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General: Wood: The Word of the Day is Adaptation
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Jon Wood focuses his column this week on the act of adapting an IP from books, TV, movies or anything else into an MMO and some of the changes that become necessary.
I know I've been writing a lot about Star Trek Online these days but playing the beta and reading all of the comments that people have been posting, both positive and negative, has managed to get the creative juices flowing and so this week, my column will focus once again on thoughts inspired by Star Trek Online.
This week's topic is going to be: Adaptation. In the entertainment industry, that term has come to mean the movement of an IP from one medium to another. Most famously this tends to be novels or other book to movies, but it applies across the board and has started to filter more and more into the MMO industry as time has gone on and more and more developers are looking toward established IPs as a means of drawing attention (and more importantly, paying customers) to their virtual worlds.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
I dont think that STO is a good example for a MMO where a developer has to adapt the series to make it fit into a MMO.
Especially the ST ip offers a lot which could work in a traditional MMO. I do admit that I dont know how to implement something like the mentioned example diplomacy (apart from some fixed dialogue options in missions). But things like exploration, technology research, gaining allies like in the series are usable in a MMO. And then (imo from the series) the most important part, working towards these goals with your friends as ships crew.
Cryptic chose for a combat focussed MMO. With a NPC crew, no planet exploration and few mission diversity. This could also be fun, but if a MMO focusses mainly on combat, I expect it to be something special. With the spacecombat not really being spacecombat and the groundcombat being subpar to most other MMO's groundcombat, I find it difficult to believe that this is a P2P MMO. A heavily combatfocussed F2P mmo like Guild Wars offers a lot more diversity then STO for example. So it is possible.
But the worst part is that I feel its a missed oppurtunity. The ip has been picked up by a major MMO company and they made something that I think is not worth the money. There is now little to no chance that in the near future a different company will use this ip again for a MMO. So its gone. This is what we have and thats it. This is what I find the most annoying part. Another messed up ip in MMOland.
EDIT: rewrote entire post
The key on this issue is whether or not the adaptation is made in respect of the IP or not?
All IPs need to be moved towards certain key elements for them to work in a MMO setting like the mentioned combat but also why do people come back from the dead? Or what about healing?
So how do you fit the IP within the confines of a MMO in a way so you are respectful to the IP and have it all make sense? In the article we see two successful adaptations (i find STO boring but I think they did a good job on the adaptation).
But sometimes you see games that simply is too much the game and too little the IP. Examples are AoC and WaR.
In AoC they created your standard trinity classes and then they only paid lip service to the inner logic of the Hyborian world. Yes they made it look beautiful and it was a fairly good game but it did not make sense within the workings of Hyboria. If FunCom had instead looked at ideas from the IP and then adapted them to a MMO reality like Turbine did with Lotro then we would probably have had a more unique and interesting game and who knows it might have been more successful too.
WaR is a mystery. It should have had everything going for it. Mythic were the masters of factional warfare in MMOs and the Warhammer world is all about nations and forces clashing in huge battles. But again mythic designed the game first and added warhammer to it later and they created a game that was not only boring and static but it also made little sense to warhammer fans.
So the conclusion is: Look at the IP first, take ideas from the IP and then see how they work within a MMO framework and design the game around those ideas with the IP as the base and with respect for the IP. Don't design a game first and then try to force the IP into it.
"You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."
I think this article wrongfully implies that the major criticism of STO is its failure to be true to the IP, namely in that it favors combat over diplomacy.
While some people do have this complaint, it seems that much more criticism is directed at bugs, generic ground combat and overall repetitive play. If the game was fun, most people wouldn't care that it was combat-based.
I don't think I implied that at all. I said it was a criticism, not The Only or The Major criticism. The article wasn't "what's wrong with STO". The article was about adaptation in general, with LotRO and STO as examples.
Seriously,if you read the article, it's pretty clear.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
First off let me say I think this site is giving way too much coverage to STO, and it makes me curious to if there are some deals in the background. This is far from being a major MMO, and it won't have large numbers, but yet it's all the article writers can talk about for weeks. A little fishy if you ask me.
