After the past two weeks, it’s a wonder that the entire internet didn’t up and die from media poisoning. The combined onslaught of E3 and the San Diego Comic Con have flooded the digital world with write-ups, trailers, screenshots, tie-ins, celebrity voice actors, and a billion other pieces of useless but tantalizing information. Both events were admittedly short on surprises but they both demonstrated that the future is a veritable smorgasbord of interactive entertainment. Strange then that a comic book adaptation of a novel was what got me thinking about the possibilities for videogames more than actual games.
Orson Scott Card was at Comic Con to discuss the graphic adaptation of his novel Ender’s Game. If you’re curious about the plot, I recommend reading the book. Why Ender’s Game got me thinking about videogames as a medium is that it’s one of a number of fictional works that prominently feature imaginary videogames as a central part of their narrative. There are actually two, a spaceship battle simulator – it’s ultimately revealed that the game isn’t a simulator at all, but a digital interface for war – and a second that is more amorphous, a sort of digital storybook that reflects the user’s subconscious. The characters in Ender’s Game play another game, though this one is a physical sport called the Battle Room. Chair Entertainment is currently working on a videogame adaptation of the Battle Room for Xbox Live Arcade. But no one is making real life videogames of the fictional videogames from Ender’s Game.
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