Welcome back! As you might know, it's been fanboy- and especially fangirl-field day since you were gone, so you might as well throw all pretense of shame, embarrassment and good taste aside and drool over your most loved one in the world of games. He. It wouldn't be fair if WE were the only ones to make fools out of ourselves. Hey, while we're at it, why don't you ask the entire staff to write in!

Now for the actual topic. I think books COULD actually be converted to games pretty well. I don't think you could literally convert most novels, because of the interactivity element, but you could pretty well base a game on one. Take for instance The Dark Tower by Stephen King. It's a fascinating environment, and you could actually switch between that world and ours at certain times in the story. I think it shouldn't be an RPG but an action-adventure, though. It might have Gunslinger's kind of atmosphere... yeah. But I'm rambling.

Hmmmmmm... The Dark Tower... My only weak spot...

Sir Farren, nihil sanctum est.

Anyway, one thing that occurred to me with the whole "characters you lust for" topic is how many people once thought it was silly (or still do). On the other hand, more traditional objects to lust after - say, the centerfold in Playboy or Penthouse - are just about as fictional, relative to you, the luster. The only difference is somewhere, somehow, there's a woman or man who, after makeup and some airbrushing of a photo, looks like the thing you're looking at.

Whereas with fictional characters, you're at least admitting it's total fantasy from the beginning. As long as it stays a fantasy and doesn't become some kind of obsession to you, I'd say one is no worse than the other. Just remember, as you search for a significant other in your life, few people have naturally green hair and magical powers. ;)

Damien Wellman (Skid)

"Sabriel" (and perhaps its sequel, which was released just recently) would translate to a PS2 era video game very nicely, I should think. It's full of interesting characters, Sabriel, Mogget, Touchstone, the Clayr, etc, etc, etc. Oh, I don't know; I'm sure that those who've read the book will understand what I mean.

~nezu would have to go classic vincent valentine for her guy. or maybe gau. teehee.

Books as games, eh? Well, it's certainly been tried, on the PC anyway. One of the first games I ever played was this gawdawful "Lord of the Rings" game. It basically was just a bunch of random characters that kinda looked like Tolkien's characters (but this was on a 386 so how the heck could you tell?) running around and fighting, and you couldn't even control the battles, so you just got your pixellated butts kicked again and again and again, no matter how powerful you were. Fortunately it didn't turn me off of gaming forever. (Came close, though.)

But then, how in the world do you make something like that into a game that people would want to play in the first place? If you wanted to preserve even a fraction of the characterization and description that the books had, you'd have to make the game many CDs long and/or cut some scenes out of the final product. And then you'd have to figure out a way to incorporate some kind of action and control in there, making it a game instead of a movie where you push a couple of buttons now and then. It could theoretically be done, but I'm sure that many Tolkien fans would hate it anyway, because their favorite character didn't look or sound like they imagined (s)he would, or their favorite scene/place was cut, or something like that.

That's the problem with basing games on published books. With games, you have to see (and maybe hear) the characters to play the game (duh). With books, you get to use your imagination, and I know from experience that sometimes when books are carried over to movies or games, you just end up thinking something like, "No, damn it! Piter de Vries does not look like that!" or "Hey! You screwed up the sandworms! Losers!"

Now, basing a game on a series of books but creating an original plot within the book's universe, that can be pretty good. Betrayal at Krondor was done that way; the people at Sierra (or Dynamix, actually) went to Raymond E. Feist and asked him to help them make a game in his Riftwar universe that plays like one of his books. He agreed, and what they ended up with was a game that was based off of his books, that didn't feel like a pale imitation of a book but like a story in its own right. It had characters that grew as the game progressed, it had a plot that didn't do too badly with keeping you guessing, and it was faithful to the series' universe without being dull. That's my opinion, and judging from the awards that the game won back in 1994, I'm not the only one who liked it.

(Incidentally, Feist's released a book called "Krondor: The Betrayal," and from what I've read of it, it's based on the game. A book based on a game? What a concept.)

So, in summary: It's hard to base games off of published books, especially popular books, without pissing someone in the fanbase off. But basing games on books can be good, especially if you have the author's help.

- Wallwalker

You know I always thought that if they made Lunar fashion dolls. . . . Ghaleon's final outfit would also have to be packaged with a small plastic clip-on Luna to stick on him. Like that Snarf straw-holder McDonald's or whatever was giving out back in the 80s when people still cared about the environment, world peace, and Thunder Cats. . . .

Anyway.

Since the time I read them way the hell back in junior high I've thought Brian Jacques' Redwall stories would make excellent RPGs with wide-ranging appeal. Sure, all the characters are rodents and other woodland fuzzies, but fuzzies, mind you, that strap on plate mail and bust out legendary swords and whatnot for assorted valorous quests into exotic territories. And let's face it. . . . Martin, Matthias and Mattimeo were ideal RPG figureheads, minus the increasingly necessary (and nauseating) angst factor, even if they were freakin' mice. The villains were kewl, also. If you're a small field mouse, accompanied by maybe a couple moles and squirrels with pikes and slings, can you imagine how much more menacing a megalomaniacal lynx would be than . . . say . . . Ultimecia?

Sure, it would be a very western story and setting and lack some of the eastern-influenced goodness the "entrenched" set (including myself) is so in love with, but imagining Jacques' worlds realized in some way stylistically similar to something the FFT/VS team would turn out makes me salivate. The nifty, intricately detailed midieval world as seen by the inhabitants of the forest's floor. The perspective alone would make the environment interesting. And all the people who keep bitching about the encroaching sci-fi element in their traditionally sword-and-sorcery-dominated games would have one less thing to keep them awake at night.

Okay . . . I think this qualifies as overlong, now. I'll go. Tell Tami and Andrea I'm really sorry for not contributing to the lusty orgies they presided over in your absence . . . I could have drooled at length over Flik, Sydney, et al with them. But unfortunately the real thing occupies a lot of my time. Damn, but it sucks to be stuck in a relationship with a flesh-and-blood man . . . Well. At least mine's a swordsman. That always helps. Mmmmm. . . . swordsmen. . . .

~Zedelia

----The Jabberwock

I swear, parents looking for an excuse have got to start choosing their scapegoats a lot more carefully...

- Water Buffalo

Those two girls turned the letter column into a porn festival. I'm not tryin' to come here to read about Sydney and Hardin gettin' their gyrations on. "Who do you lust over?" "What male on male couples would you like to see?" Blagh! So I'm glad we have someone back in the saddle who's as uncomfortable with Ashleys exposed nether regions as I.

Gilbert, he who wonders why all RPGs use trap doors as major plot points