How Videogames Changed The World - 30th November at 9:00pm on Channel 4

MitchKoobski

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xAIpVxL3HU

From Pong to Grand Theft Auto, Charlie Brooker delves into the history of videogames and pulls out a selection of its most significant titles.

From Atari to Angry Birds, How Videogames Changed the World explores how interactive entertainment evolved from a penny arcade diversion into a medium that some believe is art, and shows how it is changing the way we work, communicate and, of course, play.

Joined by Jonathan Ross, Dara O'Briain and gaming legends like Will Wright and John Romero, Brooker looks at how videogames have become the most progressive art form of the last 40 years.

This humorous and insightful tour will surprise and entertain the uninitiated and dedicated gamers alike.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/charlie-brooker-on-how-videogames-changed-the-world/

Definitely going to be watching this. The documentary is being followed by Indie Game The Movie too.

Grumpypants

Awesome, I really like Brooker and loved his Gameswipe show this looks very entertaining. Indie Game the movie is brilliant as well.

returnNull

cheers for the heads up..dont watch much tv so would of missed it.

Guyanachronism

Guardian Interview with Charlie Brooker

I had seen the ads but Brooker's style of humour had put me off and it being Channel 4, I thought it was just going to be sensationalist about school shootings etc. but from that interview he does seem well informed and capable of some criticism of gamers.

Sarky

Charlie Brooker quite likes games. His Gameswipe thingy was a half decent piece on explaining games to folks who might not have a clue. If he went on about school shootings I'm fairly sure he'd be saying what utter bollocks it was to link them to video games.

krudler

Sarky wrote: »

Charlie Brooker quite likes games. His Gameswipe thingy was a half decent piece on explaining games to folks who might not have a clue. If he went on about school shootings I'm fairly sure he'd be saying what utter bollocks it was to link them to video games.

I dunno why C4 don't just let him have a decent regular series with reviews, interviews, retrospectives etc. Gaming is a gigantic market and no tv station seems to see this. Any games show is usually aimed at de yoof innit.

Sarky

I think he touched on it in the above interview. Getting footage of violent games on a show requires all kinds of paperwork and going through lawyers and executives that might not have a clue, or are just paranoid.

He'd be better off doing his own Youtube series, I imagine.

Agricola

Lots of people in their 30s and 40s in the UK who are gamers, isnt the average age supposed to be something like 32?
I don't see why the tv comissioners cant realize there are people out their who want to see more programmes like this. If Brooker was to get a series doing retrospectives on important games of the last, say 20 years, I'd definitely watch it. Maybe they think all game debate belongs online. Surely as time passes, that notion has to make less and less sense.

Guyanachronism

Agricola wrote: »

Lots of people in their 30s and 40s in the UK who are gamers, isnt the average age supposed to be something like 32?
I don't see why the tv comissioners cant realize there are people out their who want to see more programmes like this. If Brooker was to get a series doing retrospectives on important games of the last, say 20 years, I'd definitely watch it. Maybe they think all game debate belongs online. Surely as time passes, that notion has to make less and less sense.

They do constant reruns of Guru Larry's Retro Corner on Information TV, they're just 15 minute segments and I watch them everytime but on the other hand, Viva (German MTV) has a weekly series that needs a lot of gimmicks and overy animated hosts to be remotely interesting (may have more to do with the Germans than the topic).

I think the show would need more than the reviews, trips to expos and the occasional interview to keep it interesting.

Also as Brooker himself mentions in the interview a lot of statistics are skewed by the number of casual gamers. Does someone who played Farmville or Candy Crush Saga see themselves as gamers and would they be interested in such a show.

MadYaker

Wow, Ill definitely be watching this.

krudler wrote: »

I dunno why C4 don't just let him have a decent regular series with reviews, interviews, retrospectives etc. Gaming is a gigantic market and no tv station seems to see this. Any games show is usually aimed at de yoof innit.

The internet already has a monopoly on this in many ways. Any news or info we want can be found there, and all the youtubers are essentially doing what T.V producers and presenters do. All gamers are fully computer literate. A lot of people who watch a lot of T.V are older people who may not be comfortable with getting their news from the internet.

Retr0gamer

Sarky wrote: »

Charlie Brooker quite likes games.

He definitely does considering he got his start doing a long stint at PC Zone. He was great on there and even got an issue of the magazine banned from some stores

MitchKoobski

Retr0gamer wrote: »

He definitely does considering he got his start doing a long stint at PC Zone. He was great on there and even got an issue of the magazine banned from some stores

haha how did he manage that?

Retr0gamer

MitchKoobski wrote: »

haha how did he manage that?

