Movie Days
One of the perks of working in the game industry is that whenever a Geekdom movie comes out, there's a good chance we'll get half a day to go see it on the Friday the week it comes out. You know the types of movies I'm talking about: Epic Fantasy, Super Heroes and Comic Book characters, Science Fiction... Unless too many come out in too short of a time, in which case we'll probably only go see one. I remember when we went to see X-Man 2, there were employees from Obsidian, Troika, Blizzard, Interplay, and a couple other studios I can't remember off hand. Somehow we all ended up at the same showing. I bet 80% people attending that movie worked in the game industry.
I'm glad we do this, because otherwise I'd probably almost never go to the theater. Putting aside 3 hours to go see the lame stuff that generally comes out isn't worth it to me. But I'm certainly not going to pass up on a free half-day from work with a free movie included! The movie is usually followed up by lunch, so we don't even tend to get into the office on movie days until about 2 or 3pm. That's a work day I can never get enough of.
One thing I get a quiet chuckle about on these movie outings is the post-movie analysis from the different types of people that make up a game company. Everyone comments on the aspects of the movie that they would probably be most qualified to speak on.
As the credits roll, I'll hear the artists behind me begin talking about the color filters used on the camera, the angles used to frame certain scenes, or the attention to detail or lack thereof in the CG. They open my eyes to things like that that I never notice. 'Did you notice how they used a soft green filter throughout the movie to give it historic, fantasy feel?' for example. 'Did you notice the camera angle in that one scene?'
Then I'll start to hear the designers speak up. They're never happy about the story. Unless they're ecstatic about the story. Nothing is inbetween. Every story is either the best or the worst implementation of its respective plot-formula they have ever seen. They see a million and one plotholes, strongly dislike or like certain characters, and will explain the role those characters filled in some unwritten rulebook that must be satisfied for every story. By the time they're done ranting, the most coherent story will have been reduced to sounding like the ramblings of a novice.
Then us programmers pipe in with how we liked or disliked the solutions the characters took when presented with challenges. 'That solution was idiotic. Why, all he had to do was...' or 'That's a pretty good solution, but I still would have done ... instead.' Almost no solution is good enough to us. We know exactly how the hero or villain could have achieved success given the restrictions provided by the circumstances. And if there's a 'hacking scene' or 'computer' scene anywhere in the movie? Forget it! That movie will never get mentioned in front of us without us bringing up the flaws with the hacking/computer scene, no matter how insignificant that scene may have been.
Ever since I've become aware of these patterns in our post-movie critiquing, I look forward to them at each movie to see if everyone will play their part correctly. Does this habit carry over to other fields as well? Do scientists jump on the science; computer experts dissecting the use of technology? I suspect regular authors have a hard time letting plot holes slide. I bet lawyers will happily tell you how Hollywood's portrayal of law is nothing like the real legal system.
-Akari
I'm glad we do this, because otherwise I'd probably almost never go to the theater. Putting aside 3 hours to go see the lame stuff that generally comes out isn't worth it to me. But I'm certainly not going to pass up on a free half-day from work with a free movie included! The movie is usually followed up by lunch, so we don't even tend to get into the office on movie days until about 2 or 3pm. That's a work day I can never get enough of.
One thing I get a quiet chuckle about on these movie outings is the post-movie analysis from the different types of people that make up a game company. Everyone comments on the aspects of the movie that they would probably be most qualified to speak on.
As the credits roll, I'll hear the artists behind me begin talking about the color filters used on the camera, the angles used to frame certain scenes, or the attention to detail or lack thereof in the CG. They open my eyes to things like that that I never notice. 'Did you notice how they used a soft green filter throughout the movie to give it historic, fantasy feel?' for example. 'Did you notice the camera angle in that one scene?'
Then I'll start to hear the designers speak up. They're never happy about the story. Unless they're ecstatic about the story. Nothing is inbetween. Every story is either the best or the worst implementation of its respective plot-formula they have ever seen. They see a million and one plotholes, strongly dislike or like certain characters, and will explain the role those characters filled in some unwritten rulebook that must be satisfied for every story. By the time they're done ranting, the most coherent story will have been reduced to sounding like the ramblings of a novice.
Then us programmers pipe in with how we liked or disliked the solutions the characters took when presented with challenges. 'That solution was idiotic. Why, all he had to do was...' or 'That's a pretty good solution, but I still would have done ... instead.' Almost no solution is good enough to us. We know exactly how the hero or villain could have achieved success given the restrictions provided by the circumstances. And if there's a 'hacking scene' or 'computer' scene anywhere in the movie? Forget it! That movie will never get mentioned in front of us without us bringing up the flaws with the hacking/computer scene, no matter how insignificant that scene may have been.
Ever since I've become aware of these patterns in our post-movie critiquing, I look forward to them at each movie to see if everyone will play their part correctly. Does this habit carry over to other fields as well? Do scientists jump on the science; computer experts dissecting the use of technology? I suspect regular authors have a hard time letting plot holes slide. I bet lawyers will happily tell you how Hollywood's portrayal of law is nothing like the real legal system.
-Akari