A look into the culture that has sprung up around the "Souls" titles created by From Software. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest franchises to come out of the 7th generation, the Souls series has captured the attention of gamers worldwide. Praised for its daunting difficulty, incredible atmosphere, and attention to detail, the Souls games have cemented themselves as one of the premier "cult" titles of the past generation.
Explore character, story gameplay, narrative etc
I've always wanted to know more about the lore surrounding Dark Souls. IT's all there if you look into the subtext, but I suppose I'm just too lazy to actively seek it out. I would love to read something like this, and maybe see some relation from the lore and how it effects the plot. – leydifwee9 years ago
Great topic! One thing I noticed though was the difference between your title and your actual topic. You describe how you'd like to explore the characters and narrative of the Dark Souls games but didn't make a mention of the fanbase and those people and the culture surrounding these games like you mention at the top of the topic. I think I'd rather be reading an article giving possible explanations as to why Dark Souls has become so popular and such a well-renown game franchise. Why are people so attracted to it? What makes the game so interesting to gamers? What was From Software aiming for and does the community think they achieved it? Most importantly, who is a part of the community and why are these games so defining for this generation of games? I think that this kind of approach is what you intended but didn't word 100% correctly to the thoughts in your head. However, with what you've written here it sounds more like a walkthrough or lore explanation than anything else. – TheLegendofPie9 years ago
I wrote an article that was an exploration of the lore hunting that souls fans do by going through a lore hunt of the Old Dragonslayer from Dark Souls 2, unfortunately due to my poor rating on my ratio for the website it was taken away from the pending section of the website. Im working to fix my ratio so that more poeple can read my article cuz the few comments I got about it before it was taken away were pretty positive. – Cojo9 years ago
Analyze 'choice' in video-games ranging from games that present choice (e.g. Mass Effect, Telltale Games) to games that are more open (e.g. Fallout, GTA) and discuss how both types of games are in-fact linear experiences.
Choice in video games is undoubtedly a linear experience because regardless of the "choices" you're given, you are still limited in what you can choose. You can choose A or B (sometimes C, or D, or even beyond) but that's as far as you can go. Ultimately, you are heading in a direction with only one or two possible endings, thus you are still being guided to the ending in a linear fashion. Choice is certainly an illusion, and games like Bioshock and Bioshock: Infinite almost satirize choice by arguing that it is, in fact, an illusion, and therefore nonexistent. – Christina9 years ago
Some games have legitimate deviating paths but they are few and far between. – ChrisKeene9 years ago
As there are many genres of video games, it's usually difficult to compare two different kinds. You can't compare a FPS shooter with the Legend of Zelda series for example. However, these two genres are polar opposites of each other and are often brought up in forums when discussing their own genre. Identify what each genre is, the pros and cons of each one, the limitations of each, and what kind of audience each would appeal to.
You also have MMOs (massively multiplayer online). These games usually consist of a story plot but also leave the map open to explore. With the online multiplayer option these games give the player the ability to team up with people in their server and work together. Depending on the game what type of character you have in the game can also affect what missions are given. There are several different types of video games that people play today. – amandajarrell9 years ago
While games with an interesting, plot-driven experience are fun to play, it seems that game with player-driven content are timeless. Games where there are a variety of choices as far as character creation and exploration seem to be games that can be enjoyable while experiencing the main plot or creating your own adventure. An example could be how in Skyrim, you can do the quests provided in the game, or roam around the map running into random spawn, looting, and adventuring by your own rules.
You could also explore how gaming developers are expanding upon player-created content from immediate release of new games/multi-player gaming – Ryan Errington9 years ago
There are a few games that completely rely on the player looking for their own fun (Minecraft, Grow Home) but whats important to remember is that the developers still had to make it viable. In Skyrim the developers had to say "In this cave on a random spot that half the people playing this game will never see we are gonna add some fun things to do". Thats a strong commitment to the player – Cojo9 years ago
Giving players choice is a really neat thing in games- not everyone wants to play multiplayer or single player all of the time. This could also be expanded on how the game's audience is affected by player-created content. – James Smith9 years ago
McLaren, the famed manufacturer of Formula One cars for generations, only entered the road car business in the early 1990s, debuting with the McLaren F1. Since then, a myriad of models made by this English company have been featured in a variety of racing games, from the original F1, to the MP4-12C, to the all-new hybrid P1. McLaren's continued presence in motorsport has been accounted for as well, such as the McLaren F1 GTR "Long-Tail," or the 650S GT3. From Need for Speed to Gran Turismo, McLaren is an English company that cannot be ignored.
Pewdiepie has become one of the most prominent live-streaming gamers on the internet amassing a large audience and even significant funding. This live-streaming of gaming has grown massively–recently YouTube created their own category for video games. Websites like Twitch.tv, Hitbox.tv, Ustream.tv, etc are entities catering to this growing form. Pewdiepie and others are creating names for themselves and even supporting themselves as a live-streamer. What entails the life of a live-streamer? The hours? The games? The audience? And how is this field expanding?
