IPs vs. Originality - Which is better?

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Posted May 1st, 2009 by Dalmarus

Exploring the benefits of both.

Which is better, indeed? You've got to love a question that's guaranteed to instantly raise the hackles of both parties involved in the discussion well before any details are even heard. Despite possible appearances, I'm actually not trying to get anyone inflamed. The question I (and numerous others before me) have posed is an interesting one in any right, but especially in light of the responses I got from a Forever Fantasy article I did a couple weeks ago entitled From the Page to Your PC.

Back, ya mangy beast! Back I say!

In it, I talked about some fantasy book series I thought had enough depth and scale to become full fledged MMOGs, while a side argument in the article centered on how the realities of business would force most development companies to create a game around an established intellectual property just to get the necessary funding. Even though readers were commenting on what books they'd like to see translated to the digital world, almost everyone agreed they'd rather see original creations.

The argument presents an interesting conundrum. At one point in time or another, all of us have wished upon whatever magic the universe may still hold in its heart that we could suddenly find ourselves in the adventurous world we were reading about. Some of us more than others, (my wife can laugh, but she's going to be grateful I'm there when we get sucked into D&D land!) but I think most of us have done so on some primordial level. On the other hand, the human race (and geeks in general) has always had a pension for discovery. Whether that's the discovery of an imaginary world someone has created or a new piece of technology makes little difference.

I've mentioned this before, but by going with a proven IP, there's an inherent assumption that a company will save drastic amounts of time and energy in their marketing efforts by attracting the established customer base. Now whether this actually works as well in practice as in theory is arguable at best. I think it's safe to say that at the very least a company should expect it to garner some much needed interest and attention. Just by creating an MMOG centered around Uberly Successful IP "X", word *will* spread. Whether that word is good or bad depends on a number of factors.

By creating a game based on a popular IP, the company in question has a huge responsibility to "do it right." Unfortunately, not everyone realizes the reality of one little secret - every single fan out there has a different idea of what "right" is. For every fan that thinks Luke Skywalker was a raging bad ass, there's another fan that believes he was a whiny pansy (like he really was) in the Star Wars movies. There's no way to please everyone.

Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. For a person that may be familiar with the movies and little else, it's a great game with an impressive amount of depth and attention to detail. For the mass of fanatical fans that have spent more time pouring over every book Tolkien ever wrote than even Tolkien himself, *any* deviation from the lore of his world is paramount to sacrilege on the most horrific scale. Oh by the way... they'll also be more vocal about it than you could ever begin to imagine.

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