Letters to the Editor

Playing for Keeps

In response to "Uwe Boll and the German Tax Code" form The Escapist Forum: While that may sound weird it's old news. Uwe Boll promotes this concept since day 1 and has never made it a secret.

I may not appreciate his films but I have to say that I like the guy in a "Ed Wood"-esque sense. I've seen several interviews with Uwe Boll and I think he loves films and does what he thinks "he does best".

Also financially his movies prove very successful when released on dvd/vhs.

- retronaut

In response to "The Sincerest Form of Imitation" from The Escapist Forum: While I don't think anyone can dispute games being derivative works, it seems like [the author] painted with some pretty broad strokes claiming that almost all games are Hollywood gone interactive. We all know that fantasy games are inspired by D&D/Tolkien and sports games are based on, well, sports, but claiming that all the others are beholden to movies for inspiration doesn't seem fair to some of the extremely creative games we've seen over the years.

It's hard to attribute simulation games like SimCity or Black & White to any particular genre of film (thankfully! "Urban Planning: The Movie" doesn't sound like a blockbuster). And while the genre is nearly dead, graphical adventures often demonstrated narratives and storytelling that outstrip that vast majority of box office offerings. There are few films that have been as resonant or personal as the story of April Ryan in The Longest Journey. The aesthetic, art direction and sheer creativity of the Lucasarts graphic adventures, especially Grim Fandango, is at a level most Hollywood films can't even aspire to. Does Super Mario Sunshine have a cinematic analog? Psychonauts? (probably one of the most underrated games of the last 2 or 3 years) Pikmin? Amplitude? There are a host of titles who take creativity to levels that most films can't even imagine. I suppose the real tragedy is that there are so many more than don't.

If [the author's] claims are that most action-based games, especially those of the FPS and RTS milieu, are more or less lockstep with cinema, I'm perfectly inclined to agree. His classification was dead-on and the list (especially Aliens) was excellent. But saying that all games, except for fantasy RPGs and sports, are derived from film seems to be selling short the creativity of Sid Meyer, Will Wright, Shigeru Miyamoto and countless others. I think they deserve more credit than that.