Video (games) Haven't Killed the Mo-oo-vie Star...or the TV Star, or Table Top Gaming, or...

Today's Gamasutra has an excellent interview with game developer Peter Molyneux which accurately describes the impact the gaming industry has had on other media, particularly film The verdict? You have to read between the lines, because Molyneux is talking more about gaming's success than its effects on other media directly, is that gaming is a large marketplace, but hasn't taken the place of other media when it comes to entertainment.

I'm as fond of anyone when it comes to telling screenwriters and other entertainment creators that gaming has effected the box office and tv ratings, though likely less than internet piracy in my opinion. In fact, I have a "conversation tape" I like to repeat mantra-esque to demonstrate how big gaming has become. "Do you ever wonder why NBC Universal feels like they are in such a position of power when they negotiate? It's because they have the equivalent of a $140 million blockbuster every month with World of Warcraft." Gaming matters, but those who see "doom and gloom" on the horizon for other media are also missing the point. Have a look at some of Peter's comments:

PM: I would say, to a great extent, we in the development community have really let this industry down. Because I wouldn't say there were exponentially more people playing computer games today than there were when Game Developers Conference first started. Fifteen years ago? Twenty years ago? It's been quite a while.

When it seems to me that the number of people that use computer games as entertainment isn't getting exponentially bigger. Although the market is getting bigger, and we're selling eight million units.

But I've been really thinking about, I remember back in the early eighties... when Clive Sinclair in England released the Sinclair Spectrum. And he famously said, "Every home in Britain will have one of these, and people won't watch television anymore, they will play computer games." That was a dream that was put forth in the seventies, when this thing had 1K of RAM -- and for a little while, we all believed that.

Now, there seems to be this big barrier that exists. And I was actually just in the shops, down here -- I'd forgotten to bring a shirt -- and I was talking to the bloke who's selling me a shirt, and he said: "Aw, I don't play computer games. Because I'm not good enough. I can't get my head round this thing. [Molyneux holds up an Xbox 360 controller.] Every time I do it, I hit my head against a wall." Now that's a huge failure. That's our failure. For not being really, truly as big as movies. Because we're not. Because we only sell -- what do we sell? Eight million?

What is amazing about Molyneux's comments isn't that he's correct that gaming is "not really, truly as big as movies." It's that he's wrong. Look at the figure he uses regarding the number of units sold, eight million. Let that number sink in for a minute. He plans on selling eight million copies of FABLE 2, and he doesn't see himself as big as the film industry. Apparently, he doesn't realize that a movie with eight million viewers has approximately an $80 million box office (likely more since I don't really know where I can see a movie for only $10.00). When you add that video games cost four times as much as films, and the fact that most gamers are likely also movie goers, it would be fair to assume that gaming has already had its impact on film going. And what is that result? According to Variety, "All in all, the 2007 box office was up 5% over 2006, while admissions were up 1%. So far this year, the B.O. is running 9% ahead of the same frame in 2007, fueled by the continued success of "Legend" and "Alvin" along with a solid crop of 2008 films, including "Juno," the highest-performing specialty pic in six years."

That's right "admissions were up 1%." Never forget that all the doom and gloom regarding theater attendance during the past few years has been in comparison to a year that had a record high box office.

So with video games having already become as successful as films, eight million units is like $80 million B.O. (except that it's actually $320 million in sales, $160 for the game maker), the number of people watching films in theaters has increased. The same can be seen in the board game industry as well. While individual sales of some board games have decreased, we are in a boom of available games. The largest problem with the board game market is how fragmented it's become, there are too many publishers publishing too many titles. Take a visit to Board Game Geek and look only at the games released in 2007, compare those to 1997. The same even applies to role playing games.

Chirp, Chirp...Waaaah! The Twins Have Arrived.

You may be noticing it's been a little quiet around here lately. Maybe you were overwhelmed by the sound of chirping crickets. Maybe you were wondering if the Cinerati blog had gone the way of the dinosaur.

Fear not noble readers.

While it is true that there has been a disturbance in the Force, it is a positive one. I, Christian Johnson, your humble host here at Cinerati am now the proud father of lovely twin girls. My daughters, Mystery Lindke and History Lindke, were born on March 24th at 10:45 and 10:46 respectively. Mystery was born hale and hearty, but History had a little trouble catching her breath and had to spend a few days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Everything is fine, she was suffering from a common respiratory complication, but it did make for a few hectic days shuffling around and trying to make sure my family was doing alright.

Hence, no posting. The girls are more beautiful than I ever imagined they could be, especially since everyone says they look like me, and I am overjoyed to have them home. They are so adorable, I don't even mind the lack of sleep...but you can ask me about that again in two months or so.

