MobiusArcher: Sanitarium - "Never heard of it"
The Longest Journey (but not longer than 3 hours) - "Never heard of it"
Gabriel Knight - "Never heard of it"
Still Life - "Never heard of it"
Myst/Riven/etc. - "I heard of that. that's really old right? Old games suxxorz"
Syberia - "Never heard of it"
Average movie business guy response to average gamer response:
"If the average gamer doesn't care, then neither do we."
I would disagree with this. The Myst franchise is boasting over 12 million copies sold. (6 million of that number being the original Myst game). The original Doom sold an estimated number that is argued over but seems to settle in around 1.5 - 3 million. Seems like the conversation would lean more towards people not hearing of Doom than of Myst. But that is only one side. The other is this... who ever heard of Forest Gump before the movie came out? What was a Terminator before the movie? A good movie is 100% about story. You sit in the seat and stare at the screen. It has to have a good story or you will stop staring and stop buying. Just because "SOME" people haven't heard of Myst doesn't mean it can't be advertised and attended by the same people that never heard of Star Wars until they saw the previews. The only difference is at least 6 million people actually HAVE heard of it and will likely go if the previews look halfway decent.
But I'm not just talking brand or marketing. Lots of people misread my post. While I disagree with some about what a quality movie is... :p ... I was much wore discussing why this genre is skipped when its already by default primed for the big screen? To get Mortal Kombat to the screen, lots of liberty had to be taken to add a story that the game didn't deliver. Same for Doom since those games don't inherently have story. To get Myst to the screen... there are books and books and games worth of information that tell amazing and unique stories that both gamers and non would enjoy. Just seems backwards to me that we put up one versus one fighting games at the box office but not epic stories that rival some of the finer cinematic presentations to date.
One final aside... I think it would be worthwhile to simply retell some of the finer adventure games... but with so much plot and back-story a movie could greatly add to the adventure we have experienced instead of just re-pasting it on the screen.
Very happy to see the Myst link posted earlier... hopefully that will receive the justice it deserves. Done right, that could open up a trilogy or even a 6 movie saga that brings alot of entertainment and makes a serious amount of cash ;)