doc on gaming
Seeing as gaming is the next topic up – thought some of you might be interested in this CBC doc tomorrow night
GAMER REVOLUTION
Thursday February 1 & 8, 2007 at 8pm on CBC-TV
Anticipation builds in Seoul, South Korea as 20,000 screaming fans await the arrival of their video game idols for the ultimate game-off – Beatlemania 21st century style. In Romania, teens slave away in a “virtual sweatshop” racking up points for Westerners who are too busy to play their own games. And somewhere in a small town 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, the largest gathering of online gamers in the world is getting underway.
Computer games are a global phenomenon and a $25 billion dollar a year industry. Over 800 million people worldwide are regular players. GAMER REVOLUTION, shot in HD, is the first full-length documentary to look past the hype, paranoia, and hoopla to explore the real stories behind the computer game revolution.
GAMER REVOLUTION explores how computer games are not only a new medium for the 21st century, they are a massive form of change in our world.” says Rachel Low, President, Red Apple Entertainment. “The idea of living inside a computer-generated universe is happening right now. The line between the real world and the virtual world is disappearing. Millions of people feel that they have a life inside these games.”
In Part One, the documentary takes viewers around the world from Asia to the heart of the Middle East in search of the most mind-bending stories from the leading edge of the game revolution. It also features interviews with gamers and game developers such as Will Wright, creator of the wildly popular life simulation game The Sims.
Just how pervasive has gaming become? The U.S. army uses video games to train new recruits and to simulate real-life battle situations in preparation for combat. In Korea, computer nerds are sex symbols for the 21st century. In Syria, a developer has created a wildly popular shooter game designed to incite the rage of the young men of the Middle East.
Part Two focuses on the incredible worldwide growth of the virtual world. Tens of millions of people are now spending more time in the virtual world of online games than they are in the real world.
In Norway, 6000 gamers gather together to play online games—in a celebration of a new world. And money makes this virtual world go round. Gamers now spend hundreds of millions of dollars on virtual items: from clothing, furniture to real estate. In Miami Florida a hustling entrepreneur spends $100,000 on a virtual space station that exists only in a game. His goal: to be the first virtual Donald Trump.
Now online games are approaching the final frontier: Sex. In the world of online sex games, everyone is a sexual super-hero.
From virtual money and virtual power to the search for virtual fame – the world of online games is like no place on earth.
GAMER REVOLUTION takes the pulse of this global phenomenon. It is a thought provoking, powerful progress report from the frontlines of the digital transformation of our world, and the CBC is delighted to present its global premiere,” says Mark Starowicz, Executive Director of Documentary Programming, CBC Television.
A groundbreaking leap into the new cultural frontier, GAMER REVOLUTION is an intelligent, pop savvy and visually stunning look at how computer games are changing the world.
Produced by Red Apple Entertainment.
Hey everybody…I took the time to watch part one and though most of the stories were interesting a lot of the examples were pretty dated for a “new” documentary, and most of the commentary runs along pretty simple sociological lines. Its a neat series to watch for personal interest, but I didn’t really see much in the first episode that would be useful for research, if anyone was hoping to use it for such purposes.