Second I think two things about IP MMOs:
First they can do better, LotRO wasn't bad really for what it was working with but most of the other ones have been miserable and it just shows that companies look at current MMOs and then stick those MMOs in the IP they're working with.
They should be designing an MMO around the IP, not an IP around an MMO. For instance you say combat is a needed main ingredient to an MMO, that's only true by current MMO design. Second Life for example does very well and doesn't use combat. Currently designers (and article writers) are stuck in the "This is what MMOs have been doing so it is what MMOs need to do." That is just lack of vision.
Second is that companies need to stop going for IPs. All the MMOs I have enjoyed the most have been original works (or at least original works based off of other video games the same company made). I never look back over my most enjoyed MMO moments and see an IP MMO, it just doesn't happen. But now every company thinks it NEEDS an IP to make money, it's ridiculous and it's killing the genre. Look at MMOs that have been successful and long running, you will see a bunch of original works and LotRO (and SWG all though it's had a rocky time).
So why are companies suddenly jumping from that approach of designing a whole new world to explore? It is far more enjoyable to go into a world you know nothing about and learn that world. Find out how it works, who its people are, what has happened in the past to make it this place. It turns out it's not that exciting to go into an IP world and go "Oh yeah I've seen this before, but they got it wrong so it's even less interesting."
Stop making IP MMOs, and stop giving suspiciously large amounts of attention to an MMO that's hardly going to be a dot in the MMO radar.
My post is going to be somewhat "off topic on topic."
This topic reminds me of the movie "Adaptation," starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. If you haven't seen it....get it from Netflix or iTunes or somewhere, it's superb. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.
The reason it reminds me of the film, is because I really imagine that what game developers go through with their chosen IPs, looks very much like what Nicolas Cage goes through, as a screenwriter given the massive job of adapting a novel written by Meryl Streep, who plays a best-selling author in the film.
It's almost like watching a nightmare unfold. He wants to be true to the novel, and yet....how do you make an entire film about...flowers? Is the book really even ABOUT flowers? What is the "bigger picture" of what the woman is trying to say here? Can I read between the lines? Would I be accurate to do so? How much can I change? Should I change anything? "OMG this is going to be utter crap..." "Why the fuck was this novel even successful?" etc, etc, ad infinitum.
And you watch the screenwriter unravel as he's trying to unravel the story and find it's real ESSENCE from which to work from....
Frankly, I don't envy the job of anyone adapting ANYTHING. The turmoil between being true to the original, while still conveying something that the vast uneducated, unsophisticated masses can understand and enjoy....has to be like long slow TORTURE.
And then...once you're done...you get the pleasure of reading myriads of criticisms by people that fancy themselves experts, that have no experience WHATSOEVER in accomplishing what has just been done. And that...that is the job. Eww, gross, nasty. Who on EARTH would want it? Thankfully, there are developers, nonetheless, that try to please the vast majority of gamers (who think they know it all) and tolerate, and even WELCOME the criticism. I think those people must be made of steel, or perhaps some other-worldly character, and/or compound, that I know not of....
Not a job that I would ever even consider.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
So, it's not a game that people want to know more about as it prepares for launch? My numbers say differently.
Articles about this game don't draw in hits, proving their popularity? My numbers say differently.
Regardless of your personal feelings, and whatever the quality of the game, this is what people are talking about right now. Of course we're going to cover it. We don't cover the games we like, we cover the games that people want to read about. Right now, for better of worse, the "big thing happening in MMOs" is Star Trek Online.
But with all of that being said, I'm sure a big, secret conspiracy is far more logical and throwing unfounded accusations around is awesome. So, do what you will.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
So, it's not a game that people want to know more about as it prepares for launch? My numbers say differently.
Articles about this game don't draw in hits, proving their popularity? My numbers say differently.
Regardless of your personal feelings, and whatever the quality of the game, this is what people are talking about right now. Of course we're going to cover it. We don't cover the games we like, we cover the games that people want to read about. Right now, for better of worse, the "big thing happening in MMOs" is Star Trek Online.
But with all of that being said, I'm sure a big, secret conspiracy is far more logical and throwing unfounded accusations around is awesome. So, do what you will.
