Draft

Introduction

Franchise milking was nothing new in the entertainment world especially in the game industry. We can’t really stop money hungry game developers selling its previously successful, minor tweaked version and proven to be a safer route to earn extra cash by its die-hard fans. And they will buy it because of the strength of that game title, no matter how boring it gets, but risk in getting bashed in the community and loses the fan’s trust in their new release.  In Thompson and Bordwell’s (2007) interview they found that it is same for the movie industry, when the first film was successful, they expand the story by making a sequel after one another to make more profit. Repetitions are no contemporary development, as they exist in all eras and also in all narrative forms ranged from novels, dramas, movies, games to comics. The story and the world can always go on depends on the author’s creativity and also having the option to take on variations.

Are all sequels in the arts automatically second-rate? Are repetitions necessarily bad?

In my opinion, it depends on the option of making a sequel was carefully placed and hinted within the first work. Not all repetitions are bad but there must be a limit for continuity of story.  Instead of mingling with new titles, continuing a familiar title seems to be the lower-risk and preferable option, that is understandable. However if the title was milked and milked again for profit, their target audience will start to lose interest in them.

Why entertainment industry repeats

Today, box offices are getting over run by sequels. The aim for making a film or game sequel undoubtedly, are profit, to draw it the same crowd target audience that was attracted on their previous successful work. In fact, what about film and mainstream game industry are not made aimed to make money. The first product is always considered prototype that is unsure of public acceptance, when it worked, more money and investment are poured into the first’s formulae. Kurtzleben (2012) wrote that making sequels saves time and money to look for new set of actors. However, he added that sequence made back in the days of Star Wars and The Godfather compared to today, may have a little different. Sequence back then were meant to tell a good story, while sequels made today were an effort to make money from what sells in its previous worked in the meantime leaving another option for another possible sequel, again.

Thompson and Bordwell (2007) suggested that film industries need to standardize and differentiate their products. Audiences are expecting familiar element and form with a not too big surprise. Sequels can earn audience’s recognition if the repetition is under control and interesting variation applied. Same goes for other media. Sequels are meant to respond to the popular demand of familiar but in the same time different. Jaccobi (2011) added that what audience wanted their product to be is familiarity but in the same time new. They know the story would be similar but different in a way which is what entertains them.

Repetition that works

In defense on controlled repetition works, I must suggest the game ‘Pokemon’. Released in 1996 with more than 20 version and its 5^th generation to be released soon, the storyline and mechanism of Pokemon doesn’t differ much where protagonist just moved into a new town with his/her mother, met a professor and get his/her first Pokemon and battle the professor’s niece, nephew who apparent the final boss of the game.  According to Haywald (2010) this repetitive monster capturing and dueling game originally aimed for younger audience are still played by adults that grew up playing them. The reason its fan still playing them is because that the game is simple and accessible by almost any age group. The game doesn’t change its graphics much which became a nostalgic factor for gamer to relive their childhood spent grinding the game. The game rewards the player sense of contentment for collections of their unique set of pokemons. In each version of Pokemon, players could find both familiar and new pokemon region to be explored, in every new version there will also be a new kind of fun pokemon events and mini games. The game mechanism doesn’t bore the players but keep them coming back for more because they felt comfortable inside this world. One of the main feature of pokemon is that previous captured pokemon can be transferred from previous version to the latter version, apart from starting the game over from scratch, encourages loyalty to the franchise. Different from Call of Duty and The Sims series, where there’s only add on to each sequel and game achievement & progress cannot be transferred to each version.

