A few different friends recommended the Fallout series on Prime video, I finished it a couple of days ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’ve shared videos of Tom and his channel Like Stories of Old. I admit it’s in part because he published a video essay about video game adaptations featuring Fallout that I started watching the show.
I thought if Tom / Like Stories of Old publishes a video about the Fallout with that title about understanding gameplay for filmmakers, then it must be worth watching.
Said another way: look at me being influenced.
Like Stories of Old | When the Filmmakers Actually Understand the Gameplay
The main topic of the video ponders what makes for a successful video game adaptation, moving from an interactive media format, to a passive one.
He brings up the philosophical concept of ‘qualia’ in his video essay as a possible key to understanding and adapting the gameplay and spirit of a game.
‘Qualia / quale’ are defined as instances of subjective, conscious experiences.
The perceived sensation associated with an experience, the qualitative nature and characteristics associated with them.
I’m paraphrasing one of the examples from the Wikipedia page: many bottles of wine have labels describing tasting notes, like ‘hints of ripe cherry.’
Actually, when you taste that wine though, you will have your own perception and experience, and if you pay attention you might notice, for example, that you don’t taste ripe cherry, but rather blackberry, or smoke, or whatever your experience is.
Translated to video games, it is about the subjective, conscious experiences and qualities that are associated with it.
Even if quale are subjective by nature, if you adapt a game into a film and you have never played (and probably, ideally appreciated) that game, by definition, you cannot, in any way, adapt its qualia to passive storytelling.
The idea comes from American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce in the late 19th century.
I’d venture to say these types of subjective, conscious experiences are also what is sought when speaking with people for qualitative research, to try and grasp how a lived situation is for another, typically in the context of the consideration, purchase, and usage of a product or service.
There are spoilers for Fallout and The Last of Us mostly, and a few other remarks coming from other videos of his.
Qualia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia
