Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
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Fall 2001 (Part 4) - Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
Warner Bros. is already hitting a home run with its ongoing series of superhero films, and on November 21st, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will add another blockbuster franchise to the company's already strong fortunes. The film is expected to open to over $120 million over the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend, with around $85 million over the Friday-Sunday period. That's a huge opening bow, but it won't be enough to topple Captain America, which became the first film to make over $100 million in its opening weekend. The film stars some of the biggest names in British cinema, including Alan Rickman as Severus Snape and John Hurt as the propretier of Ollivanders wand shop, and will be the feature film acting debut for three young actors who will be playing the roles of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.
The road to Warner Brothers' production of a live-action Harry Potter film was a long one, and the company very nearly didn't get the rights to the films at all. Initially, Sony had shown the most interest in acquiring the rights, and pitched a number of projects, including a cross-media blitz that would include a video game made in collaboration with Nintendo and an animated film series in collaboration with Dreamworks. After the animated film idea was nixed, Sony mulled the idea of doing a live action film, but ultimately declined to acquire the film rights, paving the way for Warner Brothers to acquire them.
-from an article in the November 16, 2001 Entertainment Weekly
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"Potter" Dominates Thanksgiving, Conjures Up $140 Million In 5 Days
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was a Thanksgiving weekend smash. In five days, the film has made $140 million, a record for any film over its first five days of domestic release. A $30 million opening bow on Wednesday wasn't quite good enough to knock Captain America out of the record books, and its $95.8 million over the Friday-Sunday period won't be quite good enough either, but Potter did smash the five day record by more than $20 million.
-from an article posted on Boxofficemojo.com, November 25, 2001
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The Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone video games weren't quite as popular with critics or audiences as the books and films, but they were strong sellers nonetheless. The main games were the titles released for the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Katana. The games took the form of 3-D platformer adventure titles that loosely chronicled the boy wizard's first year at Hogwarts. The two games were identical in content, though the Katana version featured more detailed graphics and smoother animation. They were solid, if fairly pedestrian affairs, but the Potter brand name moved plenty of copies of each over the holidays.
More interesting was the Game Boy Nova Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Developed and published by Ubisoft (who acquired the portable license separately from WB Games who produced the console titles), the game was a JRPG, where Harry, Hermione, and Ron explored Hogwarts and the surrounding environs, purchased items and spells, and fought enemies in turn-based combat. The battle system was roughly similar to The Darkest Ritual (indeed, Ubisoft used the Harry Potter RPGs as a sort of dry run for their Darkest Ritual port that would be released for the Nova in 2003). The games even had allusions to that series: two characters named Stephenie and Kristen appeared from time to time as Hogwarts students, their appearances and demeanors almost identical to Etienne and Kris. It's one of the more interesting cameos in a licensed game, and the game itself is considered quite good, perhaps the best of the Sorcerer's Stone games. Ubisoft would continue to produce Potter RPGs based on the books, all the way up to The Goblet of Fire.
-from an article on Kotaku.com chronicling video game adaptations of books, posted on February 11, 2012
The road to Warner Brothers' production of a live-action Harry Potter film was a long one, and the company very nearly didn't get the rights to the films at all. Initially, Sony had shown the most interest in acquiring the rights, and pitched a number of projects, including a cross-media blitz that would include a video game made in collaboration with Nintendo and an animated film series in collaboration with Dreamworks. After the animated film idea was nixed, Sony mulled the idea of doing a live action film, but ultimately declined to acquire the film rights, paving the way for Warner Brothers to acquire them.
-from an article in the November 16, 2001 Entertainment Weekly
-
"Potter" Dominates Thanksgiving, Conjures Up $140 Million In 5 Days
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was a Thanksgiving weekend smash. In five days, the film has made $140 million, a record for any film over its first five days of domestic release. A $30 million opening bow on Wednesday wasn't quite good enough to knock Captain America out of the record books, and its $95.8 million over the Friday-Sunday period won't be quite good enough either, but Potter did smash the five day record by more than $20 million.
-from an article posted on Boxofficemojo.com, November 25, 2001
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The Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone video games weren't quite as popular with critics or audiences as the books and films, but they were strong sellers nonetheless. The main games were the titles released for the Ultra Nintendo and the Sega Katana. The games took the form of 3-D platformer adventure titles that loosely chronicled the boy wizard's first year at Hogwarts. The two games were identical in content, though the Katana version featured more detailed graphics and smoother animation. They were solid, if fairly pedestrian affairs, but the Potter brand name moved plenty of copies of each over the holidays.
