by Dave
An article on The Leaky Cauldron has touched on a different issue concerning the Harry Potter videogames: the potential that they might keep making them after Deathly Hallows. The game industry does have a habit of running moneymaking franchises into the ground, especially if they have marketing tie-ins that reach audiences outside of hardcore gamers. And the HP games have found a home on the Wii, which Nintendo markets to the “casual” gamer (a sometimes hotly debated strategy in gaming circles).
As the article makes note, the idea is not without precedent. Electronic Arts is also responsible for developing most of the Lord of the Rings titles, both those taken directly from the films and games simply set within Middle-Earth. And HP already has one spinoff — EA made Quidditch World Cup a few years ago. Game development tends to see games within universes. The scholarly term so hotly debated in games and media studies concerns the nature of simulation and what exactly it means. The practical consequences of simulation include an ever-growing need to fully model a space that evolves, even in places that are not on the screen, particularly in “sandbox” games (most notably, Grand Theft Auto) and with Massively Multiplayer Online games (like World of Warcraft). These games have to establish full-on environments — in the case of Warcraft, that environment continues to function and change even if individual gamers are not participating.
From a plot standpoint, the natural tendancy for developers is to explore that environment and find all the gaming/storytelling potential they can. Thus, Electronic Arts has put together several games set within the Middle-Earth and somehow tied (even if only loosely) to Tolkien’s original stories. It’s important to note, too, that these games often do not follow the Fellowship and its adventures. Thus, the precedent is also that any HP sequel after Deathly Hallows might follow some character other than Harry, or even the Trio.
Any thoughts?
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Aside from the distaste that comes with WB slapping HP on something else to grab a few bucks… I don’t really see any good reason to protest. *shrug* It seems inevitable anyway. As long as they’re good quality games, though….