So, it's not a game that people want to know more about as it prepares for launch? My numbers say differently.
Articles about this game don't draw in hits, proving their popularity? My numbers say differently."
Hhmmm..the same could be said about darkfall when launched. But,how many articles we had?What the number said to you that time? I remember the flame war and forum debates all over,and yet...number remained quit silent that time.Weird numbers
in the article: "Like it or not, combat is the number one activity in any given successful MMO". Funny thing to read coming from the SAME PERSON that listed maplestory,club penguin and wizard 101 among the TOP TEN MMORPG since wow. And yet,now,combat is the NUMBER ONE activity IN ANY successful MMO. Numbers again?
again,the article,when u talk about picard: "Captain Picard lamented this hard truth in dialogue in Star Trek Insurrection (during the Dominion war) when he said, "Can anyone remember when we used to be explorers?"". Well,you've seen the movie. That time,things went ugly because federation put ECONOMY first,and compassion in second place. ECONOMY,not combat or grind for XP. STO isn't very famous for it's economy,is it?So,what r we comparing here?Not the movie to STO,for sure.
So, it's not a game that people want to know more about as it prepares for launch? My numbers say differently.
Articles about this game don't draw in hits, proving their popularity? My numbers say differently.
Regardless of your personal feelings, and whatever the quality of the game, this is what people are talking about right now. Of course we're going to cover it. We don't cover the games we like, we cover the games that people want to read about. Right now, for better of worse, the "big thing happening in MMOs" is Star Trek Online.
But with all of that being said, I'm sure a big, secret conspiracy is far more logical and throwing unfounded accusations around is awesome. So, do what you will.
Going by your own site and how it works, when was the last time that a soon to be released Major title didn't top your own charts?
Warhammer, Age of Conan, Aion, and now Final Fantasy, Star Wars: The Old republic, Guild Wars 2. All of these games topped the "Top Voted" games before release. Star Trek Online doesn't even show up on the top 10.
Now look at Most Popular Games for the past week and month. Star Trek, despite getting close to release and sharing all this information about the game, doesn't show up again.
Everytime a significant release is getting close on this site the game tops those charts because everyone is interested, yet no one is voting for and viewing STO? How does that make it a big popular game.
Anyone who thinks this game is going to have high sales/subs is kidding themselves. It has a market, but a small one. It won't draw in the crowd and a lot of people just won't even care that it exists. It will have Champions Online numbers and that's about it. Are there people who want to know some more about the game? Of course as there is with any game. Is there as many as with actual major releases? No not even close. Even Darkfall had more interest going in to release then STO.
I'm sure there are numbers that say people are reading the articles, players want to read articles about games. Most of the articles these days are about random ideas and what ifs. There's nothing wrong with that but gamers will always focus more on an article about an actual game.
I've been reading this site for years, and I can't think of a time where so much focus was being put on a game so small in scale. But if the new direction is going to be focus on smaller releases then I welcome that, if it is directed towards all smaller releases. Personally I would like to see a lot more articles about the little guys. The fact that this started now seemed very odd to me.
Look, here's the deal: We put up articles, and then we see how many people read those articles. If it was lots, I think to myself: we should probably get more articles about this, and we do. STO has been drawing in large numbers of readers. I'm not talking about "top voted" I'm talking about how many people actually read the article.
It's not a judgement about how popular or not popular we think the game will be after it launches.
But, believe me, or don't. I don't really care. We got the same complaints when we were covering Darkfall in exactly the same way. Sometimes smaller games crop up that people can't get enough of reading about. It happens.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
I'm sorry, and I don't mean to be rude, but nothing in this post is factually accurate:
1) I heard similar complaints that we were running too many Darkfall articles in the weeks leading up to its launch, the situations are almost identical.
2) You may want to take another look at who authored the top ten MMOs since WoW article. You may be surprised to learn that it wasn't me.
