Books to video games and beyond: Orson Scott Card's Empire

Posted Nov 11, 2006 at 6:12PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: Chair Entertainment, Konami, Orson Scott Card, playstation 3 updates, Unreal Engine

It must have felt this way during the Civil War. How should you feel when you've been asked to point your gun at a fellow countryman? That's the subject of acclaimed science fiction writer Orson Scott Card's Empire - and the eponymous shooter video game from Chair Entertainment appearing in whatever platform will handle Unreal Engine 3.0 (hence PS3, Xbox 360, PC posting).

Card sets Empire, book, game, and whatever else may come out of it, in a near-future America ripped apart by blue state/red state politics. But the center of the book and the game is not the politics, but "the desire to tell a story about living, breathing people," he tells Wired News. And to him, the books-video games-movie connection tend to fall relatively flat on their face because, for most games, they tend to ignore that need of characterization.

Video games are a viable storytelling medium, but the trouble is that video games always have the same protagonist, which is the player. And he always has the same set of motivations, which is to kill and don't die. That's not conducive to great novels.

So enter Ender's Game the Empire game and novel. Card explains the characterization in the game best.

The experience from beginning to end in this game is that characters have their own agendas, which is not necessarily the players' agenda, but is fully understandable to them. Gamers will sympathize with what the characters are trying to do. They will want them to win. So it will not be a matter of just killing mindlessly. It will be about achieving really important objectives.

It's not that the entire industry is guilty of, in Card's view, falling flat on their faces. Card really blames the "mindless" video games publishing industry for pushing deadlines and agendas onto video game creators that, frankly, do not need the pressure and the dictation. There could be some "really great games" in Card's view, if devs didn't have to be pressured by publishers' requirements. Part of the reason why Card teamed up with indie developer Chair Entertainment.

Then again, it's not that we haven't seen interesting characterization that Card seeks from the industry - think Hideo Kojima's Solid Snake, for example. On the other hand, Kojima himself tends to have quite a (relatively) free hand from Konami, so there's Card's thesis confirmed somewhat. Then there's Japanese RPGs, and... catch our drift? Perhaps it should be considered a challenge directed to next-gen gaming, a challenge Card knows that the developers can meet if they weren't burdened with publishing dictates.

Apart from graphics or gameplay, can you create a game that's humanly compelling? When more details on Empire come out, we'll see if the game meets Card's own expectations.

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Books to video games and beyond: Orson Scott Card's Empire

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