Perfect Creature

[eyebeams]

It's a NZ movie with a quasi-Catholic vampire church in a steampunk world where genetic engineering started during the Enlightenment. It's fantastic worldbuilding, but falls flat as a movie once the burden of entertaining us moves from atmosphere to plot. Half the cast is just a *bit* miscast. But it was worth a rent.

It also made me reflect on the nature of game settings a bit. They tend to be overstuffed because every new bit provides another tool for story creation, and because the setting itself is an object to explore in play. But in non-interactive fiction the emphasis is on serving the plot. Settings that don't do that are usually tedious unless they're really, really well done.

Comments

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

There's conveying the setting information, as well...

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of that before, but it sounds interesting. No spoilers needed or wanted, but before I decide whether or not to see it, is the ending grim, relatively positive, or somewhere in between.

Settings that don't do that are usually tedious unless they're really, really well done.

True, and those are the novels and films I especially love. Too often, a setting in non-interactive fiction isn't a place, it a rather tenuous framework to hang a single plot on, and while that can be great fun, I much prefer settings that feel like actual places, thus proving that I am indeed in the correct line of work :)

[hot-pants.livejournal.com]

We can see this in many informal geek criticisms of television shows, movies, etc. The cry of "Why doesn't X character do X" shows a emphasis in gaming against plot and towards tools and hinky bits. I think its a big part of what makes dealing with any roleplaying game's fanbase a pain in the ass, for me.