3) You've completely misinterpreted my use of that quote. I'm not sure what it is you think I was saying, but it wasn't what you try to say there.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Adaptation, reboots, re-imaginings and so on are the current flavour in both Hollywood and MMOs because they don't have to find a particularly talented writer to imagine a vibrant and consistent world, just a team that can manage to throw together dialogue and action scenes. They all seem to do passably well too, just based on the strength of the existing fanbase if nothing else.
The problems usually start to crop up when the adaptation loses it's way and starts to simply shoehorn in various things that they suppose are "needed". In keeping with the article, think of Star Trek: Nemesis (the last in a line of movie adaptations of the Next Gen TV show). There is that pointless scene involving a dune buggy chase on some remote planet - driven by Jean Luc himself. This (to me at least) was a blatant example of some writer or producer saying "this movie needs more action in it, let's get the captain out and doing something!" - when anyone that watched the series even casually would know it's not particularly in-character and would ring false.
MMOs suffer the same problems (and it's even evident in this article) when they make assumptions on what their game "has to have" to satisfy the MMO population. If the IP you've chosen doesn't particularly support combat gameplay - then perhaps the answer isn't to figure out how to shoehorn it in, it's to figure out a new and engaging system of play that doesn't focus on combat. Star Trek is probably about 25% combat on average across all the series (with certain samples falling way outside that average). Frankly, if STO wanted to be true to the series they would need to have errant technology within the ships themselves being one of the major adventure hooks (what's Star Trek if the holodeck or the transporters aren't causing some kind of episode-long trouble).
Frankly - the problem isn't that adaptation forces certain choices on an MMO team, it's that MMO teams (or rather the production houses behind the team) seem to think that they need to have an IP to hang their product on. So they pick an IP that they figure would have the biggest draw and dump it on their development people, telling them to make an MMO out of it - rather than the more logical approach of designing the bones of a great MMO and then (if needed) looking for an IP who's properties mesh best with the game they're trying to create.
IP conversion has been a problem since the inception of computer gaming. Movie based games almost always suck. There are very few exceptions to this rule, so I will never buy a movie based game. Period, end of story.
MMOs are even worse for adapting IP. Novels and movies generally follow one main character and a few supporting roles through grand adventure. They usually start with the unlikely hero scenario and take someone of humble beginnings and make them into a savior. Unfortunately, this simply doesn't work when you have to cater to several hundred thousand Frodos, Luke Skywalkers, Rand al'Thors, Conans, Enders, Drizzts, Corwins or any other IP that fits this mold. A TV show has many more hours and capability to add more supporting roles, but it's still limited to a total cast of a few hundred to a few thousand for the lifetime of the show. Not everyone can be BA, Aang, Picard, Starbuck, Koenig, Liono, Thundarr, He-Man, or even one of the supporting characters like Quark, Troi, or LaForge.
When it gets down to the game content, you have the same issue as identity. Everyone can't pull the trigger on their X-Wing to save the galaxy from the Death Star - it just doesn't work. In fact, that's one of the main drawbacks to MMOs - their lack of any ability on the part of the player to affect the world in any meaningful way. Darth Vader will always respawn so the guy in line behind you can kill him. The Death Star encounter will play out the same way for everyone that successfully completes the mission, but the mission will always be available for every player.
The problem reminds me of theLadders commercials. 1000 people all trying to play tennis at the same time on the same court simply doesn't work, but that's the basic nature of MMOs, especially in starting areas.
Instancing and phasing is one way to blunt the game content problem, but it doesn't deal with the IP identity issue.
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Come on Stradden, I mean you guys should be ready to fly the coup and head to Tahiti to open a sea side bar by now. I mean all the money you're getting per article from Funcom, Mythic, Turbine, and all the others who advertise here. Why are you still sitting behind a PC responding to us? /sarcasm off.
Great article when you take the time to read it, and understand it. With out conspiracy theory's running rampant in the back of your mind. The assumptions that are made here day in and day out by posters are getting hysterical, keep it up guys. Who needs comedy central when you have websites like this?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I have always had a hard time with adaptation. I personally enjoy IPs being developed for the media they are targeting.
Books for books, movies for movies, games for games.
There are plenty of great video game IPs that have been very successful, why the need to adapt from a different media.
Mass Effect is a great example of an original IP that resembles Star Trek without having to adapt anything.
