calendars, figurines, tv series, games....) are taking up more of Martin's time than the books, and when those fans care about the books and not about the tchotchkes they (the fans, not the tchotchkes) - however selfishly and unrealistically - feel slighted and cranky.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Reapy ( 688651 )

          The biggest offence he commited in my mind was writing feast for crows :( Gah. The first 3 books remain my favorate of all time, and this is after having read a ton of other fantasy books. I think he was on the right path, but in that 4 year wait he got big, and probably got leeway from editors, and decided to split the book off into the next 2 books, feast and dance. What a mistake, feast sucked so hard, and to have waited 4 years for it, that bastard.

          But really, he's only a bastard cause the first 3 were

          • I don't understand why people think Feast for Crows sucked. To me, it was just more of the same great stuff.

            • Mostly because he split off the "Good" characters into Dance (Jon, Tyrion, etc...) and gave us fucking Brienne of Tarth as a PoV character... WTF?

              • I'm curious to know why you think Brienne is not a "good" character? I find her just as interesting and her story just as compelling as any other character in the series.

                • I find her just as interesting and her story just as compelling as any other character in the series.

                  I don't. That's why I don't consider her a "good" character. :) I also loathe Sansa and Jon Arryn's widow (what was her name?).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 2short ( 466733 )
          "On the other hand, starting a series like this does seem to make a kind of promise to the readers that it will (at least eventually) be finished."

          It will never be finished. Look at the projected length of the series when each book was published: it has grown by 2 books every single time. It has never gotten as close to finished as it was when he hadn't started yet.

      • They are our bitches. Without readership they make no money. End of story.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Swizec ( 978239 )

          They are our bitches. Without readership they make no money. End of story.

          You need to start perusing some real art, this pop culture crap seems to be rotting your brain away.

        • Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Informative)

          by Minwee ( 522556 ) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Thursday May 14, 2009 @09:49AM (#27950383) Homepage

          You may want to read Neil Gaiman's comments on the issue [neilgaiman.com], as it seems the grandparent poster has.

          Although I think that R. K. Milholland's take on a similar issue [superstupor.com] is right on target too.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by MarkLR ( 236125 )

            From Gaiman's posting:

            >George R. R. Martin is not working for you.

            Yes, but the publisher basically is. Unless they start publishing books 1-4 with a warning label, "This series is unfinished, and may never be completed" any new readers have right to complain.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Minwee ( 522556 )

              Unless they start publishing books 1-4 with a warning label, "This series is unfinished, and may never be completed" any new readers have right to complain.

              If you can't figure out by looking at the cover [amazon.com], or at least the first three pages of a book that it is part of a series, and are also unable to locate other books by the same author and determine by looking at them whether or not the in fact exist, then maybe the act of reading may be a bit too challenging.

              The fact that books do not carry warning label

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by zrelativity ( 963547 )
            Honestly, Gaiman's talking crap... "George R.R. Martin is not your bitch."... Well I'm not saying he is. But take that attitude too often with your reader, and you might find you're writing for your self alone. GRRM or Gaiman is not writing just because they like writing. It makes them a very good living.

            Artists or Engineers or any other professional, if you make a commitment to your client or customer, you need to work bloody hard to keep to it. If I as a engineer, make commitments to my customer, and do

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Nitar ( 261628 )

            Well, I read Gaiman's article, and if that's the approach an author wants to take, then so be it.

            At the end, Gaiman states, "...the simple and unanswerable truth: George R. R. Martin is not working for you."

            If Martin is not working for the reader, who IS he working for? Who pays his salary, and more to the point, who pays his royalties? In the end, it IS the reader. Without us spending our money on his books, there is no publishing deal and no royalties.

            If I go with Gaiman's line of reasoning, then my re

      • Nobody's Bitch. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by SoupIsGood Food ( 1179 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @11:18AM (#27951491)

        I would like it if writers stopped thinking of their customers as their bitch. If he does not understand the impatience and irritation of his paying customers in not delivering product according to a promised schedule, he's not going to have the franchise grow very much farther than it already has. A professional writer is an artist, true... but more importantly, a professional writer is a paid professional. It's a major disservice to the craft of writing to string your readers along the way he has.

        It's one thing to say, "Hey, guys... I lost my mojo on this. I may come back to it in a few years or I may not." Hey, whatever, crap like that happens. Stick to single-volume novels, and your readers will give you another chance.

        It's another thing to sneer at your readers and insult them for questioning your grandiose "art." That's not only rude, it's dishonest.

