Starship troopers

I

read Dvorak’s pessimistic editorial about the state of game development. While I agree with his basic conclusion that ‘it’s the same game over and over’, I’d like to add that the same is true for movies. Back in the days, there used to be a BASIC programming book that showcased the RND function by generating random Hollywood movie titles. There’s probably a dozen of those on the web.

The only criticism I have on game makers (and publishers) is that most of storylines of their games plain suck. There are some exceptions: think of the games that are published by LucasArts for example.

But going back to Dvorak’s text, where he compares the quality of games with the movie ‘Starship Troopers’:

 “If you want to see exactly how inane this is, go out and rent the brain-dead Paul Verhoeven film, Starship Troopers. The movie stank so bad that nothing came of it after its release. It’s essentially a video game turned into a movie—all the elements are there, including an idiotic “boss” that is just some huge flabby bug—and it shows you just how lame these games actually are.”

Actually, ‘Starship Troopers’ is a brilliant satire on the military and society. Most shots intentionally were shot in ‘Triumph of the Will’-style showcasing the uselessness of war with dead-pan comedy. Not to mention the constant drill of ‘commercials’ and ‘news flashes’. Watching the war in Iraq unfold, a couple of years ago now, I frequently thought about this particular movie. It took that many years to learn to appreciate Verhoeven’s approach in ‘Starship Troopers’.

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