Episode 58 - With host Craig Norris.
First Broadcast on Edge Radio, 15 Dec 2023.
In this episode, we explore the fascinating intersections of media, culture, and technology through four recent media news stories. How Sega paid tribute to the fallen heroes and villains of the Yakuza and Like a Dragon series in a solemn ceremony. How a botched legal document by Donald Trump’s lawyer sparked speculation of AI involvement and plagiarism. How the GTA 6 trailer revived the popularity of a classic Tom Petty song on Spotify and what it means for the music industry. How Behaviour Interactive created a thrilling and immersive horror game with Dead by Daylight, featuring some of the most iconic characters from movies, TV shows, and video games.
Podcast Episode
Listen live to “Media Mothership” every Friday 4-5pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) via YouTube, Twitch, and Edge Radio.
Links:
Sega Is Basically Hosting a Real Funeral for All the Dead Yakuza and Like a Dragon Characters - IGN
Michael Cohen’s lawyer cited three fake cases in possible AI-fueled screwup | Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/michael-cohens-lawyer-cited-three-fake-cases-in-possible-ai-fueled-screwup/
GTA 6 Trailer Makes Tom Petty Song Explode On Spotify https://kotaku.com/gta-6-vi-trailer-song-tom-petty-love-is-a-long-road-1851077993
How Dead by Daylight Summoned Horror's Most Iconic Characters - IGN https://www.ign.com/articles/how-dead-by-daylight-summoned-horrors-most-iconic-characters
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Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript of the audio and it may contain errors. We may update or correct this transcript in the future. Please contact us if you have any questions about the information in this transcript. The audio is the official record of this episode.
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CRAIG NORRIS
And welcome to media mothership here on Edge radio. 99.3 FM. I'm your host Doctor Craig as always and on media mothership we explore media motherships, that's the central media impacts that have produced, spawned, created. Pop culture, television, radio, movies, everything around us. So what we're looking for is how it shapes the understanding of the world around us. Deep diving into some interviews and discussing unusual media phenomena that we've come across on the Internet. That's as always, you can SMS us directly here in studio on 0488811707 and as always, we are streaming on on YouTube and Twitch. So you can leave us a message. On the YouTube or Twitch chat, if you're going visually digital, we've already got one great comment from begin. And hi. Well, wonderful to have a a listener on. So we're going to explore a couple of really interesting topics which I've been able to to come across. The first one I'll play. A trailer for it. And then we'll jump into a discussion. So you know it's possible. Someone might. Be able to get what we're about to. Do from the trailer.
Speaker 1
Let's make it epic.
Speaker 4
Growing up, why not become a hero? All I ever.
Speaker 5
Wanted was to be a hero, just like the ones in my favourite video games.
Speaker 4
Right.
Speaker
Turns out.
CRAIG NORRIS
All the hero.
Speaker 4
Needs is a quest.
Speaker
I finally found mine.
Speaker 4
And I'm going to play it my way. They say the city.
Speaker 2
Is too wild.
Speaker 4
Too big? That's it.
Speaker
To me.
Speaker 4
To take on yourself, I say.
Speaker 5
With the right friends.
Speaker 4
Anything's possible. Hey, I mean, anything is someone. These are my friends. This is Mike West and we are.
Speaker
Right.