I will just speculate that if STO wasn't based on Star Trek, but was basically the same game it is now with different ships, and unique lore. it would have a better reception by video game fans.
I can only assume adapting a popular IP from one media to another is not for the quality of the game, but for the fans who identify with the IP. (Which effects my impression of these adapted titles, rational or not.)
Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty
I don't think STO is getting more coverage than it should, and that comes from someone that won't buy it/try it for atleast 6 months after release. Too many articles? Well I don't see any other big release on the horizon, it's not exactly stealing any new releases thunder is it? I'm interested in watching this to see what happens and if it gets to a point where it's worth me trying it out.
As for adapting IPs it usualy goes tits up at some point, someone is unhappy with something that doesn't fit in to their idea of the Star Trek universe right up to the game sux and the company did a total hatchet job on the lore. The question is where will STO fall within these parameters? They need to make the game fun or else, and instancing makes me want to bludgeon those filthy p'toks at Cryptic with a rusty battleth in the soft parts.
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Nowhere is this more evident than with SWG especially the original game design. Had that game not been Star Wars related, A: the original creators would have had more freedom and liberty with the property, which would allow easier content related development. B: The original concept of social game-play as well as action oriented would have never needed changing ( not that I felt it did with the IP attached). That game would be showing better numbers than eve right now had it been an original sci-fi based IP (or even a lesser known: firefly).
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That's actually a very good post.
There are many times I have to adapt or set poems or lyrics to music. The problem with this, especially if it's a poem, is that you can't really treat the text like second cititzens there just to be coat hangers for the music.
Especially since the writers, if they are alive might have something to say about it ; )
I will say though that I had heard some poems by Wallace Stevens and really loved them. So much so that I went out and bought some to see if I could set some to music.
After reading a good many of them I decided that anything that I would do to them would comletely ruin them as the constuction was such that tampering with it would undermine a lot of what the writer put there. So that was it, no Wallace Stevens songs.
Another important thing that people need to take into account is that when adapting a IP to a MMO there is a difference between adapting and recreating.
We'll go back to the LOTRO example. I can see where including things such as Auction House, Trainers, etc would be used to because many mmo's have these. You dont' need them because there are other wasy to implement such things but they are abn easily recognizable quantity and though it adds a more than conspicous game element doens't detract too much from the world at large.
Infering character classes is also ok, though again, it's not needed to have classes it does work.
But addng things just because they are fun and the players would want them (yes, I'm looking at you Mr. Steefel) seems going over the line.
I'm very sure there are a lot fo things that mmo players would find fun. doesnt' mean you have to add them into the game just because the players want them. (Talking about Runekeepers here). If I was to do a war of the roses mmo it would be beyond the pale to add magic just because players would think it was fun.
Same thing with a WWII mmo. Players might think Jets are fun but they didn't really apear until the end of the war.
Yet I could see an mmo maker implementing a system where after you levelled up enough you could fly one of these babies as part of your skills training. So grind for 2 weeks and you could very well turn the tide of the war.
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Well adaptaion is good if it is done in a good way.
Lotro actually pulled it off the first 2 years following the way the ring went. Now were stuck in a time vortex. They don't know what do and how to get there. I feel for the guys at turbine torn between do we follow the wring or do we do the time warp and go into the dirrection of the hobbit. You have fanboys of both pulling for turbine to ehter go to laketown and smog or go to rohan and mordoor. So what happened instead of folllowing anything we would up with a bunch of instances to grind on a daily basis. A lot of folks are opting out, population in lotro is back to pre xpac numbers.
STO adaptation of the ip is right from the start a complete shame of what star trek should be. Yes there is some exploring in a confined isntance. Tons of space combat horibly done to bad they hired the guy who did pirates of the burning seas to write the code for their space combat. They needed to get the guy who did space combat for soe. Now that was a huge open area even though it was an isntance instead of this little confied area we got with STO. Ground combat what can I say, its sad.
The main question is how many folks can they pull. I see STO starting out huge, and then rapibly decreasing. It will be a niche game the same as LOTRO.
