Slashdot Mirror
PBS Documentary on The Video Game Revolution
fredrikr writes "PBS is currently running a documentary on the history and relevance of video games and gaming: The Video Game Revolution. [Check Your Local Listings] From the website: "This is the story of how a whimsical invention of the 1960s helped spawn the computer industry as we know it. Video games have influenced the way children live and play, forever altered the entertainment industry, and even affected the way wars are fought. See how it all began and find out what it means for the future."
I hope they go over the beginnings of the first mainframe game.
But too bad they won't be airing it on my local PBS outlet.
"This program is not airing on this channel during the next two weeks"
Dang, oh well... Back to simply playing video games instead of watching TV about the history of playing video games.
The Video Game Revolution premieres Wednesday, Sept. 8th, at 9:00 p.m.
Gee, thanks for the heads up slashdot. Much appreciated.
Every time a guy gets a threesome, somewhere in heaven an angel gets his wings. --Cary Tennis
sorry, looks like suprnova.org doesnt like external links.
t orrent
here is a mirror.
www.testroete.com/PBS_Video_Game_Documentary-avi.
I don't have the link but I grabbed this from Bittorrent the other day, as I don't have cable. It was pretty informative, but if you're a gamer you've heard this all before.
It's a great show for the older crowd, as it really drives home the fact that games aren't just for kids anymore, but an emerging media that is rivalling the movie industry.
Plus they talk about MMO addicts, what more could you want!
... here's the .torrent
After seeing the first Slashdot post about this a week or two ago, I dutifully set the Tivo to record it. Unfortunately, after watching it, I wish I hadn't recorded it. The show was deriative and disappointing. The segments were short and it painfully tried to present "both sides". There was the anti-video game "mother" and the former game nerd turned MIT professor. The segments with game designers, some of the famous and a few not really, were short and unfulfilling. What makes Wil Wright tick? How has Sid Meier designed so many of the most significant computer games of the last decade or so? You won't get those answers here. Instead you'll get the usual, "video games are bigger than Hollywood!" and "MS wants to invade your living room". Blah! They didn't interview any of the creators of Everquest, Ultima Online, or, come to think of it, any MMORPG. They talked about them, sure, but that seems a glaring omission. There have been some other, much better video game documentaries made. Avoid this one.
Interesting to watch, if you have time. More of a superficial historical recall of some of the characters and events at the origin of gaming, but no technical materials.
I had expected something more of the scientific/technical level of Scientific American Presents. A bit disappointing in this regard.
Good to watch thought for an introductory historical perspective, or to recall good ol' times.
Once corporate found there was money in gaming, gaming went to pot. Time to go underground again....
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
This is a dup of a story from Sept. 4th.
http://www.torrentreactor.net/torrents/section_7
A google search of Slashdot PBS Video Game Revolution brings up the previous story as the first hit.
So, if I may be so bold as to suggest the following before posting slashdot stories from now on...
1. Find two or three of the most relevent keywords, you know, the kinds of words likely to repeat themselves in multiple submissions.
2. Go to google. You can find google at www.google.com. Here is a
hyperlink to www.google.com. Here is a definition of the word "hyperlink".
3. Assuming you haven't forgotten the important keywords from step 1, proceed to step 4. Otherwise, return to step 1. If this is the third or fourth time reaching step 3, you might want to consider finding a paper and pencil. If you already had a paper and pencil, then you might want to consider using them to write down the keywords.
4. Now, with those words you've remembered (or written down) from step 1, go into the text box in the middle of that www.google.com webpage. Type in the following:
Slashdot Keyword1 Keyword2 Keyword3
Now press Enter.
5. If these are your search results, hit back on your web browser, and then type in the following:
Slashdot Keyword1 Keyword2 Keyword3
ONLY THIS TIME, replace the three keywords with the words that you remembered, or copied down, from step 1.
6. Finally, have a look at some of the results to see if a slashdot story has already been posted on the submission you've just gotten. If there is a story, do not post the submitted story unless there is some information in the new submission that makes it somehow more relevent. And for the love of god, don't do a duplicate post on a story that's already too old, like you did here.
PS: Don't like these messages? Tough. Quit giving us duplicate posts and you'll stop getting duplicate flames.
I watched this think like two weeks ago. It lacks any new or interesting information.
It struck me as something that oldies might watch and be like "Whoa, I can't believe these games even exist!".
If you are an oldie, your mind will be blown away by the 3D (three dimensional) graphics. Otherwise, you will get bored. Especially since it's
TWO BORING HOURS LONG.
Does anyone know when this this is going to be on? I checked the schedule for all the PBS stations here and there's bubkis. Same for my parents house (thought they could tape it for me) 500 miles away. Are any PBS stations going to carry this show or is it just vaporware?
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
That is, besides the American name of PC Denjin.
