Dopass.com

So, I've been without an internet connection for a couple of weeks now. I have to admit, in the way an addict sheepishly admits he has a problem after almost dying from withdrawal, that it's been a strange couple of weeks for me. Normally, I spend my spare time playing MMOs or playing xbox live, but this past few weeks I've spent a lot more time watching DVDs from my collection and catching up on that reading I kept telling myself I'd do. It's been interesting... and leant me an interesting perspective that I didn't have before.

I own all 10 seasons of Stargate and so I've decided to watch the show again from the beginning, this time with an eye towards how they were produced. It's been sort of fun - there are all sorts of little things you spot if you pay less attention to the actors. They're silly things, like the fact that they use the same extra in half a dozen different parts across 4 or 5 seasons, or the fact that it becomes fairly obvious they produced particular episodes in ways to maximize the assets they used on past episodes (e.g. "We're overbudget. What can you do with that old pyramid set, the guy that played the jaffa last episode, and the glowy pistol thing?"). All of it added up to one thing in my mind:

In terms of quality, there is no difference between the writing in games and the writing on television. It's not good writing that makes a TV show any more than it's great writing that makes a game. However nothing in the world can save you from bad writing. For that matter, both industries are in the middle of a doldrums of creativity - where everything is getting rehashed and remade and "invigorated" instead of pumping out new IP.

Where games differ, of course, is that we're moving out of our doldrums first. 2007 was a great year for new IP and from what I've heard, 2008 will be similar. Can we say the same about movies or television?

Sadly... no.

Which is probably why Hollywood continues to look our way, hoping to find new ways to exploit our market and the IP we've created (I use exploit in the business sense, I mean nothing untoward by it). of course, as Paladin from the wing commander games points out, that doesn't really go well, does it?

- Snipehunter