I have to admit that I am pretty excited about the March 24th birthdate as now I can sing a special birthday song to my little girls every year. I'm sure they'll be sick of it in their teens, but as all SINGIN' IN THE RAIN fans know March 24th is Don's lucky day. These girls will be lucky if everyday doesn't start, "Good Mornin', Good Mornin' We've talked the whole night through. Good Mornin'. Good Mornin' to you."

This seems like an opportune time to make another announcement as well. You may have noticed that the little girls have their mother's last name. As of May 23rd, I will too. Jody and I have talked for years about me taking her name, but it was the arrival of the twins that made us finally pony up the cash to pay for the court costs.

I will be sending emails to friends with pictures of my little minions later this week. Since posting things on "teh interwebs" is not at all private, I won't be posting any pictures to the site. So those of you who want pictures, mention it in the comments section and make sure you include an email address.

Watchmen Costumes Revealed and Other Random Geekery

Over at WatchmenComicMovie.com they have pictures of the cast of THE WATCHMEN movie in costume. The images were posted on the WB site at 11:55 PM last night, that's a easter egg for all you fans out there, and are quickly spreading through the internet.

I wish I were more excited about this production. Zack Snyder is directing, which bodes well. But this is still THE WATCHMEN we are talking about. It's the book that comic snobs use to praise themselves for being fans of an "art form." Here's a sample of dialog with one of these bozos:

ME: "Hey fellow comic fan, what books are you currently reading?"
COMIC SNOB: "Warren Ellis' new book, that new thing by Neil Gaiman, something edgy by Garth Ennis, the latest Grant Morrison, a bunch of indies, and I just picked up the ABSOLUTE WATCHMEN."
ME: "That's cool. How is the new Grant Morrison book, I find him to be hit or miss. ANIMAL MAN was great, but his JUSTICE LEAGUE left me flat -- as did his DOOM PATROL. He just seems to have no feel for straight books, or how to do camp without it being parody."
COMIC SNOB: "WTF?! How dare you question the great Grant Morrison. Next thing you'll be trashing on WATCHMEN, which is indisputably the best piece of writing in the latter 20th century and one of the best works of political philosophy to date."
ME: "I thought it was okay, but I think that Steve Ditko would take issue with the fact that Moore made Mr.A/The Question into an insane person. I still prefer the old Charlton tales that Moore based the Watchmen characters on. As for the political philosophy...you're kidding right? I mean taking a stereotypical 60s doomsday clock vs. the aliens story isn't exactly deep analysis, and his twisting of Objectivism is laughable."
COMIC SNOB: "You obviously don't know what you are talking about. You can keep your Keith Giffen written JUSTICE LEAGUE, I'll read literature."

WATCHMEN is the cool book to like and the sentiments that many of the snobs who like it have result in things like JT LeRoy and other manipulators of the "cool." The comic book literati, and the real literati who like WATCHMEN, are just too much for me. There's some rebellious part of my soul that wants to tell these pretentious boobs, who likely prefer Lichtenstein to Russ Heath, where they can stick their "graphic novel." I'll just open my long box, pull out the 12 issues and read the comic book.

As a comic book, WATCHMEN is great. As a "piece of literature," I'll stick to Chesterton and Faulkner. As a work of "political philosophy," I'll stick to Hegel, Marx, Strauss, Plato, and Rand.

All that said, I really do like WATCHMEN. I even actually believe it is of artistic and literary merit. I think it is genuinely great...though that ending is a little to John W. Campbell formulaic. As long as things like AVENGERS FOREVER, or better yet INVINCIBLE, are being overlooked in favor of something ideologically trapped in the Cold War cynicism of the 80s, I'll keep my own pretentious rejection of pretense.

It's the same reason I like Michael Chabon, but don't like most of his fans. They seem to want to be hip by liking "the best," but they lack the genuine desire for fun of a "real" fan.

I sincerely hope, and think, that WATCHMEN will be a good comic book movie. Peter Cannon -- Thunderbolt's costume, I mean Ozymandias's, looks great, but why is the OWL so thin?

My credo? "Down with Graphic Novels! Up with Comic Books!"

Alea Iacta Est: Ernest Gary Gygax ( July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008)

For geeks like me, today is a day of great sadness. E Gary Gygax, co-creator with Dave Arneson of the Dungeons and Dragons game, died this morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

As I wrote, it is a sad day for me. After all, this man created a game that provided me with untold hours of entertainment, a game that introduced me to great literature (and horrible drivel), a game that helped me form life long friendships. Because of this man's creation, my life (and many others) were made better and more enjoyable. My prayers go out to Gary's family, especially his wife Gail.

Surfing the internet today and reading people write about Gary has been a very nice experience. It seems that today is the day when no gamers are fighting. The grognards and the noobs are consoling each other for the loss. It's nice, if not a little surprising. As one might guess from reading Matt Forbeck's entry on the topic, Gary Gygax was a bit of a controversial figure within the gaming community. Not because the community wasn't thankful for his contribution, rather because of his disdain for others in the field and his temper at those who continued his legacy. Gary didn't really like others "improving" on his creation. To be fair no one would expect him to, but those of us who have moved on from Gary's truly original creation to later "refinements" have had to endure venomous comments from Gary and his most ardent admirers. To be honest more from the admirers than from Gary, but Gary gave his share as well.