CRAIG NORRIS
So there might be some fans out there of the Yakuza game series that, of course, was the trailer for yakuza, like a Dragon, which came out about three years ago, and it's set in Yokohama. Remember Yokohama? And you play as as a yakuza. A gangster type. Actor and basically you're doing cart races. You're in battle cages. You can go to see your arcades, and there's also, of course, a story quest. You can enjoy. It is epic, yes, back in. And I'm glad you agree. And basically what I found a fascinating article this morning from IGN. Talking about how Sega, the publisher of the game franchise. Yakuza is hosting a real a real life funeral for all the dead yakuza. And like a dragon, characters from the video game series. Now this is not. New for Japanese pop culture, there's been a number of series in the past fictional series which have held. All funeral ceremonies, when particularly important characters die. I know for Ashton or Joe the the classic boxing manga and anime, when the Joe character died, there was a funeral as well As for Hochner Ken, Fist of the North Star. There was a real life funeral where fans went to it for the death of one of the big I think it was the one of the big villains died in the 80s. This is. The first I've come. Across recently of this I guess stunt being done again. So basically what's happening is that again the publisher. Vega is is kind of reflecting weirdness that's in the game where you can do all manner of of other unusual things, and it's taking from the the whole series run, so there's well, gosh, nine titles. I think in the Yakuza series, if not more. And they're they're going to be featuring the significant characters who have died in that series and giving fans an opportunity to visit this funeral. This is being reported by Famitsu and IG's reporting it from an article translated by Silicon Era. And they going to say that Sega is teaming up with department store chain Parker. Which is a. Great Fun Department store for you in Japan. Check it out. Good stationery. To host an exhibition where players can visit fake gravestones and leave flowers at portraits of the deceased video game characters and the events going to be called like a Dragon, the men who perished it will cost you ¥700. Which is, well, the $8 Australian $9 Australian. I don't know what the exchange rate is at the moment. To enter it, it's going to be from December 30th to January 15th, and if you book it all Tokyo. So if you're in Japan and you can swing over to if you book it all fun place, I'd suggest visiting the Kamen Rider Cafe that's in Ikebukuro first, and then going to the. Like a dragon experience, you could kick off, I guess a couple of pop culture experiences there. You could go to the bizarre kind of bag. Edge swapping, which happens in the evening at at some locations it's it's quite unusual and and and should be quite quite fun to experience. I I hope that that will be unusual. Let me know if my volumes coming out OK. You know back and end. You're you're replying that it's a little. Quiet. So let me know. If the volume. Needs to be jacked up a bit and I'll put it up on the computers here in my overly computerised. Edge Radio studio. So again, the accuser series started back in 2005 and it's spanning actually 19 entries. There you go. So quite. A few great. Points good. Quite a few deaths. So there will be a tonne of fandom, possibly some tears, as they go to this location. It's an interesting question. What type of popular culture characters the saddest deaths that in popular culture? Fiction could have deserved. A funeral here in the West. We don't usually go in for. I guess this this blurring of the real and fictional and hold a funeral for real characters, fake characters and fictional stories, but real funerals. You know the the death of. Is Charlotte's web, but I don't know. I'm trying to. Think of a movie that I cried in because. The death of. A of a significant character, the the Bubba from the Tom Hanks Forrest Gump movie. That was kind of sad. You know, I've always wanted to be a prawn. Fisherman till he died in Vietnam. That that brought it here. So yeah, again, maybe this is something that savvy PR people could influence. I don't know. I think they'd be. A moral backlash. Attempting to do this in somewhere like Australia where it would be seen as kind of disrespectful and diminishing the importance, but maybe. Also with popular culture. This is a safe place to explore those difficult emotions of grief, right grief around fictional characters. Can trigger the same physical notions as dealing with real grief, particularly if you're immersed in a long running television series MASH. There we go. There's another character Colonel Blake in you know, midway through the the run, he took off in a helicopter and raided. Oreilly, you know set during the Korean War. Got the report back that the Colonel's helicopter had been exploded, had been attacked and had passed and that out again. Yeah. So they're just, yeah, definitely emotional moments. So intriguing. Why? It's not been done here in the West. Alright, well, the next little bit. Of news I want to play. It's more of an unusual interview that came up again. I'm going to play. A little audio. Teaser for people to try and imagine what this is from. This is from a I guess a a bit of a cult film. Manny, he's gonna think like 90s. I'll give you a clue. It it stars Nicolas Cage and it's directed by Jerry Buckner. And what we're about to hear is this, this infamous phrase in this film. So again, the the roads are. Low but but. It'll build up and we'll hear the synchronous phrase and then I want to. Unpack it a bit.
Speaker
Appears the United States Parole Commission that.
Speaker 4
Yeah, put the Bunny back in the box. I knew he was a punk.
Speaker
And I was right.
Speaker 4
You were playing us all along, said. You are a free man. Put the Bunny back in the box.
