this is less an essay to answer my own question and more a post for discussion, with some of my thoughts thrown in to fuel discussion. this is a subject that's plagued my mind for a while and i'd like to come to some conclusions about it. this is partly because i really really want a show/movie that properly encapsulates nerd/gamer culture, but i never feel like any of them really click with me. i do feel like there's been a positive recent trend for video game adaptations, though.
anyway by "video game media" i refer to a few things: A) video game adaptations, (mainly movies) and B) media that reference video games. (A) would be something like the original super mario bros movie, and (B) would be something like Ready Player One. speaking of which, let's get the elephant out of the room.
- (A/B) the creators don't care about / aren't familiar with the source material
this is probably why most video game media is Kinda Bad, but for the other points we'll operate under the assumption that this isn't the case, if only because it leads to some more interesting ideas. still, it's kinda hard to imagine people like movie directors to be the kind to enjoy video games. i have a lot of respect for steven spielberg as a movie director, but i think most people can agree that Ready Player One did not feel like a movie for gamers, it felt like a movie for normies to feel like they were gamers. ironically, i still might consider it one of the better attempts at capturing nerd culture in mainstream media.
- (A) video game stories are bad
i'm not a fan of this one, but it's a common reason people bring up for why video game adaptations flop. "nobody plays mario for the story, so why would they sit down for nothing but mario plot." while i do think that's missing the part where people can like, Adapt New Stories (or even watch movies for reasons other than good plot!), i can agree that it would generally take more effort to adapt certain games into movies over others. for the record, i think the new mario movie dealt with the common issues almost perfectly.
- (A) video games' entire appeal are their interactivity, which adaptations don't have
now we're getting into something interesting. video game adaptations are inherently more difficult not because their stories are inherently bad (please play any game made in the last 20 years) but because you remove a core part of the medium's identity. good video games generally form everything around gameplay, from characters to story to art and mechanics, so having a movie will inherently make something feel missing. for a lot of games, i can accept this reason for adaptations being inherently more difficult (but obviously, not impossible).
- (B) video games don't have an aesthetic, making them more difficult to reference
this is the one that's been occupying my brain, tbh. video games don't have an aesthetic as a whole in the same way that movies don't really have an aesthetic (as opposed to gamers/movie theaters which imo def have an aesthetic). that's why every time someone wants to make something -gamer- it's just been "use pixel art and arcade references" for the past ~30 years. it was a little obnoxious to me before i realized that's basically the only aesthetic that video games can claim on their own. if you reference the popular gritty realistic shooter genre then it's barely a video game reference, it's just a depiction of war. if you reference a fantasy game then it just becomes a depiction of fantasy. while i see it as repetitive, pixel art is the only thing that immediately reads as being a video game. but i will still be annoyed at movies making "gamers" talking about "beating a level" when that's barely been a relevant term for 90% of video games in years.
- (A/B) video game culture is niche
i think the reason so much video game media flops or doesn't connect with people is because the people making the stuff can't come to terms with the fact that video game culture is actually pretty niche. video games are really popular! but "gamers" aren't super common, and the subcultures make it even harder to connect with the audience. i recently watched Scott Pilgrim vs The World and loved it and i think it nailed SO much with nerd/gamer culture, but i also didn't feel that personal connection as much because it was centered more on music, which is a subculture i'm not very involved in. i'm also constantly disappointed with fighting game representation because they keep feeling shockingly inaccurate (yes i am that nerd, but a scene is burned into my memory from Cobra Kai where a character makes a joke about fighting games being cooler than martial arts because "they have fireballs" while playing Tekken 6. the fighting game that does not have fireballs in favor of martial arts representation).
i think that's why a lot of video game media keep trying to make video game culture feel more mainstream or accessible, and failing to meet both audiences at the same time.
but maybe i'm wrong and making wild generalizations!!! i do feel these are common sentiments, but would like to hear thoughts. i have written this up at 4am and can absolutely have written something incorrect, but thank you for reading either way.