We can again see this in Star Wars games like Jedi Knight and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic where the player starts off as a normal person and slowly rises in fame and importance till they are the center of the galaxy's attention. This occurs similarly to the films, as in the films Luke Skywalker turns out to be Darth Vader/Anakin's son, in games like Knights of the Old Republic, the player character turns out to be a famous Sith lord thought dead and lost. (Schellenberg) While again this is an ancient trope, it is important to see how Star Wars built off of itself in its games, these licensed and Lucasfilm games not simply functioning as quick cash grabs, but instead thoughtful well-built games that took from their source material
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One of the key elements of the Star Wars universe is the balance between the light side and the dark side of the force, and games like Jedi Knight and Knights of the Old Republic utilize this element in the player character's alignment, where doing qualified 'good' things get the player light side points, and qualified 'evil' things deliver dark side points. (Parker 157) This discontinuation of linearity, the accomplishments and long term effects of a player summed up into a number that changes how other characters react and more importantly the over-arching storyline in such a way that the game and the story telling is truly dynamic to the character and to the universe that it explores is core to the idea of many Star Wars games, but other Sci-Fi games as well. Most notably, the Mass Effect trilogy, Fallout: New Vegas, Infamous, and many games even outside Sci-Fi such as Dragon Age and Mount & Blade all contain in some form this aspect of game design. This is just one of many elements that the Star Wars films initially helped set up through their storytelling of the galaxy and its inhabitants that game designers took notice of and pulled for their …show more content…
We can even go on to say that this tendency is significantly higher than the likelihood that games borrow from television series. This is primarily because of the difference in the mediums themselves. Movies are long-form, as compared to short-form episodic seasons of content like most television. This is important because the long-form has several advantages over the short-form, mostly in story-telling but more importantly in development of characters, setting and universe. While a television show may have a single pilot to set up the world and basic characters, then a season to further develop these elements while simultaneously telling short twenty to thirty minute side stories, a film will have a full twenty to forty minutes dedicated to exposition and set-up of the universe and the characters, before having the rest of the film for character development and further universe
One of the key elements of the Star Wars universe is the balance between the light side and the dark side of the force, and games like Jedi Knight and Knights of the Old Republic utilize this element in the player character's alignment, where doing qualified 'good' things get the player light side points, and qualified 'evil' things deliver dark side points. (Parker 157) This discontinuation of linearity, the accomplishments and long term effects of a player summed up into a number that changes how other characters react and more importantly the over-arching storyline in such a way that the game and the story telling is truly dynamic to the character and to the universe that it explores is core to the idea of many Star Wars games, but other Sci-Fi games as well. Most notably, the Mass Effect trilogy, Fallout: New Vegas, Infamous, and many games even outside Sci-Fi such as Dragon Age and Mount & Blade all contain in some form this aspect of game design. This is just one of many elements that the Star Wars films initially helped set up through their storytelling of the galaxy and its inhabitants that game designers took notice of and pulled for their …show more content…
We can even go on to say that this tendency is significantly higher than the likelihood that games borrow from television series. This is primarily because of the difference in the mediums themselves. Movies are long-form, as compared to short-form episodic seasons of content like most television. This is important because the long-form has several advantages over the short-form, mostly in story-telling but more importantly in development of characters, setting and universe. While a television show may have a single pilot to set up the world and basic characters, then a season to further develop these elements while simultaneously telling short twenty to thirty minute side stories, a film will have a full twenty to forty minutes dedicated to exposition and set-up of the universe and the characters, before having the rest of the film for character development and further universe