CRAIG NORRIS
Right the the fisticuffs there as Nicolas Cage in for those that were guessing playing? Along at Home Con air. Connor. OK, well known cult classic film from cages film history. What was fun about this was two or three weeks. Ago there was. A article again an IGN talking about Nicolas Cage revealing he wrote one of Conan's most absurd. Minds to keep with tradition, which is that phrase, put the Bunny back in the box. And I was curious when I saw that headline. I was thinking, what the heck is the tradition? That Nicolas Cage is trying to ensure Con Air keeps up with. Through the phrase put the Bunny back in the box for those that people that haven't seen con air, the character of Nicolas Cage plays this. Kind of wrongly convicted, I guess. Ex military guy who is on his way back to freedom after serving his time on a flight. But then everything goes wrong and Nicolas Cage wants to save the day. And in this scene where we here put the money back in the box. One of the kind of bad guys has opened up a a box which has this, you know fluffy Bunny in it. So it turns out that. Nicolas Cage said he was inspired from Clint Eastwood when he was going through the script of this film and he came up with the idea of this phrase and he said that basically put the Bunny back in the box is trying to evoke the classic iconic lines. You know Clint Eastwood type phrases like make my day right from Dirty Harry, from Clint Eastwood. So he was trying to think for the 90s classic con air when he was filming it. What's the phrase like, make my day that could. Keep up with this tradition of in an action film your protagonist giving this one liner that is memorable and for some reason Kate came up with put the Bunny back in the box. As the phrase that would put Conair in this tradition of adventure films that have memorable phrases, I don't know. I mean it. It's more quirky than make my day. I mean, make my day as a piece of discourse. Has this marriage with the macho. Action posturing of Dirty Harry, I guess. Make my day, you know, literally kind of upping up the stakes as dirty Harry's holding that, you know 44 Magnum on the the the villain and you. Egging the ventilate. On to try and kill him. And so you know, then shoots the villain whereas put the money back in the box. I mean, it could be a kind of Pandora's box lift, right? Like you know. Put the money back in the box egg, IE. It won't escalate further if you put the Bunny away, and if you don't put Bunny back in the box, things are. Gonna get really. Let us leave island properly. There you go. So unusual, unusual and and again, you know, at the time when I saw heard that, that phrase I I'd I'd not really put one and one together in the same way I guess Nicolas. Cage had, which is not unusual. That put the money back in the box was keeping up with the tradition of. Fiction. Film. Having a memorable cool. Line delivered by the protagonist Allah Clint Eastwood and make my day well. Alright, the final little bit of audio I. Want to play to discuss? The current news that's circulating. Is I'm going to be able to play too much of this, or else it'll poorly ping the copyright box, so I'm just going to play the the little kind of opening to it. It's it's one of the biggest few trailers. Ever. And it's just got released. I think it's 10 days ago now. Here it is. This is a a very, very short excerpt of a trailer that we will now discuss.
Speaker
Do you know why you're here? Bad luck, I guess.
CRAIG NORRIS
All right, yeah. So this of course is the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer. I think we're still a year away. Well year and a bit 2025. This will be released and it's already garnered 10.3 million or no 147 million. Views since it premiered on the 5th of December, so it's gone on to become one of the most watched. Trailers in a short period of time, one I think's really interesting about it was an article in Kotaku talking about how the GTA6 trailer has made the song we're hearing Tom Pettys's Song Love is a long road explode on Spotify, right? So. As this trailer has used, loves the long road by Tom Petty, the ripples of that can be seen through. On demand music subscription services like Spotify, where suddenly it's shot up to one of the most listened songs. Which is kind of. Predictable these days, after you've had stranger things with the Kate Bush. Hill running up the. Hill. Is that it? That's suddenly out of nowhere after being an 80s classic shot back to #1 during its that season of Stranger Things, where it played a role. And I think, you know, why did these songs suddenly have? That's a long tail I guess would be the phrase to understand it through. You can have you can judge the success of our media pop culture product, I guess by when it's originally launched, right? So a movies box office weekend can be a judgement of how good and successful a piece of work is. For music as well, right? It's when it was first launched. Add circulated, but then there's the other people or the other theory that says really we should take a a long tail approach to understanding success and measuring success. And that accounts for cases like this where songs. Only from the 80s recirculates and becomes a number one hit. So in that case I think the reason why you had cabuche's. Running up the hill. I'm pretty sure that was the one. Song was because it was also a diegetic piece of work, right? It didn't just play in the background of an episode of. Stranger things, it was used as narrative, right? So the only way in that scene that a you know, so basically stranger things, you know, you have this kind of demonic world, which the characters are getting pulled into. And for them to get back into our world, they found one way to do that was to. Put music on. That was emotionally significant and memorable to that individual. That would then pull them back to our world, and for this one character, it was the Kate Bush song. And so it really, I think was set up much more to be memorable in terms of that song and also justifiable. In terms of its, its popularity renewed popularity. The what? Like 40 years after it had launched. In this case, you know, I think the use of Tom Petty's loves long road works. I guess with the where, as I said, it's kind of set in a Florida location, so it's evoking, you know, again this song was released back in 1989. So it's it's not new and again probably it's it's more leveraging off all of the hype and interest of. Grand Theft Auto 6. It's certainly a shift from some previous songs that.
