Forum • Gaming • General Gaming

Cross-Media Gaming

  • Page

    of 1

    Previous Next
  • Gearskin 10 Feb 2013 20:36:15 1,987 posts
    Seen 1 day ago
    Registered 7 years ago
    With Dead Space 3 hitting shop shelves this past Friday, I was wondering how many of you invest in the franchises which utilise cross-media.

    "Dead Space" is covered in multiple games, across multiple platforms, with a story that is further expanded upon through animated films, novels and comics.

    The same can be said of Halo, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, to name a few. Some complain that they shouldn't have to heavily invest in order to get the whole story. Some argue that the core games themselves should be able to cover everything.

    I'm not so sure. I think the worlds/universes these developers are now capable of making are often big enough and interesting enough to warrant vast exploration.

    Is it something you embrace?
  • graysonavich 10 Feb 2013 20:41:25 4,504 posts
    Seen 6 hours ago
    Registered 3 years ago
    I prefer my lore to be in-game, but then I normally play games that last more than a weekend.
  • mal 10 Feb 2013 20:47:24 20,713 posts
    Seen 4 hours ago
    Registered 11 years ago
    Never read a tie in book or comic. Not seen a tie-in movie since Super Mario Bros to the best of my knowledge. Don't see the point of it to be honest - I like my games to be interactive, and my books and films to have decent stories.

    Cubby didn't know how to turn off sigs!

  • bad09 10 Feb 2013 21:07:15 4,809 posts
    Seen 11 hours ago
    Registered 6 years ago
    I see it as waste of time and tend to ignore most of it. I did see the Dead Space animations and they were OK but pretty forgettable, especially the 2nd one, and added absolutely nothing to the game.

    Still some people like that sort of thing so let them spend on it, as long as I get a complete story in the game not missing bits or confusing because I didn't read some comic or watch some crap straight to DVD thing I'm not bothered by it either way.

    Edited by bad09 at 21:07:53 10-02-2013
  • DFawkes 10 Feb 2013 21:27:22 19,601 posts
    Seen 4 hours ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    I was hoping this was a Defiance thread. I loves me some Defiance :)

    For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of cross media stuff. Some of the Halo books are really good, though some are terrible so it can be hard to do properly. The main for me is that the extended universe introduced in the other thing (be it books, web based minigames, animated film or whatever else) shouldn't be necessary to understand the games - the game should be self-contained.

    I'm not entirely sure that's the case for the likes of Halo 4 and the Halo books about the Forerunners. Heck, they even made the use of Halo Waypoint mandatory to watch all the videos you unlock in the game! In most cases though, other media is just a bonus.

    Which brings me to Defiance, which is something intended to be cross media from day one. The game and the TV show both take place in different places, but it's a shared universe so characters come and go between them. Some of the main characters start off in the game, then go off to the show. The alien races are all humanoid for obvious budgetary reasons, but also because they realised at the conceptual stage it'd create balance issues to have a major variation - imagine an MMO with a race of oddjob's from Goldeneye ;)

    Should be interesting to see how it goes, even if it fails.

    Edited by DFawkes at 21:29:46 10-02-2013

    Kirby is the man! Even if he wasn't, he'd just ingest and become one.

  • Kostabi 10 Feb 2013 21:37:21 3,966 posts
    Seen 7 hours ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    I quite like the extra fluff some games can generate and I'm a fan of using books, comics or even other platforms to expand the universe. What I'm not a fan of is when it gets shoehorned in ME3 style where you almost feel forced to play another game just to progress in the one you're currently invested in.

    So long as each item can standalone I'm in favour of it.
  • GuiltySpark 10 Feb 2013 21:59:18 5,990 posts
    Seen 7 hours ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    It depends whether or not it is worth it. I'd rather it not move into comics territory, where an event forces you to purchase comics you wouldn't otherwise buy.

    But really, Dead Space's story is fairly throwaway anyway. I'm not saying there isn't lots of story, there possibly is, I'm saying that it's not very good - something that can be said for many, many games.

    Get bent.

  • Bremenacht 10 Feb 2013 22:13:40 11,697 posts
    Seen 10 hours ago
    Registered 6 years ago
    Gearskin wrote:
    Is it something you embrace?
    No. I believe you can fit everything you need into the game. I figure all the other stuff is marketing people who just don't know where to stop. A tidal wave of crap (or even stuff that isn't crap) doesn't add anything to a game for me - it just takes away.
  • meme 10 Feb 2013 22:19:26 15,872 posts
    Seen 9 minutes ago
    Registered 5 years ago
    Multimedia shit is just annoying, and little more than a way to sell more merchandise. It's also far from unique to videogames. Even boardgames are getting "lore" novels nowadays that explain why X is like Y without having to bother with any internal cohesion.

    Edited by meme at 22:19:40 10-02-2013

    GHOSTBUSTERS

  • Gearskin 10 Feb 2013 23:46:32 1,987 posts
    Seen 1 day ago
    Registered 7 years ago
    I would sight "Dead Space: Martyr" as a perfect example of something too big, in of itself, to be relegated to an in-game text/video log.

    For one, the story it tells is unknown within the core timeline in which the games are set. For two, it paints a different light on something ultimately very important within the Dead Space universe.

    It was different when games were simple, but nowadays they can be as complex as any other form of entertainment.
  • Oh-Bollox 11 Feb 2013 00:00:28 5,048 posts
    Seen 2 days ago
    Registered 6 years ago
    I'd be in favour of it, if any of it was any good. It rarely is.

    To take Dead Space as an example: the films aren't very good. I remember the animation in the second one ranging from the good to the shit, and the mix of styles was jarring. Even in the first one, the average standard was far higher, but sometimes it looked shockingly cheap, and then go back to looking quite nice.

    Dead Space Ignition was shite, the dev claimed it wasn't a game when it reviewed poorly (IIRC).

    Tie-in novels as a whole tend to be crap, because you get the same circle of journeyman novelists doing work for hire and knocking it out at speed, often working from a universe primer, not having played the games themselves. It's not a writer being inspired by the game, it'sa writer to a story outline from a mong. The writer doesn't give two hoots if it's shite, they're not seeing any of the profits.

    The challenge is, how do you go about creating a cohesive whole from so many different projects in different mediums, made by creative people who can't always stay on the side of the line you want them on, if you want them to do their best work.

    The games I've played (DS, DS2, Extraction), I've really enjoyed. The rest of the media that has been produced has been lacking.

    Edited by Oh-Bollox at 00:06:22 11-02-2013

  • Page

    of 1

    Previous Next
Log in or register to reply