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Old 02-17-2005, 03:57 PM   #1
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Ripoff or homage?

Has anyone here ever read 1984, george orwell?

In the book, society is oppressed by "The party", a vague group who hold power in north america. They , the party,declares that we (america) are always at war with a foreign country, which allows them to ration all materials to the public. This book also brought in the idea of Big brother, that televisions were two way and watched you as you watched them. They had a group, called the "Thought police" who would capture you for thinking thoughts against the party. Everyone had shitty material objects, be it clothing or whatever. Party propoganda everywhere.

Sound similar? Between everyone living in shite homes, oppressed and in jumpsuits (like prisioners), to the civilian protection force (thought police), to breen and his higher ups (the party), the propoganda all over (video screens with breen, breen's reserve of water, breen on TV), and the cameras that float around and watch everything (big brother). It is just too damn similar. When i first fired up HL2, i thought immediatly of 1984.
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Old 02-17-2005, 04:30 PM   #2
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If your going to demand that anything that involves a story be original, then you will never see a new story again. Nor would you see new jokes.

Every story is a previous story re-told in some form or another. Besides, HL2 is hardly the first to re-use the idea of an oppresive government.
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Old 02-17-2005, 04:44 PM   #3
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It's not a rip-off it's an intentional homage.

If you notice it's also very simaler to Tripods A less popular book which involved an invasion of aliens that dominated the human race and forced us to live a communist-like society of assigned jobs with equal pay. They had welded metal caps on people to control and prohibit though.

Also, they marched around in gigantic machines that had three legs and blasted/demolished cities and people.
It's also a homage to War of The Worlds.

All of these stories were done intentional. It's my beliefe that it's really used as motiviation for the backround story of Freeman realising his entrapment with/by the G-Man (since at this point the GMan is also trapped). Hopefully in games to come we'll see other homaged stories that involve Freeman being dropped in, or sent to complete a mission and then retaken again. If you notice we know only as much as Freeman knows and have done only as much as he has. Hopefully his exposure to the aliens or beings or government or whatever the hell has him will increase.
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Old 02-17-2005, 04:53 PM   #4
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well firstly, I did not look at it as homage, which leads me to change the title. Thank you for the insight.

Second
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If your going to demand that anything that involves a story be original, then you will never see a new story again
I made no demands. I thought it interesting no one (that i noticed) mentioned the similarities between the game and the book. I liked HL2 and 1984 alot, but at first mistook it for lack of originality. I think i heard lenny kravitz "American Woman" in the background and it distorted my perspective.
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Old 02-17-2005, 05:07 PM   #5
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All stories can be boiled down to 9 basic plots. I cant remember what they are but I was taught it at university so it must be true
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Old 02-17-2005, 05:44 PM   #6
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It's actually seven basic plots (according to this book by Christoher Booker: http://writewords.org.uk/store/searc...stopher+booker )

and reviewed here: http://writewords.org.uk/forum/95_30967.asp

The plots are, Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and lastly, Rebirth.
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Old 02-17-2005, 05:55 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SomeOldGuy
It's actually seven basic plots (according to this book by Christoher Booker: http://writewords.org.uk/store/searc...stopher+booker )

and reviewed here: http://writewords.org.uk/forum/95_30967.asp

The plots are, Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and lastly, Rebirth.
IMO Comedy and Tragedy are too vague really. But I guess they work in most cases.
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Old 02-17-2005, 07:53 PM   #8
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I probably remembered the number wrong SomeOldGuy. I was thinking along the same lines as you sobe, tragedy is a bit of a silly one to have as it feels a bit general to be classed as a plot. But who are we to argue with the dood that wrote the 700page book about it in small
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Old 02-17-2005, 10:05 PM   #9
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1984 reminds me of what is happening in the United States these days.
If youy can keep people fired up on fear, then they are malleable. hmm... that sounds familiar. Also now in the States there is the patriot act, which is in essence doing the same thing as a two way tv.

Kind of scarey how uncanny the resemblance is. Heh heh. By the way in the book it is not north america that they are in, they ar ein Eaurasia. Remember that the world is split into only 3 different countries/continents in that book. That way they can be at war with one of the countries, and allies with the other at any given time. Good boook nonetheless.
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Old 02-17-2005, 11:29 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 3Xternal
well firstly, I did not look at it as homage, which leads me to change the title. Thank you for the insight.

Second
Quote:
If your going to demand that anything that involves a story be original, then you will never see a new story again
I made no demands. I thought it interesting no one (that i noticed) mentioned the similarities between the game and the book. I liked HL2 and 1984 alot, but at first mistook it for lack of originality. I think i heard lenny kravitz "American Woman" in the background and it distorted my perspective.
Didn't mean to sound like I was having a go. I'm just sayng that just about every story you read/film you see can be seen to have taken its plot from another. Same for jokes
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Old 02-17-2005, 11:47 PM   #11
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1984 probably copied something else anyway
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Old 02-18-2005, 05:20 AM   #12
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[quote] By the way in the book it is not north america that they are in, they ar ein Eaurasia. [/qoute]
ty, its been a while
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Old 02-20-2005, 07:56 PM   #13
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Actually, the nations were Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The protaganist, Winston, (you'll recall the line from Hl2 "Winston's been hit") is on Oceania, allied with Eurasia, at war with Eastasia.

There are numerous homages to 1984 in Hl2, the blue jumpsuits, the posters, the graffiti of oranges and lemons, etc. There's actually been numerous threads regarding the subject on the steampowered forums.

As for Oceania, they're at war with Eurasia, they've always been at war with Eurasia...

For those of you who read War of the Worlds, you'll notice immediately the hooded look of the striders and of course, the distinctive "hooting" of the machines is present.

There's apparently other homages to less classical works, which I am not personally aware of, but it does show that the Hl2 writers / team do have a grasp of the genre in which they choose to tell the story.

As they say, "a cliche is a classic done poorly; a classic is a cliche done well."
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