The past few days, the latest rage in the community is about the “The Bells”, the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones. My personal opinion about the show, season and episode aside, what stirred up things for me was the recent petition to HBO to remake the show… and one actress, Lili Reinhart, response: “This is not how television works. TV shows are not fan service. It’s ridiculous of people to think they can demand creative change from artists.”
Many fans were quick to ridicule her point and even claimed that TV is “literally” a fan service, as it relies on the fans to survive. As a person who works in the gaming industry, where the feeling of entitlement by gamers is rife, and one working on a fan project, this is a hot button topic for me.
The truth of the matter is, Reinhart is absolutely and entirely correct.
In the end, TV shows, video games, all of it, is art. Yes, much of it is produced for public consumption and entertainment, because that is the main model art is commercialized today. Of course, just 150 years ago, that was hardly the case, with most of the art either commissioned or purchased directly by only a small part of society. But in the end, even mass-entertainment art is art. The artist makes the art – the consumer may choose to consume it. That’s it. That’s where it ends.
It’s a bit more complicated than that since video games can include technical issues, bugs, balance implication and such that are not art and are something that is developer/artist is responsible for. But behind that, there is not just a ‘product’, there is an artistic statement. A vision, a message, a worldview, that you as a consumer/gamer might not agree with, and that’s fine… but it’s still THEIR product and their vision.
Not every game or TV Show is a commercial success, and that’s fine. The fans are often, nowadays, a key part in the commercial success or failure of a game, show or movie, but not always. Nor are all successful projects necessarily follow the fans lead. Battlestar Galactica ended after 4 seasons despite the fans because that’s what the artists decided. Captain Marvel was a huge financial success, despite toxic fans… and in the today day and age, with streaming services and original content, fan support does not directly translate into money or the decision of the service of which shows to keep or not. Discovery is a good indicator for that.
As an industry professional, I, of course, can’t forget the maxim that the customer is always right. Games, in the end, need to make money. Not to mention, working alongside gamers and the community can be extremely rewarding. The previous game Suncrash (the company I work with) released was called Judgment. It was a product of over two years in Early Access, where we worked closely with the community, listened to feedback, fixed bugs and made the game better. I absolutely believe the fans made the game better, just as I absolutely believe that the feedback I get from fans makes New Horizons better.
But still, in Judgment or New Horizons or elsewhere, there are decisions and requests and demands by the fans that are simply contrary to the vision of the game, and in that case, it is important to say a clear and firm no, and to remind the fans – this is not how this works. It’s not how any of this works.
“It’s your turn. Play the game, Wesley.” – Robin Lefler,