Speaker
Have been used.
CRAIG NORRIS
If the article goes on to point out that GTA San Andreas back in 2004, he's running down a dream and games classic rock station K DST.
Speaker
And I guess.
CRAIG NORRIS
That's also, and this is what I'm more. Interested in with Grand Theft Auto 1? Of the memorable. Components of Grand Theft Auto Video game is its use of a. Radio station that you can tune the cars into as you're driving, literally a GTA. I guess your your GTA in you can tune the radio stations and listen to these fabulous radio stations in. The the car. That you're you're playing, so narratives of engagement, everything from country and Western stations to rock. To kind of talk shows, call lines and again you know Edge radio is always looking for great new ideas for shows. I encourage people over the summer dip back into some of those highly memorable radio stations on Grand Theft Auto and fans by you put in an application. So you want to do like the GTA San? Various K DST station to do some Rock You could learn from worse sources would say you could learn from far worse sources. Alright, so that's is the other bit of unusual news that the GTA6 trailer has made a. Tom Petty song from 1989. Love is a long Rd. Suddenly chatting on Spotify, and I guess other music subscription channels. So so quite.
Speaker 5
Quite unusual I think.
Speaker 1
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CRAIG NORRIS
Alright, you're listening to medium. Other him here on his radio. 99.3 FM. Last story of the day. He's picking up last week's discussion of the video game dead by daylight and basically unpacking a really fascinating interview with the Games creators behaviour and how they approached. Bringing classic horror monsters into this video game for. Those that haven't. Played dead by daylight. Basically it's a. Kind of battle game live battle game where you can play as a a killer, a monster killer like one of the classics like Michael Myers from Halloween or the Alien or Chucky now has been added the. The ghost from scream. The Ghostface from scream. Anyway, a whole variety of proprietary and original monsters, and basically the other choice you have is to play as victims who are on the run trying to defeat the monster through solving, you know, various targets to to to get out of this this holiday. So it's. A. A kind of short. Horror, horror game and competitively played, and what's fascinating again is how.
Speaker 4
There the what?
CRAIG NORRIS
I think is really interesting that by daylight is how they've tried to do what could be referred to as as transmedia storytelling, right? That is where you're taking the story that's in another medium. In this case, it could be the film Halloween. And translate it into a new medium. Here we have a video game A and. Fighting video game and still keep the core tropes and ingredients of the character that fans like to make sense in the platform and its restrictions. How you take advantage of the platforms and how you minimise the restrictions of the platform to. Make it work. So previously we were listening to their discussion of of actually how they adapted another video game, the Silent Hill series into the space. So what was fascinating there as they were talking about how important the space is for that. So we're gonna pick. Up with that and discuss a. Little bit as to how to create. A transmedia story like dead by daylight, so over now to a little bit from the interview, and we'll break into it as there's interesting points to discuss. On it. Yes, any second I will. Yep, hold on. I'll put the fader up.
Speaker 5
The size of the character was a was. A a challenge.
Speaker 6
Is he the biggest? Killer we have in the game, right?
Speaker 5
Now yes, he's a big boy. Biggest guy. Tiny head, yes and no. So of course there was. There was that. That was a challenge just with the metrics. I think that with all the killers we've done in the past.
