After overtaking the film industry in sales in several countries across the globe, the computer games industry has come to the aid of Hollywood today promising to help bring the movie experience truly in to the 21st century.
“There is no doubt that this is a matter close to our hearts” legendary game developer Chuck Hankam revealed, “The truth of the matter is none of us really wanted to be computer games developers, we all wanted to be film makers – that's why the best parts of any modern computer game are the cutscenes – so we are going to help get Hollywood back on track.”
With a typical computer game usually costing many times more than a typical movie, the industry has been forced to innovate to find ways of making their products profitable, Hankman is sure these techniques can be applied to the movie industry.
“Take the Mass Effect series,” He explained, “One of the greatest computer game series ever made. Well written, well acted, amazing graphics and gameplay. Critically acclaimed, loved by its fans. There is very little you can fault about it. If you released something with the words Mass Effect on it you could be certain people would buy it.
“So when it came to the final part of the series there was a problem... if it's the final part of the series how do you keep making money on it? Well, as innovators we had the answer: Day One DLC – downloadable content with extra levels that you'll want to download and play before completing the game. All for an extra $10 or free if you buy the special edition version of the game.
“How does this translate to the movie industry? Day One DVD... DVDs available in the lobby of your movie theatre with additional scenes that help you make sense of the movie better. Sure, you can watch the film without them, but it won't make so much sense.”
Day One DVD is not the only technique that Hankman believes the movie industry can emulate. Another big part of computer games are “achievements” - awards that players get for performing certain things within the game.
“They're not worth anything, we can give out as many as we like, but players like them because they are like badges of honour to show off to their friends how much better they are at a game than the other.
“There are obvious ones, like for watching particular scenes in a movie, or watching a movie all the way through to the end. But we can diversify like in games. What about giving an achievement for eating 10 pieces of popcorn, then 100 pieces of popcorn, then 1,000, and then 10,000? People will get the 10 pieces of popcorn one easily, but will then be determined to get to 100 as 10 was so easy. They'll keep going until they've eaten 1,000,000 pieces of popcorn. Who cares they've wasted their time eating popcorn for no reason... just think of how much profit you would make selling popcorn!!”
Not everyone is as excited about the news. Film critic Keith Wilson felt that the news was a dark day for the film industry:
“Yes Mass Effect is an amazing success for the computer games industry,” he said, “But when they released the game they released it with a hugely unpopular ending. Now they are saying they will be releasing a new ending you will be able to download. If we let these computer games designers bring their techniques to the film industry how long before they are charging $10 to download an ending to the Godfather where Sofia Coppola was wearing a bullet proof vest and Al Pacino's character actually manages to get out without being pulled back in.”
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