Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game (the Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award winner), is a recovering game addict - or at least that's one interpretation you can give his interview over at Gaming Today. Ender's Game is being turned into a movie by Warner Brothers, and at the same time Orson Scott Card is open to the possibility of his book becoming a video game.

For those not familiar with Ender's Game, just understand that it's one of the best sci-fi books ever written (in our honest opinions). A fast-paced story about violence, evil, war, and leadership. It's required reading, or so Wikipedia claims, at the Marine Corps University at Quantico.

And if it's good enough for the US Marines, it should be good enough for you gamers out there, right? Anyway, back to the interview. Orson Scott Card talked about being addicted to gaming:

The weird thing was that even when I wasn't playing, I felt a tremendous anxiety. I had responsibilities - there were cities waiting for me to tell them what to build! Now, I'm not insane. My conscious mind knew that it was just a game, and when I wasn't running the program, nothing was happening at all. But I invested so much tension in the playing of the game that it didn't go away when I left the computer. The call of duty was still there.

The interview also tackled what goes into writing a story for video games. Card said:

Games CAN'T have the kind of storylines that movies and books have, or they wouldn't be playable. ... What makes a game work is the opposite of what makes a story work. In a story, you are seeking to find out what really happened - why people do what they do, what the results of their choices are. ... In a game, the opposite illusion must be created. Even though most games absolutely force you to follow preset paths, the gamewrights try to give you the illusion that you are making free choices (even though you are actually, in almost all games, still being channeled through certain puzzles with fixed solutions).

As for Ender's Game, it won't just be one game in Card's vision:

• The Battle Room. This pivotal set in the book can be several game modules in real life.
• Space war games. The three wars (back in Mazer's time all the way to Ender's time).
• Story-based games. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.
• MMORPG. This one is based on the Battle School in Ender's Game.
• The Fantasy Game. The "mind game" from the novel.
• The Hive Queen. It's like Civilization (a game franchise that Card was addicted to).
• Post-war war. Card describes this as being like Risk.

Well, Mr. Card, there are quite a few fans here at QJ.NET who would be first in line to get a game that follows the Hegemon.

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.

Escapist Magazine is probably one of the best editorial mags for games out today, and it isn't even on paper. In their latest issue, Greg Tito talks about something many gamers might not think about, but probably acknowledge deep in their hearts: the contributions of science fiction in making great games.

The article basically talks about how many of the games we play today reflect particular influences from science fiction literature. For instance, the real-time strategy game genre is akin to Orson Scott Card's idea of a battle school in "Ender's Game". That is, if you can imagine zero-gravity laser tag between two teams of 40 kids.

William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, for their "Neuromancer" and "Snow Crash" books, respectively, brought to the minds of game designers the idea of immersive gameplay, of jacking into the "matrix" and becoming someone else entirely. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because MMOs, interactive worlds, and the "Matrix" movies brought it into public consciousness even more.

Many of the games we play now had to have a seed in the minds of its makers, a spark of creation that saw its light in the form of an established videogame. The author writes, "True creativity flows not from the mind of one man, but from a wellspring of dreams and ideas fed by the consciousness of an entire civilization." Hopefully, that means a time will come when videogames themselves will be the seed for innovations in writing. It's something to think about for the next time you play Halo, at least.

Chair Entertainment was founded in 2005 and consists of a core design team under the direction of Donald and Geremy Mustard. The team has worked together for years gaining experience in many facets of entertainment including art design, digital animation, game development, storytelling, and comic books.

Several of Chair’s founding members were part of the development team responsible for Advent Rising, released in 2005 for Xbox and PC. They also directed the story and art design for the 360ep comic book series, Advent Rising: Rock the Planet.

Chair is currently developing a new entertainment franchise, code named Empire. The Empire franchise is scheduled to launch fall of 2006 with the release of a novel written by acclaimed author Orson Scott Card. The book will be followed by the launch of a comic book series, next-generation video game, and feature film, all offering a unique experience within the Empire universe.

In case you have no idea who Mr. Card is, he is an accomplished writer who's authored "The Abyss" (James Cameron made a movie out of that), the "Women of Genesis series", "The Tales of Alvin Maker" and "Advent Rising". Giving the attention back to "Empire" (the novel), the novel gives an eerie picture of a warring American society of the future.

The battle rages between the high-technology weapons on one side, and militia foot-soldiers on the other, devastating the cities, and overrunning the countryside. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop and the nation to return to more peaceful days, have technology, weapons and strategic geniuses of their own. When the American dream shatters into violence, who can hold the people and the government together? And which side will you be on?

Pretty intriguing, huh? So what do you think of this game? Do you think it'll be a hit or it would be a flop? Is the topic too boring or is it something that rings close to reality and sounds interesting? It runs on the Unreal Engine 3, so it's unlikely to come out for the Wii, so do you think it'll come out for the PS3, the Xbox 360, or both? Tell us what you think through your comments.