CRAIG NORRIS
So just pause there. They're talking about bringing in a villain character from the video game Silent Hill called Nemesis. Who's this huge tank like Monster. Feature and they're saying how they're going to talk about what's really interesting about this example of translating another video games villain into a different type of video game. So in in Silent Hill, it's, you know, storyline driven. It can be Co-op or solo played. Kind of FPS Riddle puzzle so. The game and taking that into an MMO battle game like dead by daylight. So here what's really interesting that they will unpack is is weapons, how they have to change weapons to make sense within their video game and not lose the key components of what made that. Villain. Memorable in the Silent Hill.
Speaker 5
Making like this unstoppable killing machine is something. That we're used to do.
Speaker 2
Nemesis is just one of the deadly foes players encounter in Resident Evil. Rather than just pick and choose behaviour decided to arm nemesis with all the dangers present in Capcom survival horror series, giving him the ability to summon zombies or infect players. With the G. Davis, the ultimate goal was to get all the details right, with behaviour conferring with Capcom that to get even the tiniest attribute correct.
Speaker 6
And this one, it was constant conversations. I remember with the licensor and the the people on the production team over there and there's a lot of things that are really of critical importance for them, like whether it's like a. The exact colour of the virus elements. Or just the way the character is represented and the impact that it has.
Speaker 5
We wanted to make sure that beyond the character advances that the the whole package facing this chapter felt like the other component of personal people would be there as well.
Speaker 2
However, one thing Nemesis is missing in dead by daylight is its iconic rocket launcher.
CRAIG NORRIS
So that's really has named. Me again, the idea of. Nothing's more frustrating when you're watching an adaptation of a piece of fiction you really like. Like you, you love the the novels or the video game, and they adapted into a movie and they change the core ingredient of it. And it's is really dissatisfying. In some ways it can be better, I mean. Some of the classic evolutions or the the classic. Troops and components of popular culture came from those moments. So Superman, for instance, in the early comic books did not fly. He jumped. He leaped over tall buildings, but when they adapted the comic book into radio, they had it made far more. Audio sense for flight to occur and as they develop that radio drama further and the TV drama in the 50. They needed to create a more believable kind of handicap for the OPD. Superman and Kryptonite was introduced not through the comic books, but through the I think it was radio drama. I don't think it was the TV drama, but nevertheless through a different. Platform because of the different team that. Was involved and. The different affordances of that platform, so it. Can be an advantage here in. This case, with dead by daylight, they're saying. That one of Nemesis Key. Weapons is infamous. Rocket launcher is not there, so it's interesting here to hear them explain why it is that a distance based weapon rocket launcher would break the game. Of dead by daylight.
Speaker 2
Richard says the rocket launcher was indeed discussed. Internally, but ultimately behaviour had to be true to dead by daylight 1st and artillery just doesn't. Work in the game it.
Speaker 6
Created and that's one of the things also, right? Why we try to avoid weapons as much as possible, at least like ranged weapons because they put some space between the the killer and its victim dead by daylight is very much about making sure that things are. Visceral and felt very strongly, and and that's one of the reasons why why weapons tend to. Not make it again.
CRAIG NORRIS
So it's really interesting. Again, the idea that weapons. Don't work in the game mechanics of dead by daylight, and therefore, while they might adapt a character like Nemesis from Resident Evil who has excellent ranged weapons, that missile launcher, nevertheless it would break the game because it would. You know, it would defeat one of the main mechanics, which is hand hand Malay based fighting system and would again yeah again create too much distance would completely kind of take the rhythm of the game out so. Here in a case like the Silent Hill DLC for dead by Daylight, which is again very, very highly regarded in the community as as a good DLC to get in their rankings, I think it's a a tier, maybe even S they managed to get over that expectation that OK nemesis. Should have the following weapons including these distance ranged weapons like a missile launcher. They didn't do that, but they still managed to do enough of nemesis's key component for it to be accepted and work within the game. So again, a careful balancing act. There where you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And frustrate fans. But nevertheless, you want to make sure you're. Adapting the character to work in this new platform. So let's hear. Then how they've developed it through other franchises.
