Video Games: The Movie

EvanGreenwood

I'm not sure if I think this is cool:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mediajuicestudios/video-games-the-movie

The title leaves me feeling kind of like it's a reaction piece to "Indie Game: The Movie", which feels like an uninspired conception for a movie.

He already failed to IndieGoGo it: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/video-games-the-movie

But I haven't really given it a fair chance (I'm a bit busy today worrying about PAX submissions). I'll look over it properly soon.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?

dislekcia

Meeeh.

I've read this book already. Several times. I don't really feel like this has any real newness to its viewpoint, it's more like it's trying to justify games as a culture to people who don't "get" some nebulous concept of gamer culture anyway.

Personally, I'm already trying to distance myself from the idea of one over-arching gamer culture already, so it doesn't feel like it's for me.

EvanGreenwood

Yeah...

I kind of feel like gamer culture, and this sense of other-people-don't-get-us does as much harm as good.

I mean it's nice that Day9 or whatever want to make gamers feel proud of being gamers, but as a group I really just don't see gamers being misunderstood or (by extension) persecuted.

I mean, I'm interested in video games, and people who make them and people who play them. But I see all these folks as covering a huge gamut of personalities and situations. I don't want to be lumped together with hardcore COD players, or enthusiastic Hidden Object game players, but those people are gamers too and probably wouldn't get along very well with myself or each other.

This movie feels to me to be about a decade late.

Though I don't know, I'll probably end up watching it. Some of the interviews are almost certainly interesting.

Tuism

The quotes on the kickstarter page make me feel more sorry for people who think that saying that is cool... It's like they're trying to "justify gamer culture". It sounds like... "look at us, we're also cool", which to me feels really unnecessary and insecure.

I mean... really?

raithza

I agree to people like us who are well versed in gamer culture won't learn much from a movie such as this, but that doesn't account for everybody. My family don't really understand games at all and I think they sometimes feel that I am wasting my life on something trivial (not to say they aren't supportive - that's not the case at all!). While gamers aren't really persecuted in any sense, it still isn't taken seriously as either an art form or hobby by mainstream media and maybe a movie such as this can help. If nothing else maybe it can at least give my parents some idea of what games are and why I think they're cool...

dislekcia

I feel like Day9's angle on making people feel good to be gamers is more about bolstering the self-esteem of people who might otherwise feel excluded and alienated by society at large is a very useful thing.

Being proud of being a nerd? That's cool. But as soon as that sentiment moves away from the personal empowerment perspective and becomes a motion towards establishing privilege for an entire falsely-homogenised cultural grouping, that's what I have a problem with.

Of course, I could be wrong about the movie, but seeing as it's the job of people who make documentary films to communicate and present ideas, if I am wrong there, it points to a lack of skill on their part too... Suffice to say, I don't think this is a movie made to broaden the scope of gaming, more like make a very specific subset of currently active gamers feel good about their own passtime that they already enjoy.

It baffles me that they didn't focus the film around all the different types of gaming that are happening right now instead. It would be really interesting to see people talking about the silly casual/hardcore/mid-core bullshit and then just following some real people as they play games as part of their actual lives. I want to see lapsed gamers talking to boardgamers talking to social gamers talking to hardcore gamers talking to zinesters talking to AAA devs talking to your grandma playing Joust and not caring that it's a "game" at all.

hanli

This:
@dislekcia
"It would be really interesting to see people talking about the silly casual/hardcore/mid-core bullshit and then just following some real people as they play games as part of their actual lives. I want to see lapsed gamers talking to boardgamers talking to social gamers talking to hardcore gamers talking to zinesters talking to AAA devs talking to your grandma playing Joust and not caring that it's a "game" at all."

This is what I would be interested in as well. But I don't think this is what it aims to do, and essentially, it's not for us.

Also, this:
@BlackShipsFilltheSky
"This movie feels to me to be about a decade late."

EvanGreenwood

Yeah, I think @raithza summed up the most positive points.

@dislekcia I might have a bit of a false impression of the whole Day9 thing. To be honest I've actually only ever encountered reference to it in relation to negative events. Like for instance: All these gamers got together on the internet and did something really awful after someone critized their passtime which they have conflated with their identity.

dislekcia

@BlackShipFilltheSky: Hmm. What is it that you associate Day9 with? I follow his Starcraft 2 analysis videos and his event casts. Has he been involved in something else?

EvanGreenwood

Oh yeah, I love Day9's starcraft videos. That's where I know him from.

I meant I only associate his Gamer Manifesto Thing with negative gamer culture. I first encountered it in relation to this.

As I said, it's probably an association that is unfair to Day9's actual motives.