On the Subject of Gaming, Part Eight: Games as TV Shows and the Like

[elise_rasha]

Hello and happy Friday, everyone! I hope that this day, and the upcoming long weekend, finds you well! If you're heading to a convention this weekend, have fun! I know Dragon*Con is going on this weekend, and it's one of those conventions that's on my to-attend list, along with GenCon, San Diego Comic Con, Anime Expo, YoumaCon, World Fantasy Con, and Comiket. I have a lot of conventions I want to hit up for a lot of reasons.

I'm going to start with I did some baking last night!! Woohoo!!!

I'm stoked about that. I haven't done any baking since before I moved away from Michigan. I think it was after my sister could no longer be a cheerleader because the school cut funding for it that I haven't backed, so right around 2012. It seems like a short amount of time, though, but I know I haven't done any baking in quite a while. I just did some basic chocolate chip cookies, following the recipe on the back of the bag. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to doing more for my entertainment snacking!

Second, I received my first comment on doing research in the gaming world. I actually knew when I wrote that post that it was bound to upset someone who loves the Valkyrie Profile franchise. I was told I couldn't prove that tri-Ace hadn't done any research and that the characters involved are loose interpretations.

I realize that these are loose interpretations. In fact, they're way loose, and I attribute all of this to the amount of research I've done into the Norse pantheon since 2012, since watching the Avengers: Assemble film. Until that point, I hadn't really gotten into the Norse nor into comics, I used to collect some when I was a teenager and in my twenties, but I wasn't into Marvel. I was into Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Speed Racer. Come 2003/2004, when I started attending the main campus for my college, I got into anime and manga, thanks to friends who loved sharing those things with me. I got into Marvel and comics because of the movies. I got into the Norse pantheon because of the movies, and I've also shredded Thor: Ragnarok for what they did wrong when it came to the Norse mythos and histories. My knowledge, my research for my own books and stories, has detracted from this enjoyment. Did I enjoy the Star Ocean: Anamnesis/Valkyrie Profile crossover? Yes. My favorite characters are Freya and Lezard. I love Lezard.He might be the only redeeming thing to pull me completely into Valkyrie Profile. Will I enjoy the story 100%? Probably not because my knowledge will constantly tell me what is wrong with the story because the better handling of that knowledge will enhance my enjoyment. I certainly would not tell any of my friends who grew up in Denmark and Sweden and Germany to lighten up and relax where the Norse gods are concerned. They grew up with these stories. These are the main people I'm writing my Norse stories for, not just the people seeking the popularity behind it, but the people who grew up with these stories handed down to them for generations. It's like telling a Native American to be "okay" with how J.K. Rowling handled her magical system when creating the school of magic for the North American people. It just won't fly.

I also realize that there are people who love Valkyrie Profile. That's okay, too. I love Star Ocean, and there are a lot of people out there who don't. What can I attribute that to? Lousy storytelling and poor character development is why, and I can't expect anyone to change their mind just because I personally enjoyed this series, even as I want to improve it. I'd have to do some research into this, to find out how many games are being churned out per week, per month, per year, but I've gotten the impression that the gaming companies are going more for quantity and making some sacrifices when it comes to development. I've heard about the complaints where the downloadable content for Super Smash Bros is concerned, and I'm wondering if it isn't the beginning of another disturbing trend where creators are forced to churn out content without a rest and recharge period as well as the time to develop a better story. That's just my personal view based on a limited amount of knowledge. If game designers from tri-Ace, Square Enix, Sega, and Nintendo want to reach out to me and tell me otherwise, I more than welcome their dialogue. I have questions for them, anyway!

Bottom line: if there's something wrong with a game's story, the gamer is more likely to notice it. Even Resident Evil has some story to it beyond the whole shooting zombies thing. Not to say there isn't a place for the mindless game play. If  there wasn't, Farmville would have died out a LONG time ago. (Yeah, I used to play that, too.) However, this is primarily an author blog, something I've established to share what I've learned about the writing process, the books I've written and that I am writing, and the things that I enjoy. Gaming is just one thing of many that I love, that I want to explore more of, and I don't expect everyone to agree with me. That's the joy of our individual lives. If I never play Valkyrie Profile again beyond that crossover, it's certainly not my loss. I've simply found something else I've enjoyed more.

Now . . . onto another aspect of the gaming world: TV shows, comics, cartoons, and anime.

