Video games are art, they invoke emotion. Their stories are impactful, the graphics keep getting better, and the mechanics are always getting smoother. Sure, there are a few bad apples in the bunch but that doesn’t take away from the love gamers have for video games. Gamers are ready to pre-order games and ready to play them the second they are released. For a period, that game is at the center of their lives. It’s this passion that is heard by other platforms. Comic books often get involved, borrow the IP, and expand the lore, but the biggest one is Hollywood. When a game continues to get bigger, Hollywood wants in. That, however, makes gamers and fans of the lore, cautious. Films based on video games have been drastically and unfortunately inconsistent. It seems to be a problem that Hollywood can’t solve. That’s because there is a bond between the gamer and the character that a movie just cannot replicate.
Movies based on comic books and books have found success on the big screens. The Avengers movies captivated the entire world and The Lord of the Rings films are arguably the best movies of all time, or at least the best trilogy of all time. Fans continue to go back to them. But there isn’t really a movie that fans of video games flock to. Maybe a few which are campy, cult-following movies, movies that are so bad they’re good like the early Mortal Kombat films. But everything else seems like fans to forget. The poor quality is not the fault of the fans. It is the shortcomings of the creative team behind those movies. They seem to overlook why games are so beloved and so respected. If a film is based on a book or comic book, the events within them, that inspired the film, are forever as they are. No matter who reads these scenes – a fan, writer, director – those scenes are given to everybody. It’s a passive experience. But that isn’t the case for video games. Gamers have to work to get the story going, have to put in time, and put in effort to know the character and to know the world. It’s the gamers that have to choose how fast they want to progress. Decide how they want to tackle parts of a game. A gamer’s personal skill is a huge part of how they participate in a game. Sure, if it’s a narrative game, all gamers will see the same story but which weapon they use, which suit, which character, which order they do side missions, which playstyle, and which set of combos all add to their own personal experience with the game. That’s something that the creative team in the movie has to compete with and it’s a tough mission.
It’s inevitable that scenes from a movie will be discussed outside the theater. When that film is based on established IPs and beloved characters, of course, there are going to be scenes that make fans go bonkers, or when fans read those scenes and those characters, they get similar reactions. Those scenes are destined to be talked about. A fan will tell a friend “Then Batman did this”, “Goku went Super Saiyan”, or “Legolas shot killed more Orcs.” Those moments are always referenced in the third person. Despite the sheer love for that character, fans always refer to them in the third person. That is not the case with video games, those moments are referred to in the first person. It’s not “Master Chief dropped from the ship”, it’s “I jumped from the ship.” It’s not “Kratos went back to get the Blades of Chaos,” it’s “I went back to get the Blades of Chaos”. It’s not “Batman had to go down to Killer Croc’s lair,” it’s “I had to go down to Killer Croc’s lair”. There is a personal, intimate connection between the gamer and the character. The gamer controls the character and the gamer’s plans are the character’s plans. The gamer’s wishes are the character’s wishes. The gamer’s decisions are the character’s decisions. The gamer has at their disposal how they want the character to appear, which weapons they get, which armor, which traits, which cars, and which path. Gamers are the characters because gamers are at the helm of these characters, they devote a part of themselves to the characters. Games could make people feel like soldiers, Batman, the God of War, or a stray cat. There’s this small sense of a gamer infusing themselves in a character and no movie, no matter how great that movie is, can’t replicate that. Each gamer that goes into that movie, has their own experience with the character, on top of the overall, consensus of how the character should be portrayed. That aspect only exists in a game. It only exists in that medium which shows that certain stories should only exist in certain platforms.
It’s easy to see something that has so much love and want to do something to expand on it. Yet, what isn’t considered all that much is exactly why that thing has the love it has. That’s where it could be pointless to adapt something. Video games are much more than visual and audio entertainment. It is an experience that genuinely gives gamers an exciting experience because they are that character for all the hours they put into the game. Now, there are film and television shows that have done the source material well. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Last of Us, and Fallout have done good but with dozens of games that have the potential to be adapted into a film, their fate is yet to come to the big screen. There needs to be respect for the source material. Fans of the games may be in the writer’s room when the film/show is made, but they need to be surrounded by people who respect the game and understand the bond between gamers and characters. Since it is impossible to give the audience to step into the shoes of the character that they see, the least they could do is respect the character and lore without putting anything extra into them that may come from the film studios.