Speaker 2
Once behaviour finished on Silent Hill, it returned its focus to movies and with franchises like Halloween and Saul already under its. Belt the developer. Looked abroad for its next collaboration, Jay Horror Icon Sadako from. The ring, first of all.
Speaker 6
Dead by daylight is extremely well known in Japan. The content creators really enjoyed it, so when we reached out to the the licence holders over there, they knew again they knew what sort of thing we were trying to build and they they were already eager. To to get involved while.
CRAIG NORRIS
It's interesting to. Hear the importance of having, I guess, creators as fans, right? So they were saying that how that by daylight. So here talking about the property ring, they're fantastic Japanese Jay horror film. From the 80s, which has had a number of spin offs as well as. Western adaptation film adaptation. I think they had. 2 Ring Films in the West. And it has the if. If you haven't seen it, you might remember the monster monster is a young girl, and the hair of the girl, like the long black hair, is draped over her face. And she comes at you from a television. So for those that have forgotten what ring is, it's the classic cursed videotape film where teenagers have have mysteriously died seven days after watching a cursed videotape which has footage kind of surreal footage of of Southall. And then they they watch it. They get a phone call saying they're gonna die in seven days and then uh, they die. And the horrendous circumstances from sabbatical, and that's that's the premise of the film. And so here they've taken that memorable character of Southport and the well that she's buried in as as the premise for it. And as they've said, you're the business. Of adapting property can go a lot easier when the people you're engaged with and the audience that is supporting it. So the Japanese video game. Players as well as the licence holders of cervical know your title dead by daylight and there's a fandom for it that makes it a lot easier. So let's see how they adapted cycle from.
Speaker 2
Getting the rights to use Satoko ended by daylight wasn't an issue. There was still the challenge. Bringing the unique lore of the ring. To the game in. Particular, it was her modus operandi, killing her victims seven days after they watched her curse to videotape. Even though Sadako was made to zip through TV sets, just like in the movies, players can't very well sit around for seven days to wait for the curse to kick in. So behaviour spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make her week long curse work.
Speaker 5
We went through several. Prototypes and different ideas that we've played. With so ranging from, you know a natural. And then 7 minutes or we give a short amount of time or we give you know notches that will go and increment. For your curse and we. Will replicate that with using the number 7.
Speaker 2
Ultimately, 7 becomes a reoccurring stat for Satoko where her powers affect survivors, whether they're seven metres away or their presence become known to her for seven seconds. If you look at the characters unofficial wiki page, you find that many of her abilities will evolve around the number 7, which was a fun way to incorporate the seven days. Concept into all her abilities. Behaviour also wanted to add a new survivor to go along with Sadako, but.
CRAIG NORRIS
We'll just post it there. That's it again. Yeah, I guess thinking you have a boxes developer. How do you incorporate a core component, a core trope of a monster that does not work at all with your video game? So in this case the whole stick with this other character is that you watch the videotape, you get a phone calls. That tells you you will die in seven days and then so the core attacks you on that 7th day. So as I'm pointing out here. In the interview, it would. Not work to simply have. A time element of seven days elapse. So yeah, you know. Unusual approach of taking the #7 as the entry point or the motif of the character then so a lot of her attacks a lot of her. Power apps, derivatives of the number seven. It kind of lacks some of the nice, you know, diegetic link. I mean that. You know in. The way they've applied it seems a little arbitrary, but I guess that's why it's interesting. In the video clip, they kind of do it as a tongue in cheek that it's kind of like it's a cute way. It's a it's a gesture to acknowledge the law of the character in a way that an encyclopaedic fan. Could take off and say. OK, I get what I. See what you did there. I see that you. You know it and and maybe what it is about is is showing a bit. Of custodianship, right? That the developers of dead by daylight want to show that they know the property they know ringu and well, they can't simply match all of Ringu or Sadako's. Killing narrative the seven day thing. Nevertheless, they will show the cultural capital they have of horror films and telecom by using that #7 in other ways in other creative ways. So again it performs a couple of, I guess, important heavy lifting for fans and players of the game. To enjoy dead by daylight and know they're in safe hands. I guess the narrative being that the behaviour team that made dead by daylight are also fans of horror film. They're not just doing it to make money. I'm sure they're doing it to make money. To make money carelessly anyway, let's see it next as the by daylight, it's interesting that you have the. Opportunity to play. The hero or the? Victims. The survivors hopefully, rather than becoming a victim, survivors of the show. So of course in the. Movie, first movie, there are. There are survivors. Quite clever survivors. So here we'll hear how they pick this up. And again, the question is, are they adapting the survivor from ring? In in a. New way? Or does it extend the storytelling of the original film? Does it actually take some narrative of a survivor and put that survivor into the game, or extend it in? Some way or. Do they come up with an original survivor?