        It's not the reader's fault you managed to paint yourself into a corner with your sub-plots. It's not the reader's fault you can't break the story down into novel-length chapters... it's your failing as an =artist=.

        Entitlement? Demanding your readers adore you and your works uncritically after having failed them so spectacularly is probably one of the grossest examples of "sense of entitlement" I've come across.

    • Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Kranerian ( 1427183 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @06:23AM (#27949081)
      How do you think us Wheel of Time fans feel?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by VShael ( 62735 )

        "How do you think us Wheel of Time fans feel?"

        After book 6 or 7, I didn't think there was any fans left.

        • Hey, 6 was good, and 9 was awesome. 7 was forgettable. 8 & 10 do not exist. I heard 11 was excellent, but I'm going to wait for Sanderson to finish the series.

    • As long as he doesn't DIE before finishing it... I'm still wary of getting into another huge fantasy series, thanks R.J.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jurily ( 900488 )

      ... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!

      Are you sure you'd be happy with it if it came prematurely? Mostly Harmless comes to mind. Summary: Random chaotic shit, and everyone dies at the end.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by geminidomino ( 614729 ) *

        ... if George R.R. Martin would just finish writing the damn series!!!

        Are you sure you'd be happy with it if it came prematurely? Mostly Harmless comes to mind. Summary: Random chaotic shit, and everyone dies at the end.

        HEY! Spoiler-tags motherfucker! ;)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 2short ( 466733 )
        "Are you sure you'd be happy with it if it came prematurely?"

        Not possible. We've reached and passed the time where it should have ended.

    • Re:I would prefer... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jurgenaut ( 910416 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @07:19AM (#27949325)
      I would prefer it if he decided to start the main story.
      So far, all the books written have served only to introduce us to the setting, with a vague hint of "winter is coming". We cannot actually say whether the winter is the main plot line or not.
      It's like a soap opera. There's nothing happening, except characters acting and reacting. No one is accelerating the main plot (because we dont know which plot that is).
      Tolkien said very early on, "here's a ring, the story will concern its destruction". David Eddings - evil god does bad things, here's a story about his demise.
      And when we read those books, we form expectations about what is going to happen, and we start to trust the author when that happens. That's an important connection between author and reader.
      Song of ice and fire, well, anything can happen. Hell, the bad guy in book X is the good guy in book X+2. I respect Martin because he can pull it off.
      I do, however, not trust him to take sufficient care of the characters I enjoy the most - he's proven he has no qualms about killing them off (or leaving them out entirely from a book), then resurrecting them and making them evil. And then the 3 year cliffhangers...

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by hansamurai ( 907719 )

        Dude, the story is the characters. It really is a fantasy based soap opera where all the excitement is the interaction between characters and you wondering whether your favorite will die on the next page or not.

        If you really want a main plot, Daenerys (sp?) is going to come overseas with a huge army and then confront The Song of Ice and Fire (aka a main character in the books that I won't spoil), and either they fall in love or kill each other, or both. Everything else is just more reasons for more charac

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Tim12s ( 209786 )

          It is a fantastic retelling of "War of the Roses". England, 1455. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses [wikipedia.org]

          Like any biography or true story there is usually no single grand ending because it is based on historic events that is based upon the rise and fall of many different characters. Each character has a story and we are taken through this by the author.

      • I do, however, not trust him to take sufficient care of the characters I enjoy the most - he's proven he has no qualms about killing them off (or leaving them out entirely from a book), then resurrecting them and making them evil.

        I however trust him to kill off major characters or have them react very badly to the overwhelming hardships they've suffered. Part of the charm of that is there are no scenes where you feel absolutely certain the character you're reading about is going to survive. Keeps it genuinely suspenseful.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Gulthek ( 12570 )

        Whoa there, Cat was pretty twisted from the start. Blame her Whent ancestry.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by sapphire wyvern ( 1153271 )

        The killing off of major characters and showing the more noble side of previously loathed villains is an interesting subversion of the usual predictable fantasy tropes. I think that's part of its appeal to me - it reads more like a history, and less like another iteration of the "Monomyth [wikipedia.org] of the Hero". Or at least it would, if our history books and documentaries didn't usually reduce the real world's personalities to fantasy-esque narrative caricatures.

        On the other hand, The Song of Ice & Fire's non-com

      • How about the ousting and murder of the Targaryen royal family and the rise and return of its last daughter, Daenerys. Lord Robert Baratheon, Lord Eddard Stark and Lord Tywin Lannister, all betrayers to the Royal House, have all died betrayer deaths. Robert is betrayed and poisoned by his cuckolding wife, Eddard is forced to admit treason and is betrayed by his king and Tywin is betrayed and murdered by his sons, Jaime for freeing Tyrion and Tyrion for committing the deed. The question is whether Daenery
    • No doubt. I see this as yet another side project that will further delay the books. I haven't even read the last one yet, even though I bought it the first week it was out.
    • If you go to his website, he has a large number of awesome reading selections to tide you over until Winter comes. I would also recommend trying out the Wildcards collection for something completely different.

