Half Life = Gamer's "Twilight"

[joshthor]

i stopped after you said as gamers we can relate to egghead scientist loners. i am a slightly above average student with a burning hatred of science (witchcraft) and i am also a social butterfly. i dont relate to that at all.

 

[CJ1145]

OP has some good ideas, and I agree, but you chose the Escapist to present your ideas. And that's where you went wrong, because this site's got a hard-on for Half Life like nowhere else on the internet.

 

[Helimocopter]

these points made are fairly valid, apparently some of us are uncomfortable with this comparison?
reading the first page of the thread atleast

 

[Treblaine]

"You see, both feature very two-dimensional protagonists."

Insta-fail.

Really. Have you NEVER HEARD of 2nd-person narrative? This is as old as the hills, he is SUPPOSED to be an empty shell for the player to more easilly immerse into. Fuck, this comparisons between films and video games is so amateur. Seriously: FILMS AND GAMES ARE NOT THE SAME!

"you take on an egghead scientist, which automatically makes you assume that he was a loner for being so smart."

Ohhh.... GOD... My brain, the stupidity of your comments. Have you even PLAYED ANY of the Half life games?!?!? Gordon Freeman has many friends, he works in a lab FULL of scientist! There is no romance. Either you have not played half life 1 or 2 or the ONLY game and the ONLY film you have seen is Half Life 2 and Twilight because that is the only way I see you making a link between them.

Of course they have SOME things in common, they are both American productions but you could say that about THOUSANDS of productions. Really there is nothing that is distinct between BOTH of them, nothing that ONLY Half Life and Twilight have in common. Nothing, nadda, dick all, budkiss.

I hope you didn't put too much thought into this as if you did I pity for your deductive reasoning.. either that or you ARE a troll, even if you don't want to admit it. Your comparisons are entirely superficial and tenuous.

What rambling nonsense.

 

[johnman]

You could apply your "theory" to most video games.

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

EDIT: I think most people seem to be misunderstanding what the OP is talking about, he's not making a direct comparison between the two (killing aliens is very different from emo/vampire romance) but was more saying that both have an effect of wish fufillment for the audience through use of a blank, generic protaganist (teenage girls like the idea of a vampire boyfriend (I'm assuming), and nerdy guys like the idea of being a revolutionary hero who saves the world, is idolised and adored by many and even has a attractive/smart chick who's into them because they're so great (again, I'm assuming)).

Well, the thing is. For all the hate I have towards Twilight, and all the love i have for Half-Life, you do have a point(both people who are quoted)

The reason both of these have those tropes, is because,simply they work. They've never explained why Freeman doesn't talk or anything, it could be that if you look at games from that time, The Duke Nukem's, Dooms, the general 90's shooter scene, all has big muscle builders who ooze their steroids from all pores. There isn't a real particular reason other than to make it obvious who SHOULD win.

M idea is that Valve made him mute to break that mold, and he is a scientist because, well thats what makes the story so interesting, right? It's really the developer equivalent of a nuclear rifle painted some neon color in the middle of NYC. You'll just stand out. And obviously it worked well, they are "still"(in the sense they are still making DN:F) making the games.

Although I will say it's not a really fair comparison, the book(and i guess movie) world is different from the gaming world. And I mean more than just trying to convert one to the other.

I'm running out of steam for this.. Just take what i said above and waft it through you mind like the perfume of a high-class whore.

 

[R3dF41c0n]

Your comparison makes sense, but isn't this true for all video games? Who wouldn't want to be a badass space marine, or leader of an army of space aliens.

I agree that Gordon Freeman is the best "every man" for various reasons.

Up to this point I never saw the comparison b/t those two IPs.

 

[fulano]

I made this exact same point to my brother a while ago. You, mein freund (the OP), win; glad to know I'm not alone.

If I had a pack of half-naked women willing to do my bidding I'd send half to you.

Signing off.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

HL is a game, you're meant to be putting yourself in the characters shoes, the character not having a strong personality is helpful in this regard.

Twilight is porn, a fantasy vision of the opposite sex.

I see what you're suggesting, but they aren't even the same medium...apples and oranges.

