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From: Warp
Subject: Zombies and vampires
Date: 22 Jun 2012 12:57:03
Message: <4fe4a3df@news.povray.org>
Notice how many movies and TV series are about zombies, and how many are
about vampires.

  The notice how many video games are about zombies, and how many are about
vampires.

  Why such a disparity?

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Le Forgeron
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 22 Jun 2012 13:24:32
Message: <4fe4aa50$1@news.povray.org>
Le 22/06/2012 18:57, Warp nous fit lire :
>   Notice how many movies and TV series are about zombies, and how many are
> about vampires.
> 
>   The notice how many video games are about zombies, and how many are about
> vampires.
> 
>   Why such a disparity?
> 
Because zombies lack a movie-expression. Short of "Thriller", zombies
are not expected to be expressive. They do not plot, they are dumb. At
best, they contaminate. You cannot be the lead character with a role of
zombie. Not bankable for a movie.
Good for a game: re-use the sprites everywhere!

On the opposite side of the spectrum, vampires are inspired by the
charismatic history of Dracula and others vampires (including Bela
Lugosi in theater's play). One bad-guy, perfect for the ego of a
bankable actor and the account manager of the producers.
And for a video game: only as a final boss (Castel Vania series), you
cannot reuse it, do not waste time on it.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 22 Jun 2012 14:16:39
Message: <4fe4b687@news.povray.org>
Le_Forgeron <jgr### [at] freefr> wrote:
> Because zombies lack a movie-expression. Short of "Thriller", zombies
> are not expected to be expressive. They do not plot, they are dumb. At
> best, they contaminate. You cannot be the lead character with a role of
> zombie. Not bankable for a movie.
> Good for a game: re-use the sprites everywhere!

I think it's more than that.

A movie about zombies can be superb, as demonstrated by George Romero, but
is a very hard genre to pull off in such a masterful way (as demonstrated
by the fact that Romero's movies are almost the only zombie movies that
are actually good, with very few exceptions.)

A relatively good movie about vampires is much easier to make. As you say,
Lugosi's Dracula set a precedent for the "suave" vampire stereotype which
is quite easy to write scripts about.

In video games, however, zombies fill a perfect niche: The desire for gamers
to kill. Killing people, especially in gruesome ways, is always morally
questionable and raises the alarms of moral guardians. You can make it
about an alien invasion, but that's a genre of its own. Zombies are a
perfect genre for this because you can have tons and tons of them, and you
can allow the player to kill them en masse using the most gruesome ways one
can imagine, without moral guardians starting a crusade. After all, if they
are already dead, you are not really killing them, are you?

Additionally, the zombie slasher game genre is relatively versatile: It can
be a survival horror, a mindless first-person shooter, black comedy, and
even a pseudophilosophical comment on the human condition.

A video game about vampires is much more difficult to pull off. A video game
is not (only) a movie; there has to be gameplay also. Killing tons and tons
of vampires isn't just the same thing, nor is vampires really the kind of
genre for that. Like the movies, the game would have to be a lot more
story-oriented, and that's difficult to balance with good gameplay.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: nemesis
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 22 Jun 2012 18:55:00
Message: <web.4fe4f75e16bf2e6b773c9a3e0@news.povray.org>
Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> Notice how many movies and TV series are about zombies, and how many are
> about vampires.
>
>   The notice how many video games are about zombies, and how many are about
> vampires.
>
>   Why such a disparity?

Because the most recent vampire-related media is a lame emo vampire love soap
opera while zombies are all the rage again as disguised outlets for fear of
terrorists and crackheads...

That was easy.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 23 Jun 2012 01:53:25
Message: <4fe559d5@news.povray.org>
nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> [-- text/plain, encoding 8bit, charset: iso-8859-1, 16 lines --]

> Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> > Notice how many movies and TV series are about zombies, and how many are
> > about vampires.
> >
> >   The notice how many video games are about zombies, and how many are about
> > vampires.
> >
> >   Why such a disparity?

> Because the most recent vampire-related media is a lame emo vampire love soap
> opera while zombies are all the rage again as disguised outlets for fear of
> terrorists and crackheads...

> That was easy.

  You described the two genres, you didn't explain the reason for the
disparity.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: nemesis
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 23 Jun 2012 22:15:01
Message: <web.4fe6778e16bf2e6bbfd0e7a20@news.povray.org>
Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> > [-- text/plain, encoding 8bit, charset: iso-8859-1, 16 lines --]
>
> > Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> > > Notice how many movies and TV series are about zombies, and how many are
> > > about vampires.
> > >
> > >   The notice how many video games are about zombies, and how many are about
> > > vampires.
> > >
> > >   Why such a disparity?
>
> > Because the most recent vampire-related media is a lame emo vampire love soap
> > opera while zombies are all the rage again as disguised outlets for fear of
> > terrorists and crackheads...
>
> > That was easy.
>
>   You described the two genres, you didn't explain the reason for the
> disparity.


oh, but I did.  One looks lame these days, the other, cool.


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From: Samuel Benge
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 24 Jun 2012 13:10:00
Message: <web.4fe7499d16bf2e6b96fb5cd20@news.povray.org>
Le_Forgeron <jgr### [at] freefr> wrote:
> You cannot be the lead character with a role of
> zombie. Not bankable for a movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fido_film


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From: Le Forgeron
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 24 Jun 2012 14:57:46
Message: <4fe7632a@news.povray.org>
Le 24/06/2012 19:08, Samuel Benge nous fit lire :
> Le_Forgeron <jgr### [at] freefr> wrote:
>> You cannot be the lead character with a role of
>> zombie. Not bankable for a movie.

Try asking George Clooney or Richard Gere, or Julia Roberts, when on top
of bankable-listing.

> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fido_film
> 
Rather, now:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fido_%28film%29


The film grossed $304,533 in the US and a total of $426,224 worldwide.

Budget: $8 millions


Any famous quote from Fido itself ?


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 24 Jun 2012 16:12:59
Message: <4fe774cb@news.povray.org>
On 6/24/2012 10:08, Samuel Benge wrote:
> Le_Forgeron<jgr### [at] freefr>  wrote:
>> You cannot be the lead character with a role of
>> zombie. Not bankable for a movie.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fido_film
>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cqI6hPra7c also.

Not sure either of these movies would be what I'd call "bankable" tho.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
   "Don't panic. There's beans and filters
    in the cabinet."


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From: John VanSickle
Subject: Re: Zombies and vampires
Date: 24 Jun 2012 17:20:30
Message: <4fe7849e$1@news.povray.org>
On 6/22/2012 11:57 AM, Warp wrote:
>    Notice how many movies and TV series are about zombies, and how many are
> about vampires.
>
>    The notice how many video games are about zombies, and how many are about
> vampires.
>
>    Why such a disparity?

Video players are mostly boys (of all ages and both sexes) who want to 
shoot at something slow and stupid.  Zombies fill that role nicely.

Vampires are more suited for romance novels and films in which a monster 
that regards the human race as its lawful prey makes an exception for a 
girl who just happens to be a lot like the kind of girl who comprises 
the target audience.

Regards,
John


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