by Jeff Woleslagle on Jul 22, 2009
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The World of Warcraft movie, which had almost achieved Duke Nukem Forever status in the great pantheon of lofty, legendary in-development projects that may or may not be, got some concrete attention this week, as Sam Raimi (of Spiderman series fame) was named Director.
With Hollywood, long eclipsed in yearly profits by video games, now serious about wanting its share of the vaunted MMO's success, maybe it's time to take a step back. How have movies impacted games and game IPs in the past and how can a flick (even a good one) potentially punish the MMO ideal? That's today's topic in Loading... MMOvies: Missing the Point.
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You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
World of Warcraft Age of Conan EverQuest 2 Champions Online (UP 1) Aion (UP 1)Biggest Movers this month :
Torchlight (UP 20 to #13) Runes of Magic (UP 15 to #16) Lineage 2 (UP 15 to #17) Recent MMO Releases 6/25 - WAR "Land of the Dead" 6/30 - City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary 6/30 - Lord of the Rings Online Book 8 7/7 - Darkfall Player Housing Expansion 7/13 - Darkfall NA launch 7/21- FFXI "Moogle Kupo d'Etat" Addon (release date)Important Dates
7/13 - Mortal Online Preorders On Sale 7/23 - 7/26 - San Diego Comic Con '09 7/31 - 8/3 - Aion Beta Weekend 8/21 - 8/22 - BlizzCon '09 Upcoming Releases 8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date) 9/1 - Champions Online (release date) 9/9 - Fallen Earth (release date) 9/22 - Aion (release date) Early 2010 - APBToday's interesting news item: the upcoming (2011?) World of Warcraft movie will have Sam Raimi as Director. Even if you're like me and barely know Tom Cruise from Tom Hanks, you probably know Raimi's work best from the Spiderman movies, but he also directed Army of Darkness and the Evil Dead series (which were good for an intentional or unintentional laugh). If that's still not ringing any bells, he was Exec. Producer for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: The Warrior Princess, and that's about all I can do for you. His pedigree is one of over-the-top epic cinematic fun, so he was probably about as good a choice Legendary Pictures could make.
That said, and not to be a wet blanket, but I'm still not sure we need a Hollywood's take on World of Warcraft. WoW is about making individual players feel like skilled heroic raiders bursting with cool gear, and a movie is about developing fictional characters and advancing a storyline. If it were a Warcraft movie, rather than a World of Warcraft movie, I could dig it, even though video games don't have a very good track record with the feature-length transition.
But a WoW movie seems like a mass-market adventure in missing the point, much like how EVE Online game lore specifically omits actual players and corps. In EVE the story is the players and corps, and while I can see why CCP would be sketchy about using players' likeness in the Chronicles or novels, I don't see any problem with including players' stories in the past tense. If people don't agree with or like their characters portrayals, tough. These are characters, not people, just like in a story or movie. And if we aren't creating lasting stories in MMOs that we can happily share with others well after the fact, we might as well be getting our jollies with a single player game.
Of course, I'll go see the World of Warcraft movie when it comes out. You probably will too and, sadly, they know that. Blizzard's stunning CGI work and the IPs widespread appeal and the incredible revenue potential and yadda yadda yadda. I have little doubt that Blizzard and Legendary will make a good flick (Blizzard doesn't make a bad anything) and we'll probably see a surge of WoW interest around the time that the movie launches, then again when the DVD launches. I just don't think it does much for the worldy, adventurous spirit of the MMO, which has been flagging as of late largely due to WoW's dominance. MMOs should be about your epic adventure - the friends you meet, the adventures you have - and that's nothing that even a classic movie could ever compare to.
You probably disagree, ye butterfly-bellied fans that can't wait to see Azeroth gloriously rendered on the big screen. So let's discuss the WoW movie and what it will do for not only WoW but for MMOs in general in the Loading... forum. Or, as always, feel free to email me.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day
From our WoW: Paladins Forum
Paladins: The Original Hero Class
I need a hero!
Why
are World of Warcraft Paladins the "original hero class" according to
Ten Ton Hammer member ZeroMerc? There are plenty of reasons,
including this all-important one: "We are not refered to as
'crit chickens.'" To find out the rest of the reasons, you'll have to
check out today's epic thread. Perhaps you'll even add a few reasons of your own.
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Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread
"I'm getting all teary-eyed. This is the most beautiful post ever. If only we could battle rez it would be a complete sweep."
- Medeor
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!
5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 71 in July! 836 in 2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]
Champions Online: Demystifying Micro-TransactionsGiveaways:
The 'Empty the Vault' Giveaway Ten Ton Hammer EVE Online Summer GiveawayHottest Content:
Champions Online: Bill Roper Discusses Online PvP Champions Online: From Azeroth to Millenium City - Transitioning to CO Global Agenda: Preparing for Closed Beta with Hi-Rez's Todd Harris World of Warcraft: Dual Talent Specialization - How Has it Changed the Game? Champions Online: Ten PvP Tips from the Devs New Aion Beta Weekend #4 Screenshots Dungeons & Dragons Online - Ten Facts You Should Know Before Playing Champions Online @ Ten Ton Hammer Goes Live! World of Warcraft - Surviving BlizzCon Lord of the Rings Online - Vol. 2 Book 7: Leaves of Lórien Epic GuideReal World News
Walrus mates itself to deathSeen news you think I can mangle into a vaguely amusing snippet of text? Send it to me.
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-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team