09 October 2012

Sound Off! Books or Movies


Do you prefer to read about key military events of the past? Or watch the movies?

Justify yourself below, reader!

By: Brant

4 comments:

Brian said...

As usual it goes both ways. I read a book, I'll want to see a movie about it. I see a movie, I'm often driven to pick up a book or even two.

But both are lacking in comparison to games - no matter how many times I see the movie or read the book, it always ends the same way!

Jack Nastyface said...

Movies for a visceral experience...books for an intellectual one...both are capable of eliciting an emotional response.

Brain's comment about things always ending "the same way" is great comment! Game designer Wil Wright (of Sims fame) once wrote that games expand the "possibility space" of a narrative. Without games, considering "what if" scenarios is limited to personal contemplation, art, or perhaps dialogue and the written article..all mostly "static" medium. It is only through the dynamic, responsive world of gaming can we explore and experience alternative endings and outcomes. What if Picket hadn't charge across the wheatfield? What if Luke had joined his father and the Emperor to rule the galaxy? What happens when you take on 7 men when you only have a six gun?

These questions fall under the compelling realm of gaming.

Jack Nastyface

Brian said...

Thanks Jack, exploring the "possibility space" is why I started designing games....

mad_max_usmc said...

Books, always. Movies are invariably forced to consolidate material and take shortcuts in order to fit some producer's idea of what their run time should be; they also routinely sensationalize, usually with special effects of some sort,combat actions in order to appeal to a wider audience.

Then there's the realism factor. Try as I might, I can't watch a military movie without muttering constantly "That's not the way it happened", or "That's not how they do things". My wife, a fellow ex-jarhead, puts up with me; most of my friends won't.