Easy money for Shrapnel and Malfador.

[Antonin]

SEIV T-shirt? SEIV coffee mug? I'd buy them as long as they didn't look goofy enough to appeal to my 10 yr old niece....

------------------
"Gentlemen, we have nearly a thousand ships waiting to be thrown into the fight at the proper moment to seize control of the Foundation. I say we should change that. I say, throw those thousand onto the board now--against the Mule."
-- Randu of Haven, from "Foundation and Empire," by Isaac Asimov

[LazarusLong42]

A TV series/movie based on a video game, huh? Um. Oh dear. As a science fiction writer, I dare say it won't work to good effect. Video game plots are pretty thin to begin with, but SE4 doesn't even have a plot to start from. What are you going to base the series/movie on? A series of space battles? That'd be worse than Star Trek. Political intrigue? And you'd relate that to the game how?

As a rule, the initial medium in which entertainment appears is the best medium, and rarely does anything else do justice. Hitchhiker's Guide is one of two exception I can think of, in which the books were as good as and later extended the plot of the radio series. (The second exception is the movie "Contact". In both cases production of the latter form was done by the same person as the original form.) But:

Star Trek books, as a rule, suck. Star Wars books, too. Don't get me started on bad science fiction "written" by Star Trek actors who believe that because Shatner can have books ghost-written for him by hacks, they can as well;

How many video game movies have actually done well? (Pokemon doesn't count; it was, I suspect, a two-hour long FMV sequence).

Have you ever read a novelization of a movie? (Or, worse, take Great Expectations. The movie was a bad enough adaptation of the original book; then they novelized the movie. You read that right. They didn't republish Dickens's book. Someone wrote a new book based on the movie. Ugh.)

OK, sorry... enough venting. Nothing against Malfador, but I would really suggest it's not the way to go.

LL

[capnq]

quote:

---

Have you ever read a novelization of a movie? (Or, worse, take Great Expectations. The movie was a bad enough adaptation of the original book; then they novelized the movie. You read that right. They didn't republish Dickens's book. Someone wrote a new book based on the movie. Ugh.)

---

That happens quite a lot. Ian Fleming's original James Bond books are harder to find than the novelizations of the films, and Fleming's books often have little in common with the films besides Bond and the titles.


------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[mac5732]

Most tv/movie plots are weak to begin with, there are the exceptions don't get me wrong. But why couldn't you say pick 1 or 2 of the races and base it on their traits, the plot of SE4 is to conquor the universe, I'm sure a good plot could be generated with good writers/advisors, Book movies always deviate from the original book, the good one would be where the deviation is minor or made to set up the movie or series. Good example of movie not like the book is Battlefield Earth, movie definitly not like the book or story line.

just some ideas Mac

[disabled]

I blame the decline in television on the Writer's Guild. They are so lazy now, they don't even try to write good scripts. With the exception of a handful, of course.

[ June 15, 2003, 06:35: Message edited by: General Talashar ]

[Puke]

quote:

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Originally posted by Hadrian Aventine:
Plus, each race has tons of background info that isn't exploited in SE.

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what, you mean like about a paragraph or three? sure thats more than most sci fi tv shows and movies have, but i would not go so far as to call it 'tons'

------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[dmm]

quote:

---

Originally posted by LazarusLong42:
As a rule, the initial medium in which entertainment appears is the best medium, and rarely does anything else do justice.

---

As a rule, yes. But there are lots of exceptions. The old movie Version of "Little Women" is as good as the book. The recent (Last 10 years) movies based on Jane Austen novels have been pretty good. A friend told me that the movie Version of "The Princess Bride" is much better than the book. And who has actually read "Gone With the Wind" or "The Maltese Falcon?" Even on TV, one can find gems among the refuse, such as "Little House on the Prairie" and "Roots." The problem with adaptations isn't the change of medium; it's the (usual) lack of skill on the part of the adapters.

quote:

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Originally posted by LazarusLong42:
How many video game movies have actually done well?

---

Tomb Raider comes to mind. Also (to a lesser extent) Final Fantasy, and that stupid Kung Fu killing game (name escapes me).

quote:

---

Originally posted by LazarusLong42:
Have you ever read a novelization of a movie?

---

Yeah, totally agree there! Although, didn't Arthur C. Clarke do the movie Version of 2001 before he did the book? But even if true, that's the same author for both. Can anyone think of a GOOD novelization of a movie, one that would stand on its own?

[mac5732]

If not a movie or TV series, and you want to aim at the younger generations as well, how about something like Animate (I think thats how it is spelled), like those Japanese action cartoon like movie stories. In those modes you could even have better animation and graphics. My own kids (out of high school) watch these and even buy some of them from Japan. These are supposedly a very big hit and have very large followings in Asia...

just some ideas.. mac

[Urendi Maleldil]

They'd need to sell stuff on a small scale. Television production costs are incredibly high not to mention the fact that a tv program needs to be syndicated or picked up by a network. Unless they have some wierd connections and Aaron has a rich uncle, anything more than a local cable access show is impossible.

Small-scale merch like t-shirts, mugs, hats, mouse pads, etc. are much cheaper both money and time-wise to produce and will probably make more money. Plus those things double as advertising. I know of several webmasters who sell this kind of stuff to help support the cost of their website.

I wouldn't mind wearing a shirt with some cool SE4 phrase or something on it, or springing for some Dickies with the SE4 or MM logo embroidered on them. It helps MM & it makes me feel cool.

-What I really need are some pants.
-Everyone sells shirts, but no pants.

[disabled]

I agree, the TV and Movie ideas are a long way off, but good ideas for a few years down the road.

As for the few paragraphs of info, there is much more that didn't get into the game plus the little provided can be easily expanded without changing much. Like the Eee-Drushocka conflict. Hell, base the TV series of 50 turns of SE.

As for everything else, I think Shrapnel and MM should contact Ertl and see if they want to do a model kit line on some of the SE4 races. Also releasing a clothing line would work. www.cafepress.com

[ June 15, 2003, 06:36: Message edited by: General Talashar ]