Speaker 2
This led to yet another puzzle. The only survivor from the movies was a child named Yuichi Asakawa. Unsurprisingly, behaviour refused to add a child survivor to the. Game we wanted.
Speaker 6
To introduce a survivor in there, but this story. Is is sort of unique in the sense that nobody survives. Right? Said that cold. There's no survivors there. The only person that survives canonically in the story is this little child, and obviously we don't want to have children survivors in dead by daylight. We don't want to put kids on a meat.
Speaker 2
Hook the solution.
CRAIG NORRIS
Suppose there what a wonderful phrase. Yes, not putting children as a child on a meal. So here we have again the mechanics of the game, restricting how you can adapt to peace. You know, obviously the optics as well as the kind of questions of decency. Around Gore and having a a child surviving and battling Gore would not work easily with the game and and again, probably they're thinking of two ways in terms of running a business sense, what type of age classification rating that would suddenly. Get the game into you know, you could make it an X rated game, which would diminish its its. So how do they get out of this dilemma? Right? If they still want to have that, that connective tissue to the mothership, the ring film, what do they do? If they only survive as a young child? Let's hear how they came up with a solution.
Speaker 2
Age of Yuichi into an adult? Something Kawakawa then approved as part of the. Rings official cannon.
Speaker 6
Work together to create a version of that character that's all grown up, and the story that was told around the character, how he became a marine biologist and all of the things around him were developed with people at Kettle making sure that this became Canon to their universe. That they wanted to make sure that that would be coherent in their world. So it was great for us to be able to sit down with people who created a a legendary property and then sort of build and add to their world.
CRAIG NORRIS
So again, quite clever way of adapting that work and putting it into another spin by ageing up that character. So that defeats two birds. One stone. It means that gamers can download a DLC which will have both the the monster and the survivor, and it avoids. Any classification issues because you've aged up the survivor, but it's still in dialogue with the original film. It's still canonical in terms of the survivor is now. You know a teenager or 20 something young, 20 something. The last example they give here is from the Alien series. Again shifting gears entirely away from kind of contemporarily set home. In the the the you. Know the here and now to a future setting. Uh, kind of science fiction dystopic film from Ridley Scott's Alien. Let's see how they did.
Speaker 2
Alien dead by Daylight's most recent collaboration is a culmination of all that has come before. As killers grew in size and scope, behaviour was forced to develop new abilities, character models and maps, and all of these advancements can be seen with the Xenomorph. Indeed, the Xenomorph incorporates many of the advancements behaviour developed on past collaborations. Like changing up. How levels work as it does with characters like sodeco? And pyramid head and incorporating larger and more ambitious killers like Nemesis, but with the Xenomorph. It was the first time they created a four legged killer.
Speaker 5
For the first time ever, we were going to have a character that could be on two legs or four legs at any time, and that was very important. To the character. And to its move set. Especially like to be able to. Work with the tunnels as. Well, we're, I mean super happy with the results.
Speaker 2
Indeed, one of the biggest technical marvels with the Xenomorph is how it can travel through unique tunnels, which have been added to all 36 maps. The tunnelling ability was a way for behaviour to channel one of the xenomorphs primary characteristics, in this case wall crawling into the world of dead by daylight.
CRAIG NORRIS
So that's quite. Interesting again, as we heard with Salco. And the challenge of getting that seven days. Concept into the. Film, right? How you. Take that key law idea of seven days in the case of Psycho, they just kind of arbitrarily adapted the number 7 into various attacks and and and weapon ups and so forth. Here it's a little more interesting, I think, in terms of what they've done with the Xenomorph, the alien character. Where one of the memorable features of that character, I guess in the films and expanded universe. Is its ability. To climb everywhere, to be on the wall. All around corners classic. You know, kind of hiding in shadows. Can be anywhere, Monster. So let's hear how they try to adapt that act of the alien into the video game mechanics.
