Stephen King's Dark Tower Game in the Works?

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Albyint

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I never thought that Wheel of Time was very good. I prefer A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin myself.

Just my .2

If they make this into a game I hope they dont destroy it like they did Dantes Inferno. Take good literature and turn it into something very much unlike the original.
 

Guy-onthe-Couch

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Movies sound interesting, but christian bale as roland? I don't see that working, Clint Eastwood is the only man who could fit the role imho.
 

demonhorde665

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"Preferably the Dark Tower series should incorporate a MMORPG that allows fans of Roland Deschain,"

preferable my ---, it would be preferable that people stop flooding the PC market with crappy MMORPG's that no one really ever role plays while playing. what ween need are more games like the neverwinter Nights games freel onlien easy to use editors for makign your own servers , and preferably way less bugs that NWn 2 had.
 

stingstang

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Stephen King only gave us a tiny little bit of Mid/End World. There are ruins of Gilead, and 5000 miles from that there's another ruined town next to a 200 mile dessert with a waystation in the middle. After that, there's a cave, a 200 mile long beach, reaching a forest with a giant dead bear in it...Anyway, it would be a lot of interpretation, but still... Maybe it will be too much like Fallout. Futuristic post-Apocalypse.
I didn't read the last chapter...
 

henryvalz

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Movies sound interesting, but christian bale as roland? I don't see that working, Clint Eastwood is the only man who could fit the role imho.

You are aware that Clint Eastwood is in fact 207 years old, right? And that Roland was probably in his 30's during the books...

I can't wait to see the movies, but I'm wondering how well they're going to be able to pull it off.

Also, they better skip Wizard and Glass, cause that thing sucked.

I do really like the idea of intermixing Movies and mini-series though. The reality is that the books are too long to be movies.

Blaine, Blaine...
 

Von Death

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"...possibly ranked up there with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings"
Didn't know Toms was in the RL troll business recently. I wasn't aware Dark Tower was as good as the book series that started the High Fantasy genre.
 

Rusty_M

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I'm not sure if Bale is right to play Roland. Eastwood would be perfect, but by the time the series was finished, he was too old for the role. I think Roland would appear maybe 40's 50's in the books. But of course time was odd in that universe.

There's certainly a lot that could be done creatively, and game-wise with the setting. I'd be interested to see more of in-world/mid-world/end-world before the world moved on. Something like when Roland was younger.
 

henryvalz

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Didn't know Toms was in the RL troll business recently. I wasn't aware Dark Tower was as good as the book series that started the High Fantasy genre.

I think you should read The Dark Tower series before making this statement.

Just to give you an idea of how great these books are, it is pretty obvious that the creators of the Final Fantasy games have "borrowed" a lot of ideas from The Dark Tower.

Eastwood would be perfect, but by the time the series was finished, he was too old for the role.

Or dead. The series is likely to take 5-10 years to get all the way through. Though I wouldn't mind giving him a crack at directing all or some of it, given his success doing that.
 

fishlikehell

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[citation][nom]Von Death[/nom]"...possibly ranked up there with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings"Didn't know Toms was in the RL troll business recently. I wasn't aware Dark Tower was as good as the book series that started the High Fantasy genre.[/citation]


Read both twice at least and don't think that The Dark Tower holds a candle to LOTR in either writing or creativity. It is entertaining though. Damn all those years inbetween "The Wastelands" and "Wizard and Glass"

Thank God the article didn't say the Dark Tower ranks up with Dune, otherwise there would have been hell to pay!
 

Marcus52

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Umm. LotRO was't exactly a screaming success story.

I don't see a game coming out of the series. Frankly, I think a series that really captures the books will be difficult, and falling short would be a disaster.

As far as comparing King's work to Tolkien's - why? They are different works. Quality wise, I think the Dark Tower series is well written, and I'll be honest here I think Tolkien gets more reverence than he deserves. Great story, well written, one of my favorites, but he doesn't belong at the top of a pinnacle, he belongs at the top along with a number of other fantasy authors.

Tolkien's work didn't start the "high fantasy" genre, whatever that even is. I was reading great fantasy works by authors pre-Lord of the Rings long before it came out. Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard were closer to the starting authors of the genre, and all 3 left marks that show up to today. Tolkien influenced a wave of authors as well - but I certainly wouldn't call what most of them put out "high fantasy", I'd call it "schlock written with Dwarves and Elves" or "Hardy-Boy level writing extended to 3 or more books instead of one". In some ways, Tolkien's work was a blessing for publishers and a curse on authors and readers who would have been better served with shorter works rather than padded-out trilogies.

Speaking of padded-out stories, I think one of the things that shows King's skill as a writer is his ability to carry on a story for 7 books that for the most part doesn't feel padded. At least, I was in to it so it didn't usually for me, and I think that's high praise because it's easy for someone like me who's read literally thousands of books in his lifetime to see the "bones" of a story even if not formally trained as a writer. I always felt progress was being made on a long journey.

The Dark Tower series was a memorable read for me, and I put it up there among the better works. I've never read anything else King wrote, not being into the "horror" genre, but if that series is an indication of his quality, I'd say the movies don't do him justice.

Back to the MMORPG LotRO - the game was a big "fail" in my book, because it did not reflect the books at all in the way it played. Sure, it had the names and and stories, but that doesn't make for a universe and experience. It's a good game, but it is not Middle Earth and should never have tried to be. A MMORPG based on the Dark Tower series would of course not be about Roland, but would be the universe he was in and the players in it. I think it would be much more do-able than the Middle Earth world, but I remain very skeptical - capturing the feel of someone else's fantasy work is extremely difficult. Turbine failed with LotRO, and Funcom failed with AoC. Good games, failed at creating what they were supposed to create. It is far better, in my opinion, to create a MMORPG universe that doesn't have to apologize for compromising to turn something in to a game that wasn't written to be one to begin with.

