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Modern Day Gamer Documentary

Posted by simoniker on from the modem-dies-gaming dept.

Simon Bysshe writes "I'm a UK film student, and have recently released a freely downloadable video documentary called 'Modern Day Gamer'. In it, I use interviews from a LAN party I went to in Brighton to try to address the main pre-conceptions people have about gamers, ie: is it really anti-social? is it only for geeks? is it a non-productive use of time?" We've also rustled up a BitTorrent link at Gametab and another BitTorrent link courtesy Jamuraa for this 75mb DivX file.

4 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Answering your questions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is it really anti-social?

    Kinda of. You can't cal a conversation about quad whoring a deep and meaningful conversation ;)

    is it only for geeks?

    Not really but geeks are the only ones who know how to string a LAN together network-wise.

    is it a non-productive use of time?

    Yes but so is reading Slashdot....

  2. Re:is it a non-productive use of time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Your are correct on the need for recreation, but if your work involves sitting in front of a video terminal, it might be more restorative to find a recreation that doesn't involve looking at a screen.

    On a related note, a couple months ago I was walking through the field behind our public library and I came across about a dozen geeks dressed in real authentic medieval knights' costumes. They had swords and were having sword fights and what not. Pretty interesting, instead of watching a game, they were actually doing it.

  3. My Thoughts by Otik2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The documentary didn't seem all that helpful to me. Just a couple of gamers defending themselves, but there's not much substance. Though I'd never heard of "Diabalo II." =)

    I'm a gamer (though not as serious as these guys), but since none of my friends play, it is a bit antisocial. But, then again, since they don't want to play that's just as much their fault. Or something like that. I'd think playing a game for a couple of hours with friends is FAR better than going to a movie... since it's dark and you can't talk, it's no different than if you went by yourself.

    But I play my games for the story, generally. So the way I see it, playing an RPG is like reading a good book (or a bad book, as the case may be). I also like strategy games, and those are possibly the most "intelligent" games there are. I've certainly learned more from Civilization II and Starcraft than I have from lots of things we do in school....

  4. CBC Radio Documentary on LAN Parties by GraZZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A couple of years ago, a friend's mother, Kathy Ahsby, did a short little documentary/opinion piece for Outfront on CBC radio. The archive is here.

    This was back when we were really into CS (and we still were, right up until we split up around the time we went to university).

    Kinda hilarious, because there's audio takes from the particular party in question (which I sadly missed).