A lot of F and N readers are from film and literary nerdship, so here comes a little helping of cross-cultural columnizing. Games and Movies have shared a sort of awfully awkward sisterhood since the early eighties. We could talk about their first public spat when the ET movie became a classic and…the ET game famously infamously found its way into a landfill somewhere in the desert, because so many units of it were un-bought, returned, and generally avoided. Games and movies made a lukewarm truce when James Bond’s Goldeneye became a hit, and hence the poster child for why to make a movie-based game, “we really should make a game for Comic Book Movie 19, remember Goldeneye? It was good.” Or we could talk about all those Uwe Boll Movies… But we aren’t doing that today. Today we’re gonna over-simplify a really complicated thing. The question that most film people ask me: What’s the difference between making a movie and making a game? You know I hate when people ask that. How do games get greenlit? The super duper simplified version. Just like the pictures, there are lots of types of games that all have different money paths. There’s a term in the industry called a AAA (“Triple A”, like the roadside towing thing) game. I’ve seen game designers debate this over hot pockets in the studio kitchen for hours on end, so let’s keep it simple; it’s the game version of a blockbuster. It’s a big budget game. Things go boom. Pretty vistas. Lots of other things that costs millions of dollars. These type of games are usually rained down from biz/marketing of a publisher. I said usually. (Please game friends, don’t email me about Valve.) Publishers are the gods of this...
Guess The Random Lyric: Today is Wednesday, Sept. 24th
posted by Ernessa T. Carter
Oh, wow! We had a “singer from Missouri” showdown yesterday! Both Brian V from New Jersey, and Tyler P from California guessed incorrectly. Brian V thought it was Sheryl Crow, who is from Missouri, but alas, is not this singer. And Tyler P. thought it was Tracy Chapman. But Angela G from Texas guessed correctly that it was Tina Turner singing “Goldeneye” from the James Bond movie of the same name. There’s something important that I have to say now: I frickin love Tina Turner. She’s so out-of-this-world dope, that 23 years later, I still don’t get embarrassed about how I came back from summer break when I was 8, and insisted that all the other 3rd graders, my family, and my teacher call me “Tina” for a whole week. True story. Getting back to the lyrics, though. Which Norwegian blond bad-ass sang this: I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna get done I’m just a girl that’s only chewing for fun You spit it out when all the flavour has gone Wrap him round your finger like you’re playing with gum Guesses in the comments. And I’ll see you tomorrow to talk about you. Til then, check out Tina Turner, in a slinky silver dress and a piled-high blong wig in the “Goldeneye” video. It’s after the...