It's actually a fairly commonly used ploy...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The difference is that Half Life 1 and 2 both introduced many dynamic and original concepts and mechanics into the medium, completely changing it forever.

Twilight is just another vampire love story.

what concepts and mechanics besides the gravity gun?

Telling the story through an interactive environent, letting the surroundings speak for themselves through exploration

No cutscenes or levels, one continuous journey

Revolutionary use of physics and object manipulation

Freindly AI that reacted to the player's actions

Emotionally driven, involving storyline and characters

Creating a believable world through synergy between visuals, sound and environmental design

New techniques in dynamic lighting and visual effects

Unique weapon set with weapons having multiple uses (not to mention the Antlion-AI controlling pods)

Advanced facial and skeletal animation systems

EDIT: Advances in enemy AI and tactics

And I'm sure some other people can think of some more.

 

[Jack of Noir]

I think you made a couple good comparisons here. Good work

 

[blank0000]

I havnt played much of of the original half life, so I am far from an authority on it. I think you might be reading a little to much into Gordans back-story as far as him being socially awkward, but you do bring up a very interesting, and reasonably connection between the two.

I'd like to look at a differnt aspect of this though. Aside from the "quality" difference being a big thing, does anyone here think the relative success of either has to do with their form of media?


Half life was a game, so the "you are what you play" aspect makes a lot of sense, fantasy fulfillment is "for better or worse" an idea that comes up a lot in games. Twilight however was originally a novel. The idea of fantasy fulfillment is still their, but its generally a much more second hand thing. I dont know if this is actually going any where, but HEY if anyone has an interesting opinion on the matter LEMME KNOW!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

even though there are other games i feel did an equal or better job before half life 2 (are we talking about 2 here or one?), alls I can say is, "They did all that and STILL made a horrible game."

Sorry folks, I played half life. I hated it. So I played it somemore, HOPING, DREAMING, PRAYING it'd get better. I hated it more. I listened to all the fanboys rave that I was wrong, that I didn't understand, that it truly is revolutionary. Still hated it.

Half Life 1 is very dated nowadays... I don't enjoy it either. I got halway through it and gave up.

Half Life 2 on the other hand is much more playable, accessible, interesting and fun.

I got Half Life and Halo at the same time, and to me, Halo's a much more fun game. Why? It was just fun. I didn't have to know that there was some advanced AI. There were aliens to shoot, an earth to save, and an intergalactic menace that had to be stopped. That was enough for me.

There are Aliens to shoot, an Earth to save and an intergalactic menace to stop in Half Life 2 as well

We're on the same page thinking that Halo is a fun game. Another one with great enemy AI too. The 2 games are pretty similar in many ways really. I could have done without all the backtracking and reptition in the second half of Halos 1 and 3 though, that spoiled it a little for me (and that Goddamn Library level was gaming hell)

 

[migo]

Isn't the reason for Twilight being hated the awful writing, story, characters, and overall existence?

I think it's more because of the pretty boy charactar that anyone who isn't a young girl/woman dislikes.

OT: I just booted up the HL2 E2 demo and I see exactly what the OP was talking about. It also shows how dated Half Life is, because all I kept thinking about when Alyx was talking and Gordon wasn't saying anything (unless the game assumes players talk to the computer) was those people who you try to give a hint to shut up because you're not responding to them and they keep talking to fill the silence. The writing was pretty trite, and the gameplay too. Got the gravity gun and it usually didn't do more than open pathways. Had a bunch of headcrab zombies coming and I tried picking up a barrel with it to shoot at them, but the game only lets me pick up wooden objects apparently. Then Alyx deftly climbs up to a loft to get some fixing done, and I'm left jumping around like a retard because the game won't let me do it. Half Life was good for it's time, but now Half Life 2 is just another shooter that hasn't evolved sufficiently and where the elements that made Half Life unique and interesting in 1999 are actually now serious drawbacks that just serve to have me sitting there while the in game cut scene plays out and I can't do anything.

I'm sure something similar could be said about Twilight doing something a bit new when it was originally written but is now trite, but the closest thing to a vampire love story I read was PN Elrod's I, Strahd which is pretty much Dracula with Ravenloft trappings.