We all love a great science fiction movie or series, where the best of the best can leave impressions that last all of our lives. It's a genre that encourages imagination while offering enough realism that we can tie it back to our daily lives, aiding suspension of disbelief. Making science-fiction movies and shows can also be challenging, however, in a way that other mediums can avoid.
Having replayed through the amazing Mass Effect trilogy and the just as fantastic but far older Doom recently, we've been thinking about how well gaming can mesh with the ideals of sci-fi. While it's not an easy process to create a science-fiction game worth playing, there are advantages in this medium that film, television, and even books can’t match. It’s an idea worth exploring, with sites like Marketing Beat reporting gaming's overall media sales importance.
More Flexible Barriers to Creation
One of the biggest barriers to creating a science fiction film or television series is the cost. Building the props, sets, and specific effects is an expensive pursuit, where skimping on any aspect can take viewers out of the experience. If you're looking for anything other than the most intimate of settings, creating science fiction in these mediums will cost millions, and that's not funding many potential filmmakers can access. Even if these films do get produced, the BBC notes expensive films can still be failures.
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Gaming, on the other hand, has much lower barriers to entry. Modern creative systems for gaming like the Unreal Engine are completely free to download and experiment with. It's even possible for one person to create an entire science fiction game without first spending a single cent, where the only required investment is time.
Smaller pieces of interactive science fiction gaming scale similarly. Creating high-quality smaller releases is a real possibility, as is often demonstrated in the online casino industry with titles like those from Slingo. Titles like Slingo Space Invaders or Slingo Cosmic Clusters boast broad accessibility, being equally well playable over platforms like tablets, smartphones, laptops, and desktops. Compared to movies and TV which are best enjoyed on a big screen, the flexibility of the gaming approach is reflected in both design and forms of user engagement.
A Perfect Blend of Love and Technology
If you love science fiction, then odds are you think more about technology than the general public. If you think more about technology, you’re also more likely to be involved in the world of software and gaming. From this starting point, moving into the creation of or engagement with science fiction media is that much easier.
Tech heads will tend to have gaming devices ready, already set up to produce high-quality video and sound quality to maximize immersion. It's a case where interests, hobbies, and lifestyles often overlap to create a situation to help enjoy science fiction. This blend exists in movie and TV enthusiasts too, of course, but can be even more natural here.
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Science fiction excels through its ability to connect to people beyond boundaries, and its relationship with gaming is just another illustration of this strength. While not inherently superior or inferior, it's a way for fans to enjoy what's on offer in a way that perfectly melds with humanity's growing interest in technology. What's more, the combination is only growing, and regardless of whether or not you're a gamer, the contributions this will provide to boosting sci-fi popularity is nothing but a good thing.
