It used to be that gaming was just a weird thing that weirdos did in their weird rooms by themselves because hentai forums hadn’t been invented yet, but now it’s a multi-billion dollar industry with its own celebrities and competitive sports.
The history, politics and social influence of gaming has been largely overlooked by the mainstream world, but in the last few years, we’ve started to see it be tackled as a serious documentary subject by actual filmmakers.
If you’re interested in looking a bit further into this fascinating world, we thought we’d round up a few of our favourites for your viewing pleasure
THE KING OF KONG (2007)
Ostensibly about two blokes competing for the world Donkey Kong high score, this doco presents an almost fable-level allegory of a David and Goliath story in small town America.
It’s the story of a humble, likeable family fan versus a weird, smug business owner who seems to use a bunch of weird, shady tricks to try and win. It’s a really gripping look into the psychology of the people involved in these subcultures that will leave you in an astonishing amount of suspense considering that it is a) real life and b) about arcade games.
You will learn to loathe the name Billy Mitchell.
FROM BEDROOMS TO BILLIONS (2014)
While it doesn’t quite have the emotional weight that King of Kong has (nothing else does, tbh), ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’ is a nice exploration of how early British game developers played a massive role in shaping what would eventually become the gaming industry.
The documentary also charts how the really quite successful British gaming industry eventually went downhill and became dwarfed by Japan and North America. It’s not the most exhilarating subject matter in the world, but it’s pretty interesting stuff.
INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE (2012)
Indie Game: The Movie looks less at games themselves and more at the people behind them, choosing primarily to focus on the developers of Braid, Fez, and Super Meat Boy.
Similarly to ‘King of Kong’, it turns out there are a lot of vibrant / volatile personalities involved when the uniting factor behind these people is a probably unhealthy level of obsession. Indie Game presents a good snapshot of the different stages in the lifecycle of a game and how it can change based on the game itself and the people involved.
It also features a stunningly diverse array of facial hair styles considering how few people are involved.
MINECRAFT: THE STORY OF MOJANG (2012)
It seems like someone should have invented the concept of Minecraft way earlier than it was actually invented, but it wasn’t until Markus ‘Notch’ Persson saw how people were using stuff they mined in Infiniminer to build stuff that he got the idea to make a game that was entirely that.From those humble beginnings, it has since become one of the most popular games of all time, to the extent that it’s being used as an educational tool in classrooms.
This doco gives you a look into how development on the game works and what things are like at Mojang, the studio behind the game. It’s also got some great interviews with a bunch of big name game developers, including Todd Howard, the genius behind the Elder Scrolls series.
GTFO (2015)
While the demographics have definitely broadened now, in its more embryonic stages, gaming had a serious Boys Club problem, and some parts of the gaming community did not take kindly to the transition.GTFO talks to people involved in the gaming community – from gamers to journos to devs – and explores what it’s like to be a woman involved in that community.
It’s an interesting look at a phenomenon that is foreign to a lot of men, who viewed gaming itself as a big of a safe space for nerds from the rest of the world and might not fully appreciate that it’s not like that for everyone.
GAMING IN COLOR (2014)
In a similar vein to ‘GTFO‘, ‘Gaming in Color‘ looks at another group that have not traditionally been particularly represented in the gaming world: LGBT people.The documentary looks not just at how queer people engage with gaming, but also how queer people are using gaming as a storytelling medium (‘Gone Home‘ is a really great example).
It also takes a look at the incredibly badass GaymerX convention, with provides an event for queer people to come together to talk about games and gaming and also, presumably, to blow each other up over LAN.
