Do The Old Republic web comics mark a worrying trend?
Bioware has just released the first of three web comics, in promotion of Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic.
Though this comic isn’t particularly my cup of tea, it’s the trend towards video game comics in general that’s concerning me today.
Dead Space
The dichotomy of video games’ relationship with film is well documented – we spend so much of our time pursuing filmic ideals, but also seek to foster an artform that stands on its own to feet. Now, the aesthetic similarities between comics and games, combined with the unfortunately huge overlap of themes and audience, appears to be encouraging still stronger a relationship, when really there should be almost none at all.
To be clear, I am not against video games based on comics, or vica versa. It just seems somewhat misguided to promote one artform (one that is struggling enough to establish its own identity) in the guise of another.
Nicholas Lovell on February 27, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
I understand your point that we should be proud of our medium and not worry that we are unable to tell a narrative in the way that, say, a comic book can.
On the other hand, I used to love getting goodies with games (the novella that came with Elite I read again and again.) So I like this meta-narrative, this expanded universe that I can explore.
So, in other words, we should be proud of games, but I also like reading about it more. For once, I think I disagree with you
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Nicholas Lovell on March 10, 2009 @ 2:46 pm
Bionic Commando now has one from Dave Gibbons, artist on Watchmen and Broken Sword.
http://bioniccommando.com/us/comics/view
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