I saw this article Hollywood: LA Times Says, Games Don't Work as Movies recently and my instant reaction as long time gamer was obvious, 'what a total pile of arse!'.
But then I got to thinking about it for a little bit, pretty much all the game that have been translated to film so far have been somewhat lacking in the plot department, not because they are poor games but because for the most part the player's interaction with the game is what drives them. Even in the most sophisticated RPGs the plot is basically incidental to the mechanics of the game.
And thinking of RPGs... should the producers try, instead of making half-arsed films of shooty action games, to make a film of something with a bit more of a plot? Say Baldur's Gate, Oblivion or Fallout? I'm not actually sure they should do that either. If you've already played your way through 30 hours of fairly intense story why would you then go and pay to sit like a zombie in from of a 2 hour hacked up version? And would the non-gaming audience go for it either? I doubt it.
So the only alternative would be to take a well written story, set in or inspired by a strong gaming narrative and make a movie of that. Though that's not much different to just making a stand alone movie in its own right, and it would still be a hard sell to the non-gaming public.
The last option is to make games based on the narrative established in the movies... and we all know how that usually turns out
So I reckon this Hollywood chap might be right, it pretty much is impossible to make games into movies.


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