;)
 

SirDevon

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Over six feet tall, the eyes, the weathered look, the "win-at-all-costs" attitude... imo Hugh Laurie would fit Roland's role perfectly.
 

demonhorde665

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[citation][nom]Marcus52[/nom]Umm. LotRO was't exactly a screaming success story.I don't see a game coming out of the series. Frankly, I think a series that really captures the books will be difficult, and falling short would be a disaster.As far as comparing King's work to Tolkien's - why? They are different works. Quality wise, I think the Dark Tower series is well written, and I'll be honest here I think Tolkien gets more reverence than he deserves. Great story, well written, one of my favorites, but he doesn't belong at the top of a pinnacle, he belongs at the top along with a number of other fantasy authors.Tolkien's work didn't start the "high fantasy" genre, whatever that even is. I was reading great fantasy works by authors pre-Lord of the Rings long before it came out. Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard were closer to the starting authors of the genre, and all 3 left marks that show up to today. Tolkien influenced a wave of authors as well - but I certainly wouldn't call what most of them put out "high fantasy", I'd call it "schlock written with Dwarves and Elves" or "Hardy-Boy level writing extended to 3 or more books instead of one". In some ways, Tolkien's work was a blessing for publishers and a curse on authors and readers who would have been better served with shorter works rather than padded-out trilogies.Speaking of padded-out stories, I think one of the things that shows King's skill as a writer is his ability to carry on a story for 7 books that for the most part doesn't feel padded. At least, I was in to it so it didn't usually for me, and I think that's high praise because it's easy for someone like me who's read literally thousands of books in his lifetime to see the "bones" of a story even if not formally trained as a writer. I always felt progress was being made on a long journey.The Dark Tower series was a memorable read for me, and I put it up there among the better works. I've never read anything else King wrote, not being into the "horror" genre, but if that series is an indication of his quality, I'd say the movies don't do him justice.Back to the MMORPG LotRO - the game was a big "fail" in my book, because it did not reflect the books at all in the way it played. Sure, it had the names and and stories, but that doesn't make for a universe and experience. It's a good game, but it is not Middle Earth and should never have tried to be. A MMORPG based on the Dark Tower series would of course not be about Roland, but would be the universe he was in and the players in it. I think it would be much more do-able than the Middle Earth world, but I remain very skeptical - capturing the feel of someone else's fantasy work is extremely difficult. Turbine failed with LotRO, and Funcom failed with AoC. Good games, failed at creating what they were supposed to create. It is far better, in my opinion, to create a MMORPG universe that doesn't have to apologize for compromising to turn something in to a game that wasn't written to be one to begin with.[/citation]



are youa total idiot ... sure other fantasy books were around beofre LoTR what peoepl mean when they say that LoTR spawned the high fantasy era , woudl more correctly mean that is brought fantasy novels to the main stream , not to mention it inspired milestones into days culture ,such as, dungeons and dragons , and many other pen and paper RPG systems. and it cerianly inspired and or had influence on most fantasy novels written after it's time suchas the conan novels
 

pjmanofmre

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I think one aspect that makes this different from LOTR is that Stephen King is alive to give his input throughout the process. I think that can help all the media identified above keep true to the writer's vision. The products will be a reflection on him and his series. I don't see him signing off on complete crap where the work he considers to be his magnum opus is concerned. Don't forget they also visited our world when it comes to an MMORPG and the variety of environments. I think it would be cool if each time you level up you complete the process by going through the Dark Tower and emerging at your next level. I loved the series and personally can't wait to see what comes of the Moveis, games, etc...
 

Wamphryi

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I really enjoyed the first three books in the Dark Tower but struggled with the remaining books. I thought that King really injected far to much of himself into the actual story for one thing. The Lord of the Rings puts me into a coma these days but I thought it was pretty good when I read it when I was a teen. I cannot agree that either of these series can be considered in the same class as the Wheel of Time. I agree that the LOTR was an important step in the genre but it has been well surpassed. I would much rather see a WOT game over a DT game but I would certainly still look into it. The first three books are still awesome after all.
 

Niva

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Malazan Empire is beyond high fantasy, it's more like epic fantasy.

That being said it is a very difficult read at times and imo not as well written as most of the above mentioned books: LoTR, WOT, or (shock) Harry Potter which imo is very well written despite my lack of care for the content.

The Elric series appealed vastly to me, especially the way in which they were published. Each one of those chapters can be a movie imo.

A song of Ice and Fire is bar none the best fantasy series out there, too bad GRRM will die before he finishes it. I've given up on it big time, any time I think of GRRM I get angry with him. But he did great with writing the first couple of books and he made his money so I can't blame him for going at his own comfortable pace. I can still be a bit angry about it though. I guess we'll see how the Game of Thrones series goes on HBO soon.
 

geoboy

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You can't please everyone when it comes to MMOs based on famous works. With LOTRO, it's either too close to the events and characters of the story, or too far removed. I might see it working with Dark tower, but it is going to have to be very dark and twisted for them to pull it off - something most large developers are going to steer clear of. While I'd like to shoot the heads off slow muties and have sex with gateway demons, It'll probably be hundreds of 'Kill 50 lobstrosities and bring them to me' quests. As a side note, Warner brother's MMO studio, Turbine, just added 'hundreds' of employees to cover increased player base of LOTRO (more than tripled in the last year), and for the development of new MMOs (yes plural). Most assume that one of these is Harry Potter Online - another WB franchise.
 
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