The only reason why these games even get big billing is the IP. Folks want to know it its good bad or what.
I wish those who will be in love with STO good luck, as Cryptic did not get my cash. Turbine got my cash for teh AP pack but never gain. Turbine and STO will forever get my no vote nowdays. I refuse to pay for games that are crud, and that they cant seam to keep a competent staff to at least give us new and great content.
All these games ever want to do is more of the same. Here is your instance run it 100 times day and check with us later, want fries with that.
Yes adaptation, is hard. Popular IP's are even worse.
The more popular the IP, the more people have an idea of what they expect to be there in the game.
No, not exactly as seen on tv/movies, or even read of in books, but you need to try hard to keep it familiar.
STO just cried out to be done HUGE. With a huge budget and time frame to really bring all that could of been, and now never will be.
Just as a gamer here, imagine all the huge space and ships of EVE online skinned as Trek. Plenty of room for all the factions, real feelings of exploration. Actually having areas to defend and fight over, not small battlegrounds. All the factions present at launch. Huge complex crafting and exploration, and building.
Gah, Eve could have skinned their game as it is, for Trek, and made a Trek game 1000 times better than what we have from Cryptic.. Eve at release years ago titled STO would be far better than what we have from Cryptic.
Take out the harsh DP's and full PVP from EVE and they would have many times the subs that they do. Add on top a huge IP name and all the Lore, and we would have what a true STO should look like.
The true shame here is that STO will have similar subs to EVE, if not more. Not even close to as good a game as what it could have been and EVE is now, just without the IP.
And no, i am not a fan of what EVE is, just what it could be with a few changes. The size, and scope of what they have, would be the perfect base of what a true Star Trek game should be. Can anyone ever imagine STO looking or feeling ANYTHING like EVE? Even 4-5 years from now? I sure can not.
I'm sorry, and I don't mean to be rude, but nothing in this post is factually accurate:
1) I heard similar complaints that we were running too many Darkfall articles in the weeks leading up to its launch, the situations are almost identical.
2) You may want to take another look at who authored the top ten MMOs since WoW article. You may be surprised to learn that it wasn't me.
3) You've completely misinterpreted my use of that quote. I'm not sure what it is you think I was saying, but it wasn't what you try to say there.
Please stay on topic, or I'm going to have to uber-perma-hyper-warn you both
Adapting Star Trek to combat style MMO is a disgrace. Thats all I have to say about it.
Great read. To many folks seem to have missed the point ( hint....it wasn't about dissing or promoting any particular game or the worst possible failure points).
I thought the LOTR movie was a perfect example of this. Yes, Tom B. got wiped but then he wasn't a major player in the storyline and there was, after all, just so much time that could be devoted. As it is, 3 hr movies are rare! This was, in effect, a 9 hour movie.
It seems that some people, probably younger, want to find greed and alterior motives in everything. In the real world, some things are just not posssible if it is to be doable and a success....just look at ( if they can even be found) the early attempts at making LOTR into a movie. They were horrid!!
In the end, LOTR movies did very well and had tons of input from fans of the storyline, did more than anyone has ever done to do justice to the story and there were still people that had to nit-pick. Overall, fans, like me, loved it.
The MMO experience from a given IP is precisely based on how to translate the spirit and letter of the IP to a playable MMO.
Think on how Mythic would have done the Star Trek one. Surely two factions and an engaging space BG's to battle and grind it out, for XP and Renown. Weird, but it could have been the most intelligent way to make it enjoyable for the main MMO gamer. Gamers discontent and flaming here.
Sigil would have drawn a seamless space with planets in full terrain, a gigantic client and somewhat mega bugged, with 20 factions and lots of missions. But you would have got the 'environment' of it. A big game but maybe too serious for the mainstream. Gamers discontent and flaming here.
CCP turn: they make a huge universe and a system of player driven wars and economy, with a lot of knowledge required to play. Gamers here complaining: "It's just EVE with a Star Trek skin".
And on and on and on.
I think Cryptic have made a good MMO, not the best, not the most polished but clearly they have worked hard to bring some Trek taste to a playable and enjoyable MMORPG.
It is a question of fangs.