Can Films Be Made Into Good Online Games?

By Author: Lionel Mepham
Total Articles: 4
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There are many epic fantasy film series which have provided hours of entertaining viewing and a fair few Oscars too! Such films, like the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars series, are hugely popular throughout the world and are usually based on best-selling books. As many fans of Tolkien will tell you, the transformation from novel to silver screen is a difficult enough one to pull off without losing, or ruining, the story and the way it was originally portrayed. But turning a film, or even a book, into a video game or an online game is yet another step; no longer is the audience there to be entertained by the story, it must become a part of the story and be entertained in doing so. This is not easy! However, with a story and 'quests' almost pre-scripted by the course of the film (and / or novel) the flow of the game is not too difficult to develop.

Generally, when thinking of films or novels to turn into online games, especially MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), the fantasy genre is usually the best choice. With folklore, magic, dungeons, dragons and all sorts of other-worldly beings and places ...
... adorning the pages of fantasy novels and being brought to life in their film adaptations, these make an excellent starting point for game material, particularly when considering how entertaining game-play can be woven through the existing story. Sometimes this process happens in reverse; the popular 'Malazan' fantasy series of novels was originally a role-playing online game created by the author who then took all the components and stories of his world and wrote them into an epic series of novels.

Crafting and controlling the game-play so that it is varied, entertaining and continuous whilst staying within the bounds of the lore, reality and plot of the original films and books is one of the trickiest parts of making a successful game from a popular series. When trying to achieve this for a MMORPG, usually the film’s settings, characters and plot are kept in aspects of the game world, but the general story lines become far more open-ended, with players being able to customise their virtual characters within the constraints of races and lore rather than having to choose to be a certain character. Often players have a simple choice between 'good or bad' character types at the start of the game and from there the evolution of the character depends on their game-play rather than anything that 'should' have happened from the films / novels.

The social aspect of these online multiplayer games is particularly important for players, especially as many will be ardent fans of the original works that the online game has been based upon. Recognising this, developers are starting to offer more and more free online games that are based on popular novels, TV series or films, like the soon to be released Game of Thrones MMO. With such creative areas giving games developers many ready-made worlds, characters, quest lines and, most importantly, fan bases, such online games will surely become even more popular over the coming years as people seek to play a part in the worlds and stories that they have loved reading about and watching on film.

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