Comments on: What Game Designers can learn from “Avatar”

By: Mauricio

Mauricio — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:43:49 +0000

I agree with all these people…

I mean, Avatar was well done? Yes, it was… But the plot was a copy of Pocahontas, and the Art Direction look EXACTLY like the covers from Yes discs, if you search for art from the artist of Yes covers, you will see lots of stuff that are exactly like Avatar, including the flying creatures, the floating rocks, etc…

I too think that most of its sales came from Marketing, not actual skill (Altough, the people that worked where indeed skilled, it actually proves your point in the article, that orignality is not needed if you are good…)

By: Vhargaz

Vhargaz — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:30:19 +0000

I found Avatar very boring and nothing new, it was like Pocahontas in the space, the only good character was the Colonel.

By: TheGameCritique

TheGameCritique — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:41:45 +0000

Just a small point on the crying for cartoons. Yes people attach themselves to other humans naturally, but they also can attach themselves to human surrogates. Wall-E is relatable, because he is cartoonish that it makes his human charateristics stand out. Bambi, though a deer, is relatable, because he displays human emotions. This is also part of the uncanny valley. Before the valley is a peak of relatablity and likeability. This is where creative endeavor and stylization reside. It’s not the visuals that matter so much as what they are evoking. Keanu Reeves is human, but I doubt he will be evoking any tears out of anyone anytime soon.

Also didn’t hesitate when saving the kid. Thing is later on in the game, if you turn on the TV it will be on the news, whether or not you saved him and will change your mood accordingly.

By: Opellulo

Opellulo — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:21:06 +0000

“People don’t cry for cartoons. They cry for people.”
Watch “The Iron Giant” then we’ll see if you can write this statement again.

Avatar is just a plain movie with standard storytelling and interaction (it’s pure Vogler minute to minute) the only thing you could learn from it is the care for detail: everything in the movie is researched and “working” in it’s setting. This is good, but for the rest Avatar remains a very “standard” movie.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:59:14 +0000

“You would not have related to the Na’ vi if their faces looked like cartoons.”

The fact that the Na’vi look very human-like is a bit of a red herring and doesn’t really back up your assertion that looking realistically human is essential. I think you get closer to the truth when you say:

“Facial cues, voice acting, or gestures are all a start”

I think it would be more accurate to say that a character needs to be or act human-like enough in order for you to empathise with it, the way they look being just one potential tool that can be used to help acheive this.

There are many anthropomorphic characters that you will have identified with and felt empathy for, none of which look human (but no doubt look, behave and sound human-like enough and find themselves in human-like story contexts).

In fact, I’m sure there are many anthropomorphic characters which you will have cared deeply for who don’t even have a look (other than the one you may have conjured up in your head) – surely you have at some point read a book with a talking animal, rock, tree or some other thing which is categorically not human.

The emphasis you put on “realism” and the expense of faking at the end of the article is therefore kinda misplaced; we’ve been faking it on the cheap for several thousand years.

Call me a cynic, but how much of Avatar’s success is down to their faces not looking like cartoons versus the estimated $150 million marketing spend?

By: Dorian Cornelius Jasper

Dorian Cornelius Jasper — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:50:26 +0000

On the subject of “crying for cartoons,” people aren’t so shallow that they can’t emotionally relate to a character whose model can’t fully articulate realistic human expressions. This, however, requires that the character have enough substance that people’s feelings really will get tugged if something were to happen to them or their loved ones.

How realistic are character graphics in novels? And how many people actually cried for the Na’vi, anyway? Not everyone in the audience takes kindly to being condescended to by blue-skinned cartoon space cat-elves.

By: Labbes

Labbes — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:34:21 +0000

Admittedly, at the end of the movie, I really did not want Jake or Neytiri to die. So the movie made me connect to them, up to a certain degree (it’s not a character study, and it shouldn’t be, really). The side characters are a different matter, however. It’s not just me, my friends as well did not care about them dying. The helicopter pilot, the brave warrior of the Na’Vi, and even Grace, the movie did not reach me at all when they died. I felt the movie put more emphasis on the big tree getting destroyed than on the side characters dying.

And of course you are right when you say that money and hype don’t make something successful, but looking at Twilight, it does not take skill to make something successful…but that’s kind of your point, I take it, that something which reaches out to a lot of people is a masterpiece in its own right, and I don’t agree with that.

PS: I also apologise for my horrible sentence structure, it’s getting late and my concentration wanes.

By: Brice

Brice — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:29:38 +0000

@t_m, well played, perhaps I was too presumptuous in assuming most other players would do the same. My newest article on Choice goes into other reasons why I was disappointed with that child saving scenario, if you’re interested.

@Labbes, of course there will be some people in the world who don’t like Avatar, but most people would claim they were attached to all the characters. I think it’s cynical to say that you can buy the kind of success that Avatar and MW2 have had with just hype and graphics — they are both incredibly high quality works of art. People are only sheep to a degree; they know BS when they see it.

@Calabi, good point, some types of people cry for cartoons, perhaps even most of the people you and I know. Many indie gamers who like emotional games rendered in big 80’s pixels fall into this category. I would fall into this category. But in looking across all ages and demographics, the majority of people in the world don’t care about cartoons.

By: Calabi

Calabi — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:10:00 +0000

People cry for cartoons all the time. You could get someone to cry for jelly if it had the right sympathetic cues. Things like googly tear filled eyes, and a tragic backstory.

By: Labbes

Labbes — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:48:41 +0000

I’m sorry, but saying that wanting to be original is immature feels wrong to me. I think I know what you’re saying, but I disagree.
Avatar’s plot might be universal, but it failed to establish relationships with the characters who died in the latter half of the movie.
Also, saying that the movie had a “universal” plot would put it on the same height as Shakespeare, of whom people also say that he had “universal” themes. Now Shakespeare gave us betrayal, anger, never a clear line of good and bad.
Avatar gave us great special effects, which theatre fails to do, but otherwise, I never felt for the characters because they were extremely cliche. There was the Evil American General, the Evil CEO, the Soldier Who Deserts, the Native Princess and the Native Who Does Not Like The Stranger. I did not care at all when the helicopter pilot or the fighter of the Na’vi died.
In season one of Farscape, there is an episode which has similar themes, but uses them in a much more believable, and much more morally ambiguous way.

I think there is a difference between “unoriginal” and “universal” which Avatar does not manage to overcome, and it doesn’t even need to. Because what game designers can learn from Avatar is that everything sells if it’s hyped enough and looks pretty – a lesson they should already have learned from Modern Warfare 2.

Sorry for the long rant, and of course you are completely free to disagree with me ;)