Every entry needs some obligatory visual, relevant or not. I would just like to add after putting off this blog so long, I feel wholly inadequate knowing fellow Advocate staffer Matt Lech is cranking out quality post after quality post on his blog that the ladies will love.
"Blade Runner" had a beautifully designed backdrop for the action, and Deckard spends the entire film running through it.
HELLO
Hello, my name is Matthew John Beckman. I am a 22-year-old mass communications major at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) with an emphasis in online(/print [?]) journalism and a film minor.
I have a real passion for two other things, videogames and snowboarding. One makes for a decent writing subject, the other I have a hard time putting into words. If I have trouble putting something into words then obviously no one else can because I'm the best journalist ever and getting into this field was a brilliant move on my part.
Whenever I try to describe how I feel while snowboarding to others, I get caught up usually repeating a few words, "I feel so euphoric.... I just feel happy man! I just get this euphoric happy feeling. It's such a rush! I feel so happy when I'm rushing down a mountain."
It's the most beautiful feeling I've felt on this earth yet.
Videogames don't give me anything near the levels of raw glee I get from snowboarding, but they do give me more to think about. Perfect! A blog topic!
Before all the ladies (click away) rush to smother me with smooches, I just want to preface this diatribe with the warning it won't be TOO nerdy.
WHY I LOVE VIDEOGAMES I
SHREK
When I'm watching any movie, I find it increasingly hard to play the passive role of the audience. I see the protagonist on screen, going through his or her trials and tribulations, developing as a character, pushing the plot forward, coming to a new understanding, learning something, makin' sweet love and see the credits role.
When I'm playing any videogame, I am the protagonist. I make choices, and the outcomes affect me.
The videogame protagonist has time to explore his or her surroundings, not being chained to 2- hour-or-less running time for release.
I saw the film "Shrek" about 4.2 million times as a middle-school brat and every single time after the exhilarating chase scene with the dragon, when the characters are truly meeting on the cliff I kept thinking about how cool the scenery in the background looked.
"Man that looks like some cool terrain, I hope Shrek and friends explore there," said 2001 Matt.
I don't know if using "Shrek" as my prime example is going to be worthy of getting ragged on by my several thousand readers, but the background in that scene never left my head even a decade later.
BLADE RUNNER & SNATCHER
Comparing videogames and movies is a horrible thing to do, but as is the case with every new medium, it must be compared to an older, "higher" standard. You always see book snobs telling you how they wished the fight with the wargs was in the "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (but really they don't because that movie was like 9 hours long).
But I'm breaking boundaries and pushing the envelope.
"Blade Runner" is a wonderful "cyber-punk" (that's what nerds call it to differentiate it from science fiction) film from 1982 starring Harrison Ford. He plays "Deckard" a special police operative called a "blade runner" that tracks down replicants and kills them.
Replicants are robots designed for labor on interstellar colonies and can't be differentiated from humans. Their use and operation is outlawed on earth.
Deckard is a space cop who shoots robots that look like humans. Bang! bang! bang!
"Snatcher" is a wonderful "cyber-punk" videogame from 1988 made by Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear Solid fame). The protagonist's name is "Gillian" a special police operative called a "junker" that tracks down snatchers and kills them. Snatchers are robots that are creeping into Neo Kobe City and killing humans. Their malevolent motives are unknown.
Gillian is a space cop who shoots robots that look like humans. Bang! bang! bang!
"Snatcher" is about as blatant as ripoffs come. It essentially adapted the "Blade Runner" art direction, setting, atmosphere and everything into an adventure game. It did nothing to retain the questions "Blade Runner" posed.
"What makes us human?" "Can robots dream (of electric sheep lolol)?" You know, what gives us our humanity. It kept the visual aesthetic and turned into an over-the-top detective story with characterization and a plot that really came up (miles) short of "Blade Runner."
Then why do I love "Snatcher" so much (more than "Blade Runner" [Don't hurt me!])?
EXPLORATION AND INTERACTIVITY
"Blade Runner" had a beautifully designed backdrop for the action, and Deckard spends the entire film running through it.Still wasn't enough for me.
"Snatcher" put me into the role of the detective. I could investigate each area personally, speaking to witnesses, keeping evidence. It gave me the opportunity to take the time and explore every nook and cranny I wanted to see. I could even go to the police headquarters of the game and look up individuals in the database, which was completely unscripted. I met an unsavory informant and went back to police headquarters solely to check him out in the database (as a fun aside, I even input the game director's name into the database and it turned up some fourth-wall-breaking results). I could go to areas of Neo Kobe City (where "Snatcher" takes place) and spend as much time as I wanted to get the flavor of the atmosphere. I could click on almost any object and be given a background on what it was, what it was doing, or where it came from. If a back alley looked suspicious, I could investigate it even it it held no clues.
Videogames by their nature allow the audience instead of the director to choose what they see during the running time. The reason I adore "Snatcher" so, is because I could see so many additional scenes, locations and interactions in the world that contributed little to nothing to the core narrative, but made the entire experience so much more than a passive 2-hour rush through a futuristic city skyline could ever be.
That said, I don't think enduring any "Shrek" videogame is worth it to find out what that forested hillside contains.
Thanks for reading. Sorry for any glaring AP style errors and passages lacking in journalistic integrity.
I used to get a similar feeling as you did watching Shrek when I would play videogames. Games like Fable were especially bad, because they would have these beautiful backgrounds and forest settings and you would hit the invisible wall if you tried to explore. I got depressed like those dogs in those "learned helplessness" studies.
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