I'm curious to know if you had a chance to check out Arcane (possibly my favourite show of 2021). When I think about gaming and TV colliding, I think of the recent spate of IPs transformed into animated shows geared toward adults - e.g., Arcane, DOTA, and if you include tabletop then Critical Role. There's a clear connection between animated video games and animated TV shows (see: all of the animes), so it's interesting to see a turn toward live action video game adaptations (Witcher, now Halo and Last of Us).
Otherwise, agreed about how the mechanics of gaming don't always lend themselves well to explaining an entirely new and underpowered main character in a sequel. But one place where video game narrative can do something I would love to see television tackle (though I don't know if it can) is in the Visual Novel (and to a lesser degree, RPG) space - where a single game contains maybe half a dozen different versions of the same story, and even more endings, based on pivotal choices. For example, if you decide to date one character, or choose to side with a particular faction, the story and the world expand in different directions. It's about concurrent storytelling - where all options are available from the start, but you experience the fullness of the world (and the twists and turns) by playing through different story paths with no particular order needed. Sometimes, what you learn in one playthrough informs how you play through the next section. Sometimes you need to beat a certain path to continue on another. Etc.
First of all, Witcher is NOT a video game adaptation technically speaking, so let's not get Netflix's lawyers involved here. :P
But yes, I'll be curious how Arcane's success might, for instance, lead Netflix to think less about "How can we turn video game I.P. into an enormously expensive prestige drama" and more "what can we put out on the cheap" under their current circumstances. And no, I didn't get to Arcane at all—no investment in the I.P., and just too much to get to.
I do think that the Interactive programming Netflix was pushing into could easily connect to the Until Dawn/Telltale space pretty easily, and they released an interactive version of the Minecraft Story Mode on Netflix, I think? But I do wonder about ways to find ways to channel that energy into TV, and if the current streaming ecosystem encourages that kind of creativity or not.
I have no investment in League of Legends at all - which is why I was completely shocked by how good Arcane was (and would still strongly recommend it, maybe for a rainy day :P). It’s a stunningly directed action movie, a tragic and well-paced character study, a critique of inequality, and more! It even heard the ‘Binge vs. Weekly Release’ debate and met everyone halfway by dropping three episodes a week for three weeks.
For me the biggest thing was how much thoughtfulness went into the art direction connecting the characters' inner worlds to the visual style and music. Just one example - there's this moment in S1E05 titled Everybody Wants to be my Enemy (lyrics from Arcane’s intro) where the intro is being performed by a band in the 'slums' diegetically. The lyrics represent central themes of the show, characters are at turning points, and as the scene shifts from the live performance to characters elsewhere (outside of the slums), it echoes distantly until it fades away, forgotten by those who can afford to forget.
(Also, hahaha, oops - forgot about the Witcher books 😅).
I'm curious to know if you had a chance to check out Arcane (possibly my favourite show of 2021). When I think about gaming and TV colliding, I think of the recent spate of IPs transformed into animated shows geared toward adults - e.g., Arcane, DOTA, and if you include tabletop then Critical Role. There's a clear connection between animated video games and animated TV shows (see: all of the animes), so it's interesting to see a turn toward live action video game adaptations (Witcher, now Halo and Last of Us).
Otherwise, agreed about how the mechanics of gaming don't always lend themselves well to explaining an entirely new and underpowered main character in a sequel. But one place where video game narrative can do something I would love to see television tackle (though I don't know if it can) is in the Visual Novel (and to a lesser degree, RPG) space - where a single game contains maybe half a dozen different versions of the same story, and even more endings, based on pivotal choices. For example, if you decide to date one character, or choose to side with a particular faction, the story and the world expand in different directions. It's about concurrent storytelling - where all options are available from the start, but you experience the fullness of the world (and the twists and turns) by playing through different story paths with no particular order needed. Sometimes, what you learn in one playthrough informs how you play through the next section. Sometimes you need to beat a certain path to continue on another. Etc.
First of all, Witcher is NOT a video game adaptation technically speaking, so let's not get Netflix's lawyers involved here. :P
But yes, I'll be curious how Arcane's success might, for instance, lead Netflix to think less about "How can we turn video game I.P. into an enormously expensive prestige drama" and more "what can we put out on the cheap" under their current circumstances. And no, I didn't get to Arcane at all—no investment in the I.P., and just too much to get to.
I do think that the Interactive programming Netflix was pushing into could easily connect to the Until Dawn/Telltale space pretty easily, and they released an interactive version of the Minecraft Story Mode on Netflix, I think? But I do wonder about ways to find ways to channel that energy into TV, and if the current streaming ecosystem encourages that kind of creativity or not.
I have no investment in League of Legends at all - which is why I was completely shocked by how good Arcane was (and would still strongly recommend it, maybe for a rainy day :P). It’s a stunningly directed action movie, a tragic and well-paced character study, a critique of inequality, and more! It even heard the ‘Binge vs. Weekly Release’ debate and met everyone halfway by dropping three episodes a week for three weeks.
For me the biggest thing was how much thoughtfulness went into the art direction connecting the characters' inner worlds to the visual style and music. Just one example - there's this moment in S1E05 titled Everybody Wants to be my Enemy (lyrics from Arcane’s intro) where the intro is being performed by a band in the 'slums' diegetically. The lyrics represent central themes of the show, characters are at turning points, and as the scene shifts from the live performance to characters elsewhere (outside of the slums), it echoes distantly until it fades away, forgotten by those who can afford to forget.
(Also, hahaha, oops - forgot about the Witcher books 😅).