It seems that every gamer worth his or her salt has a Gary Gygax story, and I envy those that do their stories. I have no "when I met Gary story." Instead, I have a when I "almost" met Gary story.

You see...last April I was on a trip for work in eastern Wisconsin -- Racine to be specific, and I decided I wanted to do two things. First, I wanted to watch a baseball game in Wrigley field. I am a huge Cubs fan, and there is no better place to watch baseball. Second, I wanted to tour Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the birthplace of gaming in America. Trust me. Whether you play modern boardgames, video games, collectible card games, or role playing games, the game you are playing likely has some connection to the gaming movement started in that small Wisconsin town.

So I drove to Lake Geneva and toured all of the locations that once housed the offices of TSR, the company that published D&D. Then finally, I stood in front of Gary's house and took about 10 pictures from across the street. It was relatively early in the evening and I contemplated walking up to the door and knocking, just to tell Gary how much entertainment his game has provided me over the past three decades. I walked up to the cars parked in front of the house (pictured below), but then I thought..."what if it is the wrong house?"


What if I walk up to the door, knock and ask for Gary and it's the wrong house? What if it's the right house? What kind of crazy stalker gamer knocks on a game designer's door uninvited?

So...I walked to the library, took a couple of pictures of the beautiful lake, walked around the small downtown area, and left. I was angry at myself for not emailing/message boarding Gary earlier, or later, and I promised myself that I would do so when I next traveled to the Wisconsin or Chicago area.

That day cannot come now.

God bless you Gary.

My group and I will have a moment of silence this weekend and I think we'll even do a small reading from one of the books you wrote. We all need to push through a little Gygaxian prose every now and then. Maybe I'll open up "Master of the Game," or read the introduction to the Player's Handbook (1st edition) one more time. That introduction made me feel like I was part of something special, even before I rolled my first die.

Gary Gygax has passed

Gary Gygax the creator of Dungeons and Dragons has died at the age of 69. Personally, I am a little sad at this news, it is like part of my childhood slipping away. In a small way the world won't be the same.

4th Edition D&D The Movie: Ching Siu-tung's "The Empress and the Warriors"

My friends and I used to say that SWORDSMAN II starring Jet Li was the perfect movie to watch before our weekly D&D 2nd edition game. If THE EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS (starring the awesome Donnie Yen of HERO and lives up to this preview, it may well become the defining D&D style movie for me.

One might ask why SWORDSMAN II is the perfect D&D movie, and not a more "literary" or "important" Wuxia film or a high quality western fantasy film like LORD OF THE RINGS. It's really quite simple. There are a lot of wonderful, and serious, wuxia films that contain great plots, great acting, and stylized action. Classics like LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY or BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR come to mind, as do more recent films like CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and HERO as examples of serious wuxia films worth watching many times. There are also quite a few excellent fantasy movies in the western canon, like EXCALIBUR, but they all lack the one element that makes SWORDSMAN II perfect for inspiring D&D play. They lack the element of playfulness.

I don't know if the playfulness of SWORDSMAN II is intentional, or if it is a legacy of Jet Li's winning smile, but the film has this quality in spades. The playfulness isn't present in THE EAST IS RED, SWORDSMAN's sequel which also stars Li, a film that contains a wonderfully tragic narrative. From the opening moments when the protagonist is running on the tops of wheat stalks, using "sword energy" to cleave horses in two, to the final fight against the Eunich sorcerer where a character uses a cannon barrel like a quarterstaff SWORDSMAN II is sublimely excessive. Which is exactly what I want my D&D games to be.

Yes, interactive storytelling is a central part of the role playing experience, but so too is fun and SWORDSMAN II is fun.

To be fair SWORDSMAN II is also whimsical, which isn't the necessary component. All I need is a larger than life narrative that is fun to inspire a great day of game play. If THE EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS ends up a serious film, like CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, I will still enjoy it, but that will mean that my search for the next great D&D inspiration -- much needed given that 4th edition D&D is coming soon -- will continue. I like to find a film to define play for each edition of D&D, and I hope this one is it for the new edition.

Hat tip to friend and HK/Bollywood expert David Chute for the preview.

Conan and Jem: Christy Marx on Geekerati

What do CONAN: THE ADVENTURER

and JEM

have in common?

Christy Marx was a Writer and Story Editor on both of these animated series (and a whole host of others. Listen to last week's Geekerati episode as she talks about these shows and her career as a television, animation, comic book, and video game writer. You can also visit her website to find some great advice if you are looking to become a writer in the television, animation, comic book, or video game fields.