Question of the Day, November 1, 2010

[The Escapist Staff]

Question of the Day, November 1, 2010



The makers of Uncharted will be releasing a follow-up to the series in novel form. How do you feel about new adventures of Nathan Drake (or other series) taking place in non-videogame form?

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[Marter]

I like them, but only if I felt like the game's story needed to be expanded upon.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I do really enjoy it. Always a great new angle to look at it from.

And the larger and more open the source material the better the books. See: Warhammer/40K books.

 

[Anacortian]

I have better things to read.

 

[dududf]

I only read them if they expand on the universe of the game.

For instance, I read one of the mass effect books and enjoyed it. If I was into halo, I'd probably read the halo books.

Also, pretty damn late in the day for the poll.

 

[sms_117b]

Warhbammer 40,000, Dragon Age and Mass Effect are all really good reads, so yes, I love reading video game novels

 

[Dark Prophet]

Don't like them, I have jet to encounter a good one, they are like movie games feel rushed out and are poorly written.

 

[V8 Ninja]

It's kind of ironic, the idea of turning games into novels, considering that games have pretty weak stories in terms of actual narrative firepower.

 

[silver wolf009]

Funny, I just finished Halo: The Flood to.

OT: I love them, the more story you can give, usually the better.

 

[Trivun]

Huh, you put this one up late today... .

Anyway, I love them if they're well written, such as the Halo novels, which are written well enough to rival a lot of non-videogame-based books. If they're badly written then obviously I won't read them, but a lot of them actually are pretty good. Narrow-minded people (like my brother, for instance) just refuse to give them the time of day because they see 'videogame' and think 'OMG! GEEKS!' and refuse to give them a chance, as if by even reading the blurb they'll suddenly become nerds. And it just isn't true at all. Thankfully, such books are slowly starting to become more mainstream now, especially with the dawn of writers such as Dan Abnett and Karen Traviss, some of the more well known writers in the field, who are also linked to novels that aren't based on videogames (Abnett, for instance, has written several books in a wide variety of fictional universes, though he's most well known for his Warhammer 40K works and the Torchwood novel he wrote for BBC Books...).

 

[WhiteRat07]

I have read a few they are usually quick easy reads for plane rides and the like

 

[Armored Prayer]

They're the only things I read now.

The more the merrier.

 

[Amalith]

You focus too much on the gaming side of this question in the poll. I don't read them, because books based off of video games are much like video games based off of movies. They usually suck.

 

[Blue Musician]

I don't like them, I just take them as fan fiction.

 

[Naheal]

Some. It depends on the game and story being told.

 

[The Random One]

I have nothing wrong against them in spirit. The problem is that they are just

so

fucking

bad.

I'm a guy who can read some Umberto Eco and then chill back with some (say) Jim Butcher, but every novel I've ever read or skimmed that could be considered a tie-in was written in a style that was about as dry as an air-conditioned crackers factory in the desert. A computer hooked up to a fantasy database could do a better job than them. I know that it's because writers who write such things have to adhere to ridiculously strict guidelines, and so I don't blame writers, but the entire set-up including writers. If you force your writers to follow guidelines worth of a reference manual don't be surprised if the resulting work is as amusing as a reference manual.

To be honest that is common with fantasy fiction as a whole, but tie-in novels bear the brunt of it.

Speaking of which, the other day I saw a Metro 2033 novel on the library. It said the game was based on it and not the other way around, anyone know if it's any good? I think I haven't read a good post-apoc novel in like ever.

 

[C95J]

What about novels turned into games, they are awesome as well.

 

[Casual Shinji]

No!

If you choose the medium of videogames to tell me a story, then you'd better stick with that. Don't come knocking on my door with Halo the novel, God of War the comic, Metroid the manga.

Edit. They're certainly taking this whole "Uncharted was based on 30's pulp" serious with an actual Uncharted novel, aren't they?