More interesting was the Game Boy Nova Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Developed and published by Ubisoft (who acquired the portable license separately from WB Games who produced the console titles), the game was a JRPG, where Harry, Hermione, and Ron explored Hogwarts and the surrounding environs, purchased items and spells, and fought enemies in turn-based combat. The battle system was roughly similar to The Darkest Ritual (indeed, Ubisoft used the Harry Potter RPGs as a sort of dry run for their Darkest Ritual port that would be released for the Nova in 2003). The games even had allusions to that series: two characters named Stephenie and Kristen appeared from time to time as Hogwarts students, their appearances and demeanors almost identical to Etienne and Kris. It's one of the more interesting cameos in a licensed game, and the game itself is considered quite good, perhaps the best of the Sorcerer's Stone games. Ubisoft would continue to produce Potter RPGs based on the books, all the way up to The Goblet of Fire.
-from an article on Kotaku.com chronicling video game adaptations of books, posted on February 11, 2012
The movie is on the way, some 'techical issues' make the post be delayed a little further we thought would be but is natural, in general the only spoiler was that the movie break the 100$ millon opening weekend record(otl was the little wizard the one who pulled it but here he even claimed victory over the first avenger=
Any casting butterflies relative to OTL? Do they leave in any of Rik Mayall's performance as Peeves?
Somebody needs to update the tvtropes.org page for this TL...
I wonder if the show Tania addresses the 9/11 attacks (it'd almost have to; the show was set in New York, especially since the attack occurred mainly in New York ITTL)?
With a more New York-centric attack ITTL, maybe the show Law and Order (or Law and Order: SVU) kills off one of its major characters (IIRC, Benjamin Bratt (1) (assuming he was still cast ITTL) had left Law and Order by this point). Just don't kill off Lennie Briscoe...
If you need any alternate casting suggestions for Law and Order, I've got one: John Leguizamo (he's a New York actor and he also played the Clown in Spawn)...
(1) Interestingly, when he dated Julia Roberts, she guest-starred in an episode. And was very good in it...
I wonder if the show Tania addresses the 9/11 attacks (it'd almost have to; the show was set in New York, especially since the attack occurred mainly in New York ITTL)?
With a more New York-centric attack ITTL, maybe the show Law and Order (or Law and Order: SVU) kills off one of its major characters (IIRC, Benjamin Bratt (1) (assuming he was still cast ITTL) had left Law and Order by this point). Just don't kill off Lennie Briscoe...
If you need any alternate casting suggestions for Law and Order, I've got one: John Leguizamo (he's a New York actor and he also played the Clown in Spawn)...
(1) Interestingly, when he dated Julia Roberts, she guest-starred in an episode. And was very good in it...
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I hope that Twilight and 50SG is butterflied away(and maybe the Gossip Girl TV too, or its ending changed in favor of Dair not Chair) Not only because of the low quality but also that it feel it led to sjws overreacting against "evil is cool" trope and Draco in leather pants, that is because twilight made unhealthy relationships and rape culture "kewl" and so did 50SG. So without Twilight you might not see a backlash against people that sympathize with Loki or any villain just because they have a sad backstory and it might be seen as innocent fun at best or misguided at worst.
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A further note on Eric Harris:
Have you seen the film Heathers, RySenkari? In that film, J.D. (played by Christian Slater) is a psychopathic, ax-crazy student who murders several popular students and then tries to blow up the school at the end...just like Eric Harris (and Dylan Klebold) (1) planned to do in Columbine IOTL; hell, Harris has some similarities to J.D. (his sociopathic nature, his lack of empathy for others, etc.). I've already pointed out that Eric Harris and Klebold OTL had planned to hijack a plane and crash it into New York City (two years before 9/11)...
(1) By most accounts I've read, Harris' parents (and Klebold's, too; his mother Sue wrote an essay here: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Susan-Klebolds-O-Magazine-Essay-I-Will-Never-Know-Why) were not abusive to their kids (indeed, Harris and Klebold bragged about fooling their parents (and everyone else)), unlike J.D.'s dad in Heathers, who likely drove his wife (and J.D.'s mother) to suicide).
Have you seen the film Heathers, RySenkari? In that film, J.D. (played by Christian Slater) is a psychopathic, ax-crazy student who murders several popular students and then tries to blow up the school at the end...just like Eric Harris (and Dylan Klebold) (1) planned to do in Columbine IOTL; hell, Harris has some similarities to J.D. (his sociopathic nature, his lack of empathy for others, etc.). I've already pointed out that Eric Harris and Klebold OTL had planned to hijack a plane and crash it into New York City (two years before 9/11)...