Speaker 5
Very early in the production of the alien, we had this idea. You know, looking at the movie, looking at. Capture that we would be able to climb.
CRAIG NORRIS
Along any surface.
Speaker 5
That would create a pretty cool power, like being able to go on walls, going ceilings surprise us survivor, but it was absolutely a. Nightmare to support. We had to find another idea that would replicate so many maps was extremely challenging, but. Absolutely worth it. What's really cool about the tunnel system is that it is there for real, right? You're you're using it in real time. You move around and you actually can.
Speaker 2
Our behaviour has come with dead by daylight since its launch over seven years ago.
CRAIG NORRIS
So again, really interesting idea that the way they ended. Fixing or figuring out if they can't get the xenomorph alien to crawl up on walls and ceilings they created instead a new mechanic or a new space. So rather than how the wants to fights or a a number that resonates in the monsters. Makeup they introduce a whole new type of space to the game tunnels, which allows the alien again to to do the same or similar thing in terms of being able to suddenly leap out from unexpected locations, disappear suddenly. And still makes sense. I guess diagetically in the game that it's a tunnel system. So quite clever I think. And again, you know resource heavy in terms of for all the maps that developed then putting tunnels in all these maps that the Xenomorph can use.
Speaker 2
Advancing the tech to the point where it can now incorporate almost anything at once in an authentic way.
Speaker 6
Bit of a dream, right? The the Xenomorph was really high on our list of properties that we wanted in the game. But. Early on in the development of that, by daylight, we weren't. Ready. You needed to have the tech and the expertise to be able to really do this justice, because if we were gonna do that, we didn't want to do. It with a. Pathway. So it was, it was amazing. There's nothing but fans of the franchise on the team and and for most people there is a huge deal.
CRAIG NORRIS
So again, interesting narrative. There of of setting themselves up as custodians. Of this popular. Culture. They're both. Game designers and obviously business savvy, but importantly for an interview with IGN, I guess also being able to show that they're fans and custodians and wanting to they're they're fans of the the properties they're adapting like alien, and they're they're taking care. And I guess being. Creative with how they've adapted these movie figures. Into a MMO battle game like dead by daylight. So for the alien creature, while it's no longer in a kind of science fiction spaceship and is climbing the walls, nevertheless, the tunnel system provides a similar suspense and a similar I guess if you're playing as the alien way of being able to be stealthy. In your attacks.
Speaker 2
Even though the Xenomorph was on top of behaviours, hit list and took years to get right, there's still more to come.
Speaker 6
The list is keeps growing also because. There are, I mean. It's been almost 10 years now that the game is up, so there have been some really interesting new properties that have been created in in that time frame that that. He brought into.
Speaker
Although the developer.
Speaker 2
Refuses to give specifics. Horror has enjoyed tremendous success since dead by daylight, was first released. Could we see Pennywise make it into the game? Or maybe the sightless aliens from a quiet place? Only time will tell. But if you're into horror, there's really only one place you need to look.
CRAIG NORRIS
All right. So again, that was the interview with the behaviour team from dead by daylight. I thought it was a really fascinating interview, allowing us to explore the challenges of adapting properties in a very successful way and quite interesting ways of balancing the pros and cons of a platform like a video game. And particularly within a video game and MMO battle game like day by daylight, when you're taking fictional story driven characters like the alien. Well, look, that's. Been media mothership. For this week, next week we'll do a classic replay of interview with Sertraline. Travis, who is the author of the incredibly successful series he who fights. Monsters and we'll be playing a a second episode of his interview next week, but so I guess Merry Christmas, happy New Year, festive greetings for them. Did my sorry medium. Most people have another episode next week and then we'll have a we'll be back on the 4th. Or the 5th that that first Friday of January. Free Media mothership will be back streaming begin and end. Thank you very much for listening and and posting comments throughout the show. Most appreciated. Look forward to seeing you all back in 2024 for new episodes of Media Mothership then.
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