The Watchmen (Comics and Gaming: bringing it to the next level?)

Watchmen spoilers.

Reading the Watchmen, I'm about half way through. I love it so far, and what I am seeing makes me thinkof gaming more than anything. I see parallels betweenthe two mediums. Conventional thought is like this: Comics are for kids. Games are for kids. For years people way that it isn't, that while yes, some games (comics) are for kids, others are for teens and others are very adult. You talk and talk and talk... Then something like The Watchmen comes out. Wins a Hugo. Takes the genre up a notch.

What I find the most interesting is that the story is SO adult. It's not that the sex and the violence are there, (they are) but they are adult sex and violence. It's the difference between some guy feeding thousands of rounds into a crowd of bad guys without taking one shot vs another guy shooting the mother of his child because she bloodies him when he walks out.  It's not an over the top romance and soft light love scene: it's some guy not being able to perform until he gets on his costume.  The characters are so fucked up. Every single one of them are pretty much bat shit insane. But the characters are so realistic. I mean, honestly: don't you have to be a bit nutters to dress up and fight crime?

Can gaming take this next step? To come up with some serious characterization in an adult game? Is it more difficult for games to take this next step?

I t hink it's going to be harder for gaming to vault into the next level for two reasons. The first is temporary; games are now the villian. Eventually it will move on to something else. Truthfully, I think it might take a really complex well thought out adult story to do this. I am awaiting hte day when a game is written up as a legit literature. Sort of the way Harry Potter went form being a kids book to being a book for everyone.

The second reason is more problematic.  It takes more $, more varied expertise to make a game. Comics you need great art and a great writer, but games you also need someone who can actually program. And more than that, you actually need to have some excellent gameplay. Without gameplay, it's not a good game. You may have an excellent story, but if the gameplay does not allow me to experience the story, then all is lost. It would be like gluing the pages of a comic together; you may be able to tease apart some of the pages, but most of them would be ripped. Coulda been the best story ever, but it's lost.

Right now it costs so much moeny to make a stellar game: the developers aren't willing to risk it.  But let's wait and see: gaming as a medium for storytelling is new. It's evolving, let's see what happens.  I hope that devs who make mega $ on standard franchises will create break out studios wo make some true art. Sorta like what they do in Hollywood.

Have you guys seen a gaming that either pushed it to the next level or tried? Killer 7 was supposed ot be like htat. We tried playing it but hte gameplay was gawd fucking awful. I read FAQs about the story and was fascinated.... seems like CapCom was trying to do something, but kinda failed.  Mass Effect was alsmost there, but no matter what, it's still a space opera. An excellent space opera, but a space opera non the less. You guys seen anything?