Nice topic! You could also include a discussion of the many streamers that never become as popular as Pewdiepie and others on his "level" (if you'll pardon the pun); what makes a streamer popular and why do some catch on when others don't? – Caliburnus9 years ago
True! A lot of us have viewed live streaming games, but what is it like as an actual player of say, Twitch? I'm really intrigued by this. – James Smith9 years ago
Adding on to what Caliburnus said, you could also incorporate the growing presence of female streamers who wear revealing clothing to increase their subscribers/followers. Some people argue that some of these women are not skilled gamers and are ruining the 'family friendly' aspect of Twitch.tv. Personally, while I'm not a streamer, I do make gaming videos for YouTube in my spare time and I can say that both are very time and money intensive processes, especially if you are just starting out. At the minimum you need one powerful PC enough to run games (most successful streamers use two simultaneously, 1 dedicated stream PC / 1 dedicated gaming PC), internet fast enough to upload your game and face camera, and enough time to edit or provide entertaining content for people. – marknm9 years ago
This is such a prominent area of inquiry, I'd be really stoked to see what you can make of it. Food for thought: Pewdiepie, as far as I know, gained his initial following through YouTube, and this audience followed him to his streams. In fact, most of the streamers I watch have similar stories. I wonder how it could be different for someone to start from nothing on Twitch or a similar network, and build up their following exclusively from there. – jriffle9 years ago
Interesting topic! May want to include things such as what entails growing your own audience, how to keep your audience, regular streaming schedules, the issue of "burning yourself out" if you live-stream for a living, etc. – Valios9 years ago
We've all seen the terrible video game movies that don't grasp onto the feel of a game we love. They change the characters, story, and feel of some of the classics of the medium often ruining them. Recently theres been a change though, and video game movies have changed what they're about. Shifting from "Mario Bros The Movie" to things like Pixels or Wreck it Ralph we're seeing more and more movies about games rather than about a game. What is causing these changes? There are still plenty of games that have an engaging story and fast passed action but they aren't getting adaptations. Meanwhile movies about the conscept of video games are becoming more and more prevelent. What caused those changes? Why are directors staying away from pre-made stories? Is this an evoluion in how video game are seen by hollywood?
I think it's because everybody recognizes Pac-Man, et al, but you can't make a movie about Pac-Man since there's no story within the actual game. So they sort of set these characters aside, as a reference most people will get, but at the same time, the writers won't feel obligated to flesh them out, because there's nothing there. – MaxEngel9 years ago
The interesting thing about video games are that it is dynamic. If it's not about the character you're navigating, the farm you're ville-ing, the league you're becoming a legend in, or even when your stoning a hearth, it can be about the how you tried so hard to get a better score or beat a boss.
Now, with mobile devices, video games are expanding to more casual users. So, the arena of gaming and the term "gamer" has changed. Video games, interactive media is a large part of society where almost anyone can be a participant.
The reason that video games are becoming a prevalent subject in Hollywood is because it's becoming a prevalent part of life: learning games, casual mobile games, the expansion of E-Sports, and other interactive media.
Also, gaming culture is interesting and shifting. It's niche but broad enough that people can recognize it. I.e. Almost any Nintendo character. – jambles9 years ago
One point that people often overlook is that video game stories are told over the course of dozens of hours. Even for games like Metal Gear Solid that mostly tell the story through the cinematic sequences, those still add up to much more than epic three hour long movies. And it can't be solved by splitting them up into more sequels because no one would want to invest in that kind of risk. So I think that filmmakers are likely to find more success by synthesizing game culture into their own stories, like Wreck-it-Ralph (which as a gamer I enjoyed, even if it wasn't completely faithful to video games). – marknm9 years ago
I'm going to wait til Ready Player One comes out until I lay judgement on this one. – Lazarinth9 years ago
I think maybe part of video game adaptations not being so specialized is because of the fan base for those games. It's probably unlikely for someone to get mad over Wreck-it-Ralph "screwing up" the plot line (like MaxEngel said, there's no story within the actual game), but God forbid anyone ever adapt Bioshock for the screen. I would cry myself to sleep. For me, I prefer not to see my favorite games turned into movies. I guess part of it is out of jealousy (I don't want to share my favorite game with a more mainstream audience) and I don't want to be let down by a terrible adaptation. Plus, it's hard to adapt games for the big screen. Video games are unique because of the platform on which they're produced. Some games practically play like movies (The Last of Us), but others don't. – clegler9 years ago
The revolution here is the same as the Super Hero movie genre.
Video games are being looked as a medium, finally, rather than something for kids.
The shift in attitude is not only because of this change in perception, but also the fact that people who grew up playing video games are beginning to make these movies.
Both of these are reasons why, but it could also be the shift in movie making in general, that good entertainment sells. Either way, I'm glad it's happening at all. – Emishson9 years ago
Some of the most successful games to date share a unique quality – they play more as a movie than a game in the traditional sense. For example, the Uncharted series and the new Until Dawn, which are both extremely popular games, both share this quality. While you can walk around and explore as these characters, and each have their moments of combat or quick-time events, both are very realistic-looking games that have a heavy cinematic feel to them, mainly with their large amounts of cutscenes, and are fairly linear. If you were to take out the gameplay and watch the cutscenes alone, you could almost get a perfect sense of the entire game. Instead, the gameplay serves to connect these cutscenes together, giving more of a sense of playing through a movie than a game.
What makes these games so popular? And should it be done more often?
