Hi Dark, Well, not everyone is a purest, and that is another issue to consider when writing games. Some customers are not going to care about cannon or be a die-hard purest just as long as they can play their favorite character. Others such as yourself get upset if a game developer or a producer like Peter Jackson tinkers with the story too much. I myself am not really a LOTR purest, am a casual fan, so I really don't get too worked up over the changes in the Peter Jackson films. Certainly not enough to "give him a punch up the hooter" as you say.
The issue is that die-hard fans tend to be purest's and casual fans aren't. Regardless if it is Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, or Harry Potter there are always going to be a certain amount of customers who will want the game developer to remain true to the cannon and known history and those who say bugger the cannon and history and do your own thing. The community can't have it both ways and a developer has to use his or her personal judgment which way to go. For example, a few weeks ago you and I were talking about my wrestling game. I was more or less writing this game from the perspective of a WWE fan for WWE fans who like Randy Orton, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena, and all the rest of the WWE roster. You and a couple of others suggested being able to make up your own wrestler and career mode independent of the existing superstars. You see it more as a game where I see it as a chance to recreate favorite matches, feuds, and invent some on my own. Case in point. One of my favorite divas is Trish Stratus. She retired from professional wrestling in 2006, is married, and at this years hall of fame induction ceremony announced to the world she is expecting her first child. As a fan of hers I hate to see her go into retirement and hang up her wrestling gear for the life as a wife and mother, but she did. An all star game allows me to continue her career beyond 2006 and pit her in feuds with Maryse, Michelle McCool, Layla, and various other divas who have come and gone since Trish Stratus retired. That's coming from the point of view of a fan and wrestling purest, and not a casual fan who only sees it as just a game. Same idea applies to Lord of the Rings. You are a really big fan of the Tolkien books and probably know the history a lot better than I do. I've only read the books two or three times in my life, am familiar with them, but not enough to get bent out of shape if Peter Jackson or someone takes a few liberties over the cannon. I am at best just a casual fan of the books, and I will freely admit fantasy has never been my forte anyway. I've always considered myself a science fiction oriented person and spent most of my time watching shows or reading books like Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Star Gate, etc as that is where my interests lie. Reading books set in mediaeval type settings with wizards, dwarves, trolls, goblins, etc is for me very casual at best anyway. So there is obviously a difference in perspective between a casual fan like myself and a serious Tolkien fan. That is why if I created a Mines of Moria game and used say Gandalf to fight his way through 10 levels of orcs, goblins, and trolls I'd just see it as a game loosely based on LOTR. A purest would scream that didn't happen in the books, and we need to use a different character and different story for the Mines of Moria. Make sense? Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