The Toy Story trilogy was a one of Pixar’s most successful series that well known by to both young and adult generation today. Maltin (2010) there’s usually not third prequel that is better than the previous and the first, except for Toy Story trilogy. The comeback of Toy Story 3 in 2010 took many by shock. Those who watched the Toy Story prequels already reached adulthood, which gives them nostalgic factor to come back to watch the sequel. The distinctive, well-defined characters Woody, Buzzy Lighter, Mr and Mrs. Potato Head are the familiar faces that made our childhood contented. Still, the interesting concept of toys coming alive and great story telling welcomes both old and new audience to title. The story actually grows with the audience where the Andy is now around the age of college students, that actually gives a sense of connectivity to the audience, in fact some of the joke was meant for make parents. Maltin (2010) also explained that Toy Story 3’s story telling were unexpectedly dark and could be intense for younger children, clearly shows that Pixar’s main target audience of the show were pointed to those who grew up on the first two prequel. Not only the graphics, nostalgic factor, story telling is good, the moral values inside were so rich and meaningful to us. The last part where Andy have to give away his best bud, Woody is perhaps the most heartbreaking scene ever in animation. Toy Story trilogy actually gives sense of connectivity and grows in the same time with the audience where a lot of things inside the movie we can relate ourselves with.

What makes a bad sequel?

The controversial first person shooter game, Call of Duty, have a special place in quite a number fan’s heart since its first release in 2003. When the game style switched from historical World war 2 reenacting to a close to real fictional modern day combat with storyline, its 4^th franchise, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, the title became the center of attraction and the role model and inspiration of many shooting games today. However, the downfall begins where the franchise produces a sequel following year which made the fans turning away from the title. The repetition of game play using the same game engine, same multiplayer feature, with only little add-on for each new versions, disappoints the fan’s even with great storyline, the game company’s desperation for money disgust his fans. Peterson (2012) quoted Michael Patcher that Call of Duty is a ‘failure’ although its latest franchise Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 ,2012 sells over 1 billion in 15 days. He mocked Call of Duty’s marketing strategy is bringing themselves down. He added that Activision and Treyarch, developer of Call of Duty went wrong is they trained gamers to buy a new game to play it every day in a year, then never play it again after next release next year.  The strategy is a failure because it kept its fans from buying and playing other games.

Resident Evil is one of the longest sequels ranged from 2002 to 2012, with total of 5 franchises. The Resident Evil film is one of the series than the fans are begging the studio to stop continue ruining it. The movie relies specially on special effects and action scene to cover up their weak plots, where each chapter follows the similar plot where Alice have to fight against evil Umbrella Corporation and its experimental monsters and zombies. Serafino (2012) wrote that the director had no interest in expanding the horror element, conspiracy on each chapter and decided to cover just combat action and violence. The movie does refer to the original game in term of new monster design, but different from the game the movie just copy the idea and new characters from the game with little explanation how it expanded that way.

It is both blessing and curse to the fans when a familiar title were released. When enough money were made nobody can stop the urge to extend the franchise with more spin off and sequels. Sometimes there are franchise better than original like how Christopher Nolan directed the Dark Knight trilogy but other times, studios just keep milking the franchise. In Thompson and Bordwell’s (2007) interview, Stew Fyfe raised up few good questions to could evaluate the worthiness nature of sequels by these questions: Has the sequel been made because there’s more story to tell? Or is it because the character are great and people want to see then again? Or is it just made because there’s more money to be made?

 Haywald, J. (2010) Why Gamers Still Play Pokemon. Available at: http://www.1up.com/features/gamers-play-pokemon [Accessed at 22 February 2013]

Jaccobi, P. (2011) Why Filmmakers Remake Movies So Often. Available at: http://www.consolidatedfilms.com/why-filmmaker-movie-remakes-common [Accessed at 23 February 2013]

Kurtzleben, D (2012) Why Sequels Have Taken Over the Box Office. Available at: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/06/26/why-sequels-have-taken-over-the-box-office?page=2 [Accessed 25 February 2013]

Maltin, L (2010) Toy Story 3. Available at: http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/film_review_toy_story_3 [Accessed at 25 February 2013]

Peterson, S. (2012) Pachter: Activision to buy Take-Two, Nintendo becoming "completely irrelevant" Available at: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-12-06-pachters-predictions-wii-us-problem-is-nobodys-going-to-support-it [Accessed at 25 February 2013]

Thompson, S & Bordwell, D (2007) Observations on Film Art. Available at: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2007/05/20/live-with-it-therell-always-be-movie-sequels-good-thing-too/ [Accessed 23 February 2013]