Game People Calling: Games Enter the Common Consciousness

[Game People]

Game People Calling: Games Enter the Common Consciousness

Heavy Rain surfaces in the BBC?s new Sherlock Holmes series in undeniable form.

Read Full Article

 

[RowdyRodimus]

So basically, videogames are doing to entertainment what the space program did for just about everything else in life. It seems they have been for a long time, horrid sequels, poor writing; you know a genuine lack of originality and creativity in essence.

 

[Darth_Dude]

Ah, but does it have quick time events?

 

[Albino Boo]

Personally, I don't think the reference to heavy rain has anything to do with the game. The 2 writers, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, came up with idea whilst talking on the train coming back from Cardiff to London. They have both been writers on the Doctor Who series and seeing the murder victim was a television executive who had a whole string of lovers, I suspect the whole thing was a joke at the expense of the Dr Who production staff. The writers are an Englishman and Scotsman poking fun at the welsh Cardiff for raining all the time. Sorry no games involved.

Edit: Oops I forgot to explain the scene that mentions heavy rain was Sherlock explaining the that murder victim had just come from Cardiff to London on the train. He worked it out due to that fact the only place in range that had heavy rain was Cardiff.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Ah, but does it have quick time events?

Press channel up to have a Geico commercial, press volume down to...

Damn it Britain, why must you always have awesome TV shows? All the fuck we have now are reality shows! I hate them!

 

[Thaius]

"...they (video games) are a part of how our culture collectively expresses itself. They are a part of the air we breathe when making sense of the world."

So... in other words, art. Not a full definition, but definitely a huge part of it. Add creativity (which no one with a brain will deny video games have), and you've pretty much got it.

 

[Thaius]

EDIT: Crap, double post. My bad.

 

[Woodsey]

Game People is a rag tag bunch of artisans creating awesomely bizarre reviews from across the pond.

Wait, what pond? There are so many Australian and British commenters here that I barely register The Escapist as an American outlet. Is it? Where is this thing located other than "The Internet"? Is "across the pond" the UK or America?

It's American, so I'm guessing Game People are from over here in the UK.

Can't say I've heard any Australians on the Escapist though, I must say.

 

[Alfador_VII]

I didn't really spot the reference in the first 10 or so minutes of Sherlock I watched before being forced to give up.

I really like the books, and still read them from time to time, so I couldn't cope with this "updating" of the story.

 

[Jared]

It goes to show how ingrained video culture is becoming now. No longer something at the fringe of society, but, becoming more and more accepted

 

[FloodOne]

Errmm... A television series ripping off a video game (that didn't exactly sell well) doesn't equate to video games entering the common consciousness. It equates to a director using a video game to do most of his work for him, then adding some overt references to color his plagiarism as homage.

That being said, heavy rain wasn't much of a video game, it was a slightly interactive movie. Thus its pretty easy to translate pretty much everything it did to television.

Didn't sell well? I would say that 1.35 million is a very solid number for a project so outside of the norm. Plus, it was a console exclusive to boot.

 

[Gruchul]

Didn't sell well? I would say that 1.35 million is a very solid number for a project so outside of the norm. Plus, it was a console exclusive to boot.

Hence the reason I said "not exactly sell well," rather than 'OMG IT WUZ COMPLET FLOP WTF LOL!'

The thing is, it sold much better than the developers expected (they expected 200-300k units). When something sells 4 times its initial expectation, it's very difficult to justify saying it didn't sell well.

 

[jaeger138]

Loving the Sherlock series, but I gotta say that I think the links you've found are pure coincidence. The Origami episode was a little silly as the killer was chinese and it's a japanese art and the 'heavy rain' line seemed more like a logical question based on evidence. I'm not sure they'd write a whole scene just so they could pay respect to an influence.

The writing on the screen is really just the most effective way of demonstrating Sherlock's speedy and thorough deductive skills so I see that as coincidence too.

And what's with the 'ripping off' talk Hopeless? Since when did being inspired by a narrative tool from another piece of media become ripping it off? This is how paradigms are born.

And your argument that it didn't sell well has no legs to stand on. It outsold projected sales by a long way and sold amazingly for an exclusive with lower sales projections.

 

[KCL]

Loving the Sherlock series, but I gotta say that I think the links you've found are pure coincidence.

Correct. All the writing for Sherlock was finished before Heavy Rain even shipped. Filming started the month prior. There's no connection.

 

[LitigationJackson]

wait, you're going to see Holme's thought process? that ruins the whole premise! the story is told from Watson's point of view because Holmes has the whole damn thing worked out in like 10 minutes

 

[SuccessAndBiscuts]

wait, you're going to see Holme's thought process? that ruins the whole premise! the story is told from Watson's point of view because Holmes has the whole damn thing worked out in like 10 minutes

You see parts of the process some of the time.

It works, trust me. You get the clues without the conclusions and then see Watson reach the same theory as you and Holmes rips it apart.

Yes I am enjoying this series.

 

[Plinglebob]

Unfortunately, I think the writer of the article is trying to see connections where there arn't any. Great series though.