With the news a few days ago that there was to be a World of Warcraft movie directed by Sam Raimi, it reminded me of the announcement in 2007 that an Everquest movie was also going to be made.
The whole game to film transition has started to become more common in recent years and I remember reading a comment on the web, saying that it was expected movies made about games could exceed revenue from standard films in years to come.
The problem with WoW and Everquest is they are both High Fantasy based games. As we know, many fantasy style movies are not taken seriously (with the exception of LOTR) and often are made to a poor level of quality. They also often have a very weak storyline which results in poor reviews and a poor film.
Sci-Fi films on the other hand seem to get bigger budgets and are taken more seriously by the press and film critics, resulting in a higher public opinion of the film.
I hope that both the WoW and (if it’s ever made) Everquest movies are made to a good standard and are taken a bit more seriously than some of the poor fantasy efforts that have seen the light of day in the past.
I’m sure everyone reading this will be watching their progress with interest, whether or not you go see the films. 
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I thought the EQ movie was a hoax? Personally I don’t think either WoW or EQ would translate into a movie well… they should just be left alone or, at the least, made into an animi movie instead
Not sure if it was a hoax. It has been a while and no more news on it. I agree with you though in that I don’t think they will work well as movies. But i am not a fan of anime either.
The problem with mmo movies is mmo’s don’t really have one storyline as the worlds have lore covering all kinds of tales and information. Plus mmo players create their own storyline.
The only movie tie-in I ever enjoyed was the original Tomb Raider movie. Every other attempt (the Res Evil series, Alone In The Dark, DOA, etc.) have been atrociously poor. We mainly have Uwe Boll to publically hang for that (his biggest crime was single handedly killing off the Dungeon Siege franchise). If a WOW movie was made in pure CGI, with a cartoonish style akin to the game itself then it might just have a fighting chance of success, but if the try and turn it into a real film/real actors production then surely it’s doomed from day one.
//HoC