Pirates director keen to get into games

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski feels gaming is on the brink of something "phenomenal" and has had "something in mind" for around a year.

However, he is keen to observe before jumping head first into the market. Rather than compete games like Halo and BioShock - which, incidentally, he really enjoyed - he wants come from a "completely different direction" and be creatively involved when he does.

"After working seven years straight on five movies back to back, I picked up my game controller and started playing. I just was blown away by the potential. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel that we are on the brink of something phenomenal," Verbinski told the LA Times.

"I'm interested in creating completely new genres. I'm interested in exploring an emotional response to a game, which I haven't really seen. I've seen the visceral adrenaline response, but I haven't really played a game where I feel... Tremendous loss.

"I'm also interested in anti-narrative. I don't want to impose cinema's narrative onto a completely different medium. I think that's naive. The fact that the player is also the audience means you shouldn't be imposing a scenario where the audience is passive. Don't put those rules onto gaming," he added.

This idea of "zero narrative" was among the "madness" that Verbinski urged developers to exhibit during his speech at the D.I.C.E. 2008 Summit.

To achieve this we have to throw away tried and tested formulae and think outside the box, apparently.

"This rule that we have to be a human in the game: we just have to throw that one away, right? You can be a speck of dust. Once you dispose of aspects of conventional logic and you start to explore dream logic, the field is wide open," continued Verbinski.

"Gaming is breaking all these rules, so let's break them. Storytelling needs to evolve. And this is the perfect medium for it to take a quantum leap."

Once again, Verbinski aired his rather public disdain for the Pirates of the Caribbean games and the idea that they represent little more than merchandise to the film industry.

For him, a massively-multiplayer version of the swashbuckling world would have been much more appropriate. But Gore, old chap, there is one in development, although it does look a little sketchy.

"[I would have liked to see] an MMOG where you can dress up as a pirate. You can have a social network where you meet other pirates, and maybe three days in, you meet Jack Sparrow. Maybe you have to sell your soul to the devil to get to this level or that. Let the players write and create it. Let them evolve it," he suggested.

"There's something very Trekky about the core Pirates of the Caribbean fan base, and I respect that. I think it's a shame we couldn't produce a game that respected them as well."