“Making a good video game, is the hardest thing to do.”
– A NASA spokesperson.
This quote is taken from the movie “Video Games the movie”, which had a mere budget of $109,125 but don’t be confused by this, it was as entertaining as a high budget movie. It featured games and gaming history up till the 2013. And I will be reviewing this movie, so let’s get into it.
First of all, this movie is not just for game lovers, but even for those who aren’t hardcore game lovers. The movie starts off with giving us a feeling of nostalgia reminding us of the classic vintage games which we loved. The classical music which played in the background, gave a pleasant touch which personally I appreciated.
In the movie we get to see many people from the gaming world, but to my surprise not only game developers or writers, even actors, hosts, gaming veterans, scientist from NASA were featured. Amongst them is Wil Wheaton, for those who haven’t seen star trek, he has made multiple appearances on the big bang theory.
Did you also think the first game to be invented was pong or space invader?
Then we are in the same boat, as all this while I was under the impression that pong was the first game to be invented. “Spacewar” was technically the first video game to be manufactured commercially (if you exclude the mechanical “video” game made). Earlier when the graphics or the game physics were so pixelated or laggy, me and my friends used to think that the graphics are the best and they can’t get any better (we were so wrong!).
The movie or ‘documentary’ if you will, shows what a proud history gaming has, with all its up’s and downs till date. As said, “People think making movies is difficult, try making a game!”, really opened my eyes as to how huge, complex, fun, challenging etc. (don’t have enough words) is this industry!
What was also interesting to see, is that the number of female gamer’s, developers, scriptwriters has increased over the years, and will no longer only be a major male dominated field. One instance which I personally disliked was that they did not speak about how greedy gamer’s have become about graphics, that even if you give them state of the art- ultra realistic graphics they will still crib about it (I know, wanting innovations is good, but I felt that this point should have been brought up).
Have you ever heard that, “video games cause violence”? If yes, so did many people in the movie/documentary. But the way they gave their opinions on this really brings a new perspective to mind, that gaming can’t cause violence. It is actually the opposite; people use games as an alternate universe to get lost into from their personal problems. One incident was mentioned that a boy who had lost his parent’s in a car accident, came through this tragedy with the help of games and the online gaming community.
To conclude, I personally feel games can take us into another universe, a universe which we can control, and that universe is a very peaceful and positive universe if controlled properly. My mom says I’m wasting my life playing video games, to which I answer, “mom don’t worry, I’m a gamer I have infinite lives”(P.S.- do not actually say this or you too will end up with a whack on the head).
Thank you.
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