Why I don’t want movies based on video games

Why do we want movies based on video games? They never seem to work, they don’t offer the same experience, and frankly I would just rather play the game to experience the world of the IP.

When I say that I don’t want movies based on games I am primarily talking about very story-driven games, although a Legend of Zelda movie, to name a non-story driven game, would not work either. 

I say this because games are their own experiences. If a game’s story was really that great, it was probably because the gameplay aided in driving the story home. 

An example is The Walking Dead Season 1 by Telltale. To me, The Walking Dead is great because my decisions and dialogue choices impact the world and develop a story that is compelling. If given the choice between watching a complete movie of my decisions, or actually making the decisions and progressing the story by playing the game, I would choose the latter.

The medium of gaming is a special one. Books, movies, TV and the like tell you a narrative. Plain and simple. Video games offer choice, interaction, and narrative through playing and interacting. 

I guess I just feel that the medium itself is compelling to the point where we don’t need movies based on games.

And it works both ways. Most licensed games based on movies are not very good. Nobody wants to play a video game based on Avatar, or *shudders* Godzilla.

So please, we don’t need a movie based on The Last of Us or Assassin’s Creed, because those experiences already exist in high quality video games. If anything, take the IP and make a new story within the universe.

Let me know in the comments whether you think games should get movie adaptations!