Are games-based dramas the new TV trend?

By Andrea Mullaney
Published on Wednesday 18 January 2012 14:09

Gamers may have been excited by an announcement last week about a new American TV show, LA Noir, which will be a stylised drama of police corruption, gangsters and hardboiled crime noir.

But note that missing ‘e’: this is not an adaptation of the hugely successful Rockstar Games title, LA Noire, where players control a detective following clues and interrogating suspects. It just sounds like a lot like it.

The show will be directed for the TNT Channel by Shawshank Redemption screenwriter Frank Darabont, who also developed the TV version of graphic zombie series The Walking Dead. Early publicity notes that LA Noir is based on a non-fiction book by John Buntin, subtitled The Struggle For The Soul Of America’s Most Seductive City, which parallels the lives of future LAPD chief William Parker and mobster Mickey Cohen.

But given that LA Noire has sold over four million copies and been acclaimed as one of the most innovative games ever, due to its sophisticated facial recognition software that allows better interaction with the characters, those behind the TV show must be hoping that the similar name brings in some of those fans.

But then, LA Noire itself beefed up its credibility by hiring six actors best known for TV’s Mad Men, which has many noir elements and is seen as a high quality show – older games were often mocked for dodgy voiceovers or acting in filmed segments. And when Rockstar first began developing the game in 2005, it was clearly influenced by the success of the film LA Confidential, adapted from James Ellroy’s book.

When video games first became popular, Hollywood attempted to cash in by making big screen spin-offs, usually with dire results (remember Bob Hoskins as Mario, or Kylie ragingly miscast in Street Fighter?). And often blockbusters feature action scenes which seem designed purely for the inevitable accompanying game.

Today’s more advanced games, though, are becoming such a common feature of many homes that, along with the internet, they’re often cited as a reason for declining television viewing figures, particularly among younger people. So it’s perhaps no surprise that channels are beginning to think of luring them back in by taking inspiration from popular games, whether officially or just in spirit. It’s not hard to imagine other titles crossing over – first person shooter Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare could become a buddy show teaming its US Marine and British SAS commando in weekly missions; fantasy role-playing saga The Elder Scrolls, with its elaborate world building, could rival Game Of Thrones; sci-fi puzzler Portal could be a gripping mystery series.

But they’d all be lacking one rather vital element: interactivity. For what gamers love about games is the ability to take part in the stories, not just watch them unfold, and TV technology hasn’t come that far yet. If the characters don’t behave the way you want them to, there’s only one button which can control them - the off-switch.

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