Are we all getting turns taking over from Simon, now? Let me know when my turn is up, I want to get started preparing my dupe story write-ups ASAP.
I watched it last week (and wrote a short write up on my blog). It was pretty bland and uninteresting. Nothing that hasn't been talked about a million times before. The one that the Game Show Network (errr, GSN as they are now known, because heaven forbid the name of your network describes your content!) aired last year was pretty much the same as this one. The PBS website is the most instersting thing about the documentary. There wasn't anything in here that one couldn't get from Steven Kent's book, which isn't surprizing since he appeared on the show!
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
I recorded this with my Beyond TV when it aired. I watched/listened to it at home while playing poker online. It was slightly interesting I guess, but when they started getting into how video games can cause violence in children that play games like Doom (they always have to use Doom as an example for some damn reason), I about had enough of it. If I remember correctly, they talked about how the Columbine killers played Doom and some other game...what a load of crap. I thought the whole point of the show was to introduce video games to people, and to show them just how big they have become...even bigger than Hollywood films. So, sometime in the second half, it really looses its focus. One good thing to say about it is that some of the games they showed or talked about were very new, or are not even out yet (like the next Zelda). It might have been interesting to people that know nothing about games, but I just don't think it captured just why games are so big now. Quite a bit of the show just discussed the very first game systems like the 2600, or talked at length about how big Pac-man once was. Every now and then, some "professor" would come on and give his opinion about things...like HE plays games...geez. If you're already into games, you might not want to bother looking for this "documentary."
While I agree that the documentarty didn't delve too deeply into the nature of the industry, I don't really think it was the point. The point was to give an overview of the industry: a history, current trends, major figures, obstacles and struggles. In this respect I think it did a very good job. It also did this without becoming pedantic, or sensationalizing pieces of the story for dramatic effect.
Furthermore, I don't think you could have had a two hour documentary that properly fleshed out the topics you mention without cutting out something else. If your goal is to describe the game industry in two hours and you spend 30 minutes on Peter Molyneux's thought process during the development of "Magic Carpet"... you've spent too much time on it.
I think it did a very good job of presenting a balanced treatment on the subject of videogame violence. The mainstream media loves to jump on grand theft auto and doom, but this documentary showed both sides.
It was alright, but the editing really got on my nerves. They mention the introduction of the gameboy and then show footage of the gameboy advance. They talk about pacman and then show footage from pacman world.
In reading many of these comments, I see a lot of people complaining "nothing new here." Duh! Chances are if you're even a semi-regular reader of the slashdot gaming forums, than you already know everything this show is going to cover.
What I found disappointing was the fact that this show tried to cover all the bases (in a mere two hours) and failed to cover any adequately. As a classic gamer and collector I was really hoping for a well-done history of gaming. Well, for the first 30 or 40 minutes I got a half-assed convoluted history that confused the facts more than setting them down. The rest of it was a muddled look at a myriad of gaming controversy that did nothing to put any topic into perspective.
Of course the producers felt a need to have a social conscience (this is PBS after all), so there was a bunch of crap about the potentially damaging impact of video games. Personally, I got pretty tired of hearing all the personal opinions whining about game content without really touching on the parent's responsibility to monitor their own children. They also neglected to mention any studies that run contrary to the popular belief "game violence creates real world violence."
They also made the mistake of lumping computer gaming and console gaming into one show. The two gaming scenes have diverged to the point where they really have become two different cultures, especially when you cover such topics as LAN conventions and pimp-rig CPUs. They also tried to throw some arcade gaming into the mix, but all they ended up really doing was talking to some guy that owned a bunch of machines on a route. I'm sure any arcade collectors / aficionados out there feel especially let down.
And the way they just glossed over the whole Tetris debacle! What a travesty.
They had some very interesting people on tap, such as Steve Kent, Nolan Bushnell, Sid Meijer, and MANY others, but boiled their contributions down to the point where they came across as little more than a sound bite. God I would have loved to see an entire hour dedicated to just talking to Sid!
PBS shouldn't feel bad about such a lackluster effort, though. This show is indicative of what EVERYBODY does wrong when they try to do a TV show about video gaming. They need to either narrow their focus, or better yet create a weekly program that can touch on many different topics. Hell, you could do a full season of one hour per week episodes just covering game history. But I'd rather see a show that touches a different perspective each week. One week you could talk about the founding of Atari, the next you could discuss anti-gaming legislation, and another week you could interview a high profile designer or programmer. This is such a HUGE topic, with such a rich history of controversy and adversity. Talk about drama! (Maybe somebody should call TNT. Hmmm...)
Must... think up... something... clever!
SpaceWar and Adventure both get screen time. Rogue does not. I've got an Analog magazine from the 60's with a long article about SpaceWar. The coverage is so breathless I imagine the article ended because its writer passed out. My only serious quibble with the shows is I'd've found time to squeeze in Balance of Power.
Feeling so good natured I could drool