Hollywood's Bad Influence

GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann Criticizes Video Games For Going All Hollywood On Us

(CBS) 
William: The video game industry beats Hollywood as far as yearly gross goes. Do you think Hollywood's coming to the video game industry going, "Ah, well, you know, the kids all seem to be enjoying this, movies aren't doing so great right now, maybe we should start cherry-picking loved titles and games and franchises and have our way with them?"

Jeff: I think that there is some of that, but it seems like – oh, is his name Uwe Boll? Yeah, he just went around and snatched up a bunch of B- and C-tier video game licenses and then turned out "House Of The Dead" and now is working on "Path Of Destruction." [laughs]

So you've got him out there doing that, and then the whole thing with Microsoft actually going out and shopping around a "Halo" script, which is kind of the opposite of how it sounds like it normally works. But I'd say I agree with that. I think there is a sense that Hollywood's maybe running a little thin on ideas. And if video games are hot, then maybe they can try and attach themselves to that. Maybe get some of that "cool factor," some of that audience.

But that audience seems to be wise to it. There have been way too many movies based on games that have been as bad as games based on movies.

William: I'm wondering if – I'm sort of hypothesizing here – Hollywood has often taken inspiration from novels and they've churned out great films. Do you think that video games at some point - because I think they are art and they should be considered art, at least some of them – do you think that Hollywood will get to the point where they really do a video game justice on the big screen?

Jeff: I think it's possible, but it's really hard to say. It really depends on the advancement of video game story lines in a sense, because when you get right down to it, even really good video game stories aren't all that great. You're not going to run out and start comparing the latest Legend Of Zelda game to a great novel because at the end of the day, the Legend Of Zelda is:

This princess got kidnapped, you should totally go rescue her.

Why?

Because shut up! Just do it!

Even the games that try to get a little headier like the Metal Gear Solid series, stuff like that, just naturally, the story telling isn't quite as tight as a movie. Plus, you know, these games are going on for 12-15 hours, so you can liken them more to a series of anime or something because, I mean, so much of it is coming out of Japan.

But most of them really are still focused on 'Crash these cars,' 'Complete this mission for me,' 'Rescue this princess.' That sort of thing.