(1) By most accounts I've read, Harris' parents (and Klebold's, too; his mother Sue wrote an essay here: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Susan-Klebolds-O-Magazine-Essay-I-Will-Never-Know-Why) were not abusive to their kids (indeed, Harris and Klebold bragged about fooling their parents (and everyone else)), unlike J.D.'s dad in Heathers, who likely drove his wife (and J.D.'s mother) to suicide).
That is a nice recomendation, will try to watch the movie online for more details but seems they Nailed how Psychopathy and Anti Social Personality Disorder works maybe too well.... the movie did try to give a reason, reality is far complex, as we knew maybe Harris did have something more broken than we would understand and again the lack of people asking for help make disaster to happen...
ITTL we've the Chris-Chan Valentine Massacre and is something migth get reference later on(we're still dealing aftermatch and maybe it will be when certain Michigan Filmaker take the stage) but is something later to notice.
I dunno how to response because never cared for Twilight but 50SG is trully nice to see how people entrapt other in cult like fashion, if you read it like my mom or i in that focus is a insane thriller, but again i understand zero of this fandom, thanks fo the details neverless.
J.K. Rowling probably never hears about Andrekah, at least before 2000, as it's one of many games during that era that gets kind of screwed over in PAL territories. It didn't get over to Europe until March 1996, and they didn't make very many copies for Europe when they did. It sold about 23,000 copies in the United Kingdom total. Its impact in North America and Japan is far bigger than its impact in Europe.
I almost recast Ron, but couldn't find any good child actors of the time to play him, and considering how enthusiastic Rupert Grint was about the role IOTL, not too much would change his interest in the series ITTL. The biggest butterfly that would've affected him is that he played Killer Instinct Ultra a lot in 1998, but he was still more enthusiastic about Harry Potter than about any video games.
Taina will almost certainly address the attacks, though it won't result in any permanent changes for the show. Same with Law and Order, though an episode or two might deal with the attacks themselves. Briscoe is fine, the only question is whether or not butterflies can save Jerry Orbach via getting him diagnosed earlier. John Leguizamo in Law and Order might be a good idea though.
Fifty Shades is almost certainly gone. It's about 50-50 whether or not Twilight will be butterflied. I imagine, however, that SOMETHING will arise that has unhealthy relationships as a trope. It may crop up in The Fixer, Christian Bale's character on there has a lot of female fans.
I've not seen Heathers, but I've heard of it. I imagine Eric's parents will still feel quite guilty about what happened to Caitlyn, though Caitlyn's parents forgive them pretty much right away. The Columbine incident has been reduced to the level of Investigation Discovery fodder ITTL. That network still eventually crops up, though without the OJ Simpson trial it does take somewhat longer for "crime TV" to catch on.
So I guess that means Court TV doesn't exist? Is CSI still as successful ITTL?
I never know about CourtTv but Ry can correct me, CSI might still exist as forensics and other will become decisive evidence, i think oj simpsons trial was more about the power of attorneys that forensic, so maybe CSI might exist(but radically different) but as popular depend, maybe is just a show got a short run(2-3 season) and people remember how cutting edge was or other, a question was CSI the same one as JAG?
No, NCIS was originally a spinoff of JAG. CSI was an independent franchise.
That is what i was asking, maybe here as we got JAG,CSI and NCIS in the same channel(AXN i dunno if that channel exist in USA) i thougt all three were the same guy(Bellisarus right?) and were sequel-spinoff of each other, so maybe CSI would exist taking the cocktails of JAG, i dunno how the rest would fare
Ah, so the Harry Potter JRPGs are on the Nova instead of the GBC, and Ubisoft instead of EA is developing them, but otherwise seem pretty much the same as otl.
They're not exactly the same. The plot is somewhat more detailed (there are more boss encounters), and the combat system is somewhat different. It's still heavily spell-based, but it has the battle system from The Darkest Ritual, which features spells cast from HP (with some exceptions) and gives the player the ability to customize spells. It's somewhat of a cross between the battle systems of Paladin's Quest and Treasure Of The Rudras. Critical consensus is considerably more favorable than the GBC Potter RPGs.
Is It A Good Idea To Microwave This? is probably butterflied. Epic Rap Battles at this point has about a 50/50 shot at making it, while we'll probably see GameLife pop up in some form.
Oh, a quick Author's Note: Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, there probably won't be that many updates this week.
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