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."
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.
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.
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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.