    • I saw this on someone's blog:

      "Every time someone asks when the next book is coming out, GRRM kills another Stark."

      It explains a lot.

  • *sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sibko ( 1036168 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @06:08AM (#27949023)
    I sure don't have high hopes for this one. At least the tv-series has a small chance of getting the characters and drama right. [Assuming the networks don't decide to remove the incest and childkilling, and so on.] But I highly doubt videogame developers are going to focus on anything but violence, violence, violence with this. Doing anything else is going to require some thought, effort, and risk-taking as the primary draw of ASOIAF has much more to do with character interactions and political intrigue than straight up and up killing things.

    It'll probably end up similar to the three hack n' slash Lord of the Rings games on the Xbox - Gameplay might be fun, but you could remove the setting entirely and not make a difference. Personally, I think the best style for this game would be something more akin to King of Dragon Pass. [a-sharp.com]

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by think_nix ( 1467471 )

      tfa:

      "Development on a game for PC and "next-gen consoles" has begun, and George R. R. Martin will help out"

      so maybe wont be so bad after all eh? I guess as long as Mr Martin has some say so , or rather put Cyanide lets him.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by ThisIsForReal ( 897233 )
        That means it's being developed for the Playstation 4 and the Xbox 720, and perhaps the Wii 2.0, unless by "next generation" they mean the devices that came out 3-4 years ago.

    • [Assuming the networks don't decide to remove the incest and childkilling, and so on.]

      They will, I'm sure :P

      But I highly doubt videogame developers are going to focus on anything but violence, violence, violence with this.

      Could be an RTS... The Game of Thrones board came was pretty good (at least before they came out with the Clash of Kings expansion with the imba-as-hell Unique House Orders...)

  • What sort of game is it going to be? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Daedra ( 119144 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @06:11AM (#27949035)

    Cyanide studio (http://www.cyanide-studio.com/) has previously published mostly sports games, although they currently got a Blood Bowl esque RTS -game in develoment along with a cartoonty MMO called "Dungeon Party".

    I'm personally bit wary of this SoI&F game they've announced, as their track record of games doesn't really fit in too well with what I'd hope from a SoI&F game. I think something like A Sharp's King of Dragon Pass could well enhance the Soi&F exprience far better.

    Still, I guess Cyanide has displayed ability to jump genres with their new productions, so pretty much anything is possible from the SoI&F game?

  • Subgames? (Score:3, Funny)

    by mcnazar ( 1231382 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @06:22AM (#27949071)

    Will there be sub-games/mini-games for the following:

    * Braid pulling.
    * Adjusting ones dress.
    * Complex embroidery design? Maybe have a web portal where other players can design complex dresses. Dress design will be rated by the length and detail of descriptions (minimum description 3000 words or one chapter). MMO even?

    Excellent franchise to choose as both the TV series and games can produce multitudes of series/upgrades with no conclusion to plot or story.

    A Tip for anyone contemplating reading the whole series. After book three, skip every twenty pages.

  • Song Of Fire ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by ghillo ( 635201 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @06:26AM (#27949095)
    It is Duke Nukem Forever among the fantasy cycles.
    If you don't count The Wheel of Time, but that's quite different story.
    • Is it now? Or is it "the hero discovers his inner strength and struggles against the great evil, aided by his three wise women and his two trusty companions"?

      • Is it now? Or is it "the hero discovers his inner strength and struggles against the great evil, aided by his three wise women and his two trusty companions"?

        It might be, if only we could figure out who the hero is. Let me know...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khchung ( 462899 )

      Let's hope this series will actually end in the author's lifetime ....

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I thought you meant an adaptation of 16-bit platformer Fire & Ice... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRAaI5HrDw [youtube.com]

  • The Official RPG (Score:2, Informative)

    by XenoBrain ( 719411 )
    No links to the offical RPG? Is this Slashdot or what?! http://greenronin.com/sifrp/ [greenronin.com] It's Good Stuff(tm). It's almost brand-new too. I wonder if Green Ronin knew that other license talks were underway, because once we get videogames and miniseries, the value of that license is going to shoot through the roof.
  • I was more excited to find out from the article that they are making a PC version of Blood Bowl.

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