I swung a free E3 convention pass from an old friend and decided to attend rthis years E3. E3 is the Electromic Entertainment Expo. A nerd fest for video game developers which is generally closed to the public.
When I first graduated from art school I grabbed the first job I could find prior to launching my career into freelance illustration and children's books. My first job was at Treyarch in Santa Monica. They were known for the Spider-Man movie games, and now the Call of Duty series. I was an environment artist (someone who paints and models objects in the world where the main character exists) I had been a gamer all my life since my father got me the Atari 2600 when I was five years old. Gaming was a big reason why I got into art in the first place and to this day I associate it to how I got to where I am now in my career.
Here's a sample of my work back in the day everything you see in the bar was done by yours truly....
Here's a quick run down of the stuff I saw at E3......
SPLINTER CELL: CONVICTION - You are a former military special forces operative out to seek revenge on the man who murdered your daughter.
LEFT 4 DEAD 2: You and three others (thus making you 4 people) are trying to escape the city of New Orleans after a zombie infestation.
UNCHARTED 2: You are an ancestor of the famous explorer Sir Francis Drake out on adventure to seek fame and fortune
ASSASSIN'S CREED 2: You are an assassin in the resnaissance era using various inventions created by Leonardo Da Vinci
GOD OF WAR 3: You are Kratos, the God of War (After you killed Ares in God of War 1. Duh!) and this time you're slaughtering everything else in greek mythology to...I dunno.... not be so angry.
RED FACTION: GUERILLA: You lead a group of rebel fighters on Mars to free your colony. With guns and drilling tools and such.
You get the point.
I always thought most storytelling in games was very weak, not because the writers for these games aren't good writers (though some of them not even writer's at all) but also the fact that you have to put an aspect of gameplay into the story so that the gamer can participate in the adventure.
Let's break it down.... When you play chess. You're not concerned with the history of why the light and dark pieces are at war. They're just at war. That's the game. When you create a back story then everything becomes very convoluted. Some of the best selling games onthe market sell well because the games are fun, not because the story is compelling.
EA signed Steven Spielberg to a two game deal to create games for them. I envision Steven thinking of some grandiose storyline to grab the attention of a gamer and sadly he will ultimately fail for the simple fact that I recken he doesn't know how to make a fun 'game'. It would be like asking Alfred Hitchcock to make 'Clue'. Sure he can weave a thrilling mystery, but I doubt he would have the time or patience to create a murder/mystery board game with rules to follow. It's two completely different parts of the brain at work here. You're either a good game designer or a good storyteller. Rarely do you get both.
When I was a kid I was a big fan of video games where storytelling was essential. They were called graphic adventures! They don't make them anymore because the audience has changed into a hack and slash button mashing multiplayer experience. When I was a kid there were fantastic stories like 'The Secret of Monkey Island', 'King's Quest', 'Day of the Tentacle' and my personal favorite 'Grim Fandango'...
This E3? I rarely saw such glimmers of storytelling brilliance. Most titles were about ninjas, space marines, special forces operatives, and zombie killers. There was ONE title though, and it featured the voice of Jack Black and that was my pick for best of show....
That bar scene you did reminds me of Larry's Lounge in Long Lake! :) Thanks for the E3 overview. Jack Black is so cool.
Posted by: Nina | June 09, 2009 at 12:42 PM