If I haven't listed something in this discussion where books and movies as well as today's subject are concerned when it comes to gaming, I do apologize. I don't actively seek out most gaming-based forms of entertainment, and, while I love recommendations, I'm also quite well aware of how particular I can be when it comes to what I read. I go back to when I first purchased The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1, for the Super Nintendo. My stepbrother had played it on the PC, and he'd told me that if it was anything like what he'd played, I wouldn't enjoy it. I'm willing to peruse, I'm willing to give trial runs, and I'm willing to read samples and summaries, but, ultimately, I'm such a fussy person when it comes to what I like for entertainment. I'm also fussy because I have other things I want to do and so much time in a given day to do what I need and what I want. I've come to realize that I can't possibly get to everything that's recommended to me, both asked and freely given. Also, some of it may not be up my alley. That's a "only time will tell" thing.

Moving forward, I know that some games have also been turned into, not movies, not books, but cartoons and anime, manga and doujin. When I was a kid, one of the Saturday morning cartoons I liked to watch (and ultimately got banned - my mom wasn't fully paying attention, and she didn't care for one of the characters whining) was Dungeons and Dragons.

Yes, there was actually a cartoon called that! And it was actually a lot of fun, from what I recall of it. A group of teenagers gets pulled into this other world, they get their class designations (bard, thief, warrior, mage, etc. . .), and they have to journey across this strange world to find their way home.

Sound familiar? If you've read enough fanfiction or perused the fanfiction websites, it's been a theme many writers do, be it in The Avengers or The Lord of the Rings. Whether this cartoon actually started all of this, I can't say, but it's definitely nothing unusual. (The TV shows, Sliders and Quantum Leap, follow the same concept. I can't blame fanfic authors for doing that. I'd love to be in some of these fictional worlds myself sometimes.)

I honestly don't remember how this group of kids got transported to this fantastical realm. That was well over 30 years ago. Other gaming-based cartoons I watched in my youth were The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, and Castlevania. Yes, they went there. That was part of some block where the cartoons didn't fill the usual 30 minute slot, but they were shown in the same vein as You Can't Do That On Television, where you had teen hosts acting out various skits. In this case, the skits were between the different cartoons. I don't know if you can find these on DVD and blu-Ray, but you might be able to search through YouTube or find out if Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime has these. They are preserved somewhere, after all.

One thing that these cartoons did was they didn't necessarily follow the game-play. They were extensions of the story, told in a way that the teenagers of the time could relate. (Yes, as a teenager, I still loved cartoons! Big deal! LOL. The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon was from my childhood. My parents were still together at the time.) I honestly don't know how long they lasted. They might not have lasted a full season. Again, that was almost 30 years ago, and broadcasting companies like CBS paid attention to what got them ratings back then.

The only other game that I personally know of that has enjoyed an animated and manga following is Star Ocean. Mainly, Star Ocean: Second Story, which received the manga and the anime treatment (the anime was called EX), and Till the End of Time received the manga treatment. Star Ocean joins the rest of the gaming games in receiving the doujin, i.e. the fan comic treatment. That isn't to say there aren't others that have received the anime and manga treatment. If you're an avid fan of series, to the point where you collect anything and everything you can get your hands on, you know what's out there. You know what manga and anime has been created, and I say rock on with it!

Oh, and I mustn't forget Pokemon. That, too, has enjoyed, not just video games, but anime, movies, trading cards, you name it. As far as animation goes, I'm including Digimon.

Finally, that leaves TV shows, and the only one to my knowledge that even featured people who loved gaming is the newly ended The Big Bang Theory.

Again, there may be others out there. YouTube and sites like it are abundantly filled with all kinds of creators out there. What I'm noticing that stays insanely popular with the American audiences is what can actually deviate away from their game play and still remain as original. It's a simple observation on my part, but things like Legend of Zelda tend to remain popular as games. That's where mainstream media is concerned, not on fan channels out there. Again, it's a big, wide world, and I've only sampled a few appetizers.

I believe that, if anything is going to make it when it comes to turning a game into a book or a movie or something else visual that only requires us to sit down and enjoy, it can't just be the game's story without the active involvement of the player. It definitely needs more. The secondary media format needs to fill in the things that we don't get to see in the game. Think of it as watching a movie that's gone from running time of ninety minutes to either one-hundred-twenty minutes or one-hundred-eighty. It's everything the writers wanted to put in but couldn't because of time restraints. The other way is to pick up where the game itself left off. What are the characters doing after they've defeated the big bad they were supposed to? I can't say these will guarantee anything 100%, but it's certainly fun to consider the possibilities!

This temporarily concludes this series on gaming. Anything further will probably be more about what I'm playing, what I want to be playing, what I've collected for which series, and fanfiction. Yes, I still write that. Some things are just too much fun to quit writing!

Have a great weekend, everyone!