On the latest episode of Scott Sigler's podcast only novel "The Rookie" he mentioned fan interest in a video game version of the book. For those of you not listening to it (shame on you) imagine the football movie Any Given Sunday set in outer space. So you have all the action of hard hitting NFL football combined with racial tensions between different species and organized crime behind the whole thing.

With the HUGELY popular Madden franchise out there I would think someone like Electronic Arts or some small start up video game company would scoop up an idea like this and release it as a killer video game. Just thinking about having to pass over alien defensive lineman to wide receivers who can jump 12 feet in the air excites me. If you added the violence and blood from the book someone like Rockstar Games could make a mint at it.

This also got me thinking that there is a whole world of stories being told that could evolve into games. Just look at what Spin Martin is doing in Second Life. It plays like a movie or a game. Just look at it. Walk around on his turf. You'll quickly forget where you are. Maybe you are already in a game and don't know it? I don't know. But, couldn't Spin be a character in the next game in the genre of Metal Gear or Rainbow 6?

What I'm trying to say is that I'm not a huge gamer so seeing the same story lines played out over and over doesn't excite me. I think the gaming industry as a whole needs to start looking to new media and the players there for ideas and approaches that are new for them. A stop motion video on YouTube, a particularly cool build in Second Life or a video podcast series could be the inspiration for the next break out game.

I guess having the Wii and playing Zelda so much got me thinking about how I've seen it before. Besides the interactive controllers there is nothing new in it for me personally. Yes, I'm having fun and yes I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, but the "save the princess" routine has been done. Let's change it up a bit.