Books based on movies or computer games: Are they doomed to be bad?

[Metryq]

Sturgeon's Law on TVtropes

Of particular interest are the corollaries:

Crawford's Corollary: Should you ever find that less than 90% seem to be crap, your standard is set too low and should be adjusted.

Critic's Corollary: 90% of people lack the taste necessary to distinguish between crud and non-crud.

Tv Tropes Corollary: The difficulty of getting a group of people to agree on which is the non-cruddy 10% exponentially approaches infinity as the size of the group increases. (Or, "Crud is in the eye of the beholder... so to speak.")

 

[Lemmy]

Or my theory: I don't give a damn what people want me to read or what people say is good. I read books I enjoy. Period.

 

[Magnus85]

I'm a Deus Ex fan.

The first game was, and still is, one of my best experiences from any storytelling medium.

I've played it over 10 times, start to finish. Tried everything. Read everything. Ended up everywhere. Its story universe sucks me in and never lets go.

I am HIGHLY anticipating the third game, Human Revolution, which is due for release this August. To kill some of the time before that I endulged myself to a book set in the same universe, a licensed book called Deus Ex: The Icarus Effect.

Written by Mr. Swallow, as you can see. I had very low expectations, which made this an enjoyable read. But what made it enjoyable was probably my familiarity with the throw away lines on companies, characters and places which I experienced while playing the first game. The futuristic details described in the book are pretty clever and the story has a decent build-up. What lacks is the depth of the characters, the silent moments, the memorable dialogue and scenes. But all in all, a pretty decent book, and one I'll recommend for anyone who's played Deus Ex or is anticipating the coming game.

They've also created a comic which is to work as a closer prologue to the game itself. I'm waiting for the comic to finish its run, so that I can pick up the collected TPB.

Anyone read it? Or the comic?

 

[cornelius]

I'm thinking about giving the books about diablo II a try, but I'm not sure. Diablo II had a very big impact on me, it wasn't the first game that got me stuck to the computer for hours on end, but still.

 

[Menion]

I gave up on World of Warcraft about 7 or 8 months ago, Yes it is very hard to stop playing. I wouldn't go so far as call it adictive but it is an amazing game. But when I read The Shattering (Prelude for the new expansion) The cravings started munching away at my willpower again.
It managed to capture the spirit of the game in the writing nicely, Although it did focus more on the Alliance. For The Horde! . It was still amazing in my eyes. There for I will be placing an order for all the other WoW novels.
Anybody else play/played it, I would really recomend it.

I bought the Assassin's Creed books for Ac:2 and Ac: Brotherhood. Have yet to read them but they look promising.

 

[Rodders]

I think it's fair to say that as audiences get more sophisticated certain franchises are getting more choosy about what they release in their name.

 

[Lemmy]

See? Now we have fans of Deus Ex, Diablo and World of Warcraft books, and maybe a fan of Assassin's Creed books. (or, as many young idiots say, Asscreed. Seriously.)

Yes, I know it's easy to be skeptical to a book by certain Swallw, and god forbid he had a daughter named Irene. But what people forget is that games have moved on from the 80's. It's not just about shooting the enemies and saving the princess anymore. Many games are very complicated with great storylines, great dialogue, even professional actors doing the voice-overs. Some people who used to be professional script-writers for movies are now professional script-writers for computer games. Games are not just for kids anymore, but a media that fits right in with books and movies. It's more interactive, but other than that, it's not that much different. So taking a story from one media to another isn't all that difficult. The thing is, what works in one media doesn't always work in another. If it worksi na movie, it won't necessarily work in a book, and vice versa. But if you take a movie and translate it to a book, removing or toning down the parts that won't work in the book and increasing the parts that does work, it can be brilliant. So taking a story to or from a game shouldn't be that difficult, and as the last few posts prove, it just might work.

I'm thinking about giving the books about diablo II a try, but I'm not sure. Diablo II had a very big impact on me, it wasn't the first game that got me stuck to the computer for hours on end, but still.

As far as I know, The Black Road is based on Diablo 1, and Legacy of Blood and Kingdom of Shadow are based on Diablo 2. Other than those, it's all based on the Diablo-universe, not the Diablo-games. Sin Wars Trilogy (Birthright / Scales of the serpent /( The veiled prophet) for instance takes place a thousand years before Diablo 1, and I highly recommend it as a starting point. It's not all good, though. I tried reading Legacy of blood, but hated it. But it was the first book based on Diablo, so I guess that can be excused. I also have Kingdom of shadow, but haven't had the chance to read it yet. I will soon, though. Just need to finish my Predator: Turnabout first.

 

[Metryq]

I was always partial to Harold and the Purple Crayon. The game was very primitive, and it had only one moving part, but I liked it.

 

[Lemmy]

Don't worry, you can say it. Everyone together now: "I like games."