He was having a joke about videogame violence. The first Tomb Raider was just out and since Lara goes around killing endangered animals he photoshopped some kids killing endangered animals since it was influencing them to do it. Lots of awful cheap gore effects in them but some of the UK retailers got wind of the 'violence against animals' in it and banned the issue from the shelves

Retr0gamer

From wikipedia:

In February 1998, one of Brooker's one-shot cartoons caused the magazine to be pulled from the shelves of many British newsagents. The cartoon was titled "Helmut Werstler's Cruelty Zoo" and professed to be an advert for a theme park created by a Teutonic psychologist for children to take out their violent impulses on animals rather than humans. It was accompanied by photoshopped pictures of children smashing the skulls of monkeys with hammers, jumping on a badger with a pitchfork, and chainsawing an orang-utan, among other things. The original joke was supposed to be at the expense of the Tomb Raider games, known at the time for the number of animals killed, but the original title, "Lara Croft's Cruelty Zoo", was changed for legal reasons.

dreamers75

Brooker used to do Digitiser too

Funny man.

pablomakaveli

Anyone catch the piece on the PS4 on channel 4 news the other night? It had Charlie Brooker introducing an unimpressed Jon Snow to games. It was quite amusing to watch but Snows reaction probably reflected the view on gaming held by the media in general.

Retr0gamer

pablomakaveli wrote: »

Anyone catch the piece on the PS4 on channel 4 news the other night? It had Charlie Brooker introducing an unimpressed Jon Snow to games. It was quite amusing to watch but Snows reaction probably reflected the view on gaming held by the media in general.

I just watched it there. Very funny, felt sorry for Charlie Brooker!

It kind of illustrated some points about how bloated and front loaded with crap games have become. Jon Snow hadn't a clue what he was doing but the points he made were valid. He hadn't really got a clue what he was doing because games today are front loaded with tutorials and cutscenes and other crap. He barely even got to play it or see anything in action. Games are just too eager to impress and not alienate their audience with cutscenes and tutorials that when you step back from them and look at them as an outsider it's easy to see how ridiculous it all is.

Now if Jon Snow was given something like Super Mario Bros which had you going straight into the action he might have understood games better. It might not have changed his opinion but being actually able to experience the game from the off would have at least given him a better understanding.

I can kind of see now how Wii Sports became so popular with certain demographics.

GTR63

cml387

On at the moment.

So far we've had pong, space invaders and pacman.

MadYaker

I'm waiting for them to get to the mid nineties so I might see something I'm familiar with!

Burgo

Damn didn't realise it was 2 hours long. Will catch it sometime soon.

cml387

Burgo wrote: »

Damn didn't realise it was 2 hours long. Will catch it sometime soon.

Is this an example of how games have ruined our attention span:D

MadYaker

Its only an hour, there some movie about games on at ten.

cml387

MadYaker wrote: »

Its only an hour, there some movie about games on at ten.

Nope, my listing says two hours

Tipsy McSwagger

Really impressed so far. Elite was a game changer and I'm surprised I have never heard of it. I hope he mentions all the ET games being buried in the desert.

MitchKoobski

Great stuff so far. Lots of really good points being made.

Mickeroo

Not going to be able to watch this tonight, does anyone know if it will be on 4OD after?

Guyanachronism

PaRappa the Rappa such an odd but brillant choice!

MadYaker

Is Dara O Brian actually an avid gamer or is this just scripted bs?

pablomakaveli

MadYaker wrote: »

Is Dara O Brian actually an avid gamer or is this just scripted bs?

He is a gamer. Seen him on several shows before talking about games.

brianregan09

Twitter......Really

humanji

brianregan09 wrote: »

Twitter......Really

Makes perfect sense and it's a great way to end the show. Everyone expects some popular game and he points out that it's essentially life that's the game because we've allowed it to be.

Really enjoyed that. Although, barring Pong and The Last Of Us, it was a list of games that I've played through my life, which is no bad thing despite reminding me that I'm getting on in years.

MitchKoobski

Thoroughly enjoyed that.

Important to remember it wasn't a "Top 25", but a list of the 25 most influential.

Very last one was a strange choice and I thought it was a load of sheet at first, but when he started talking about he made some good points. I've found myself doing everything they said on Twitter.

Honestly thought Little Big Planet would have made an appearance.

J. Marston

brianregan09 wrote: »

Twitter......Really

That was my reaction too. Enjoyed the show up until that point where they just went up their own arse.

brianregan09

I know i understand the points but if you're gonna pick twitter , why not pick facebook or any of the other social medias out there ? why not just say social media in general would have been a much better answer, I thought thats what he was going to say when he mentioned PS4 and Xbox1 putting a focus on social media

MitchKoobski

brianregan09 wrote: »

I know i understand the points but if you're gonna pick twitter , why not pick facebook or any of the other social medias out there ? why not just say social media in general would have been a much better answer, I thought thats what he was going to say when he mentioned PS4 and Xbox1 putting a focus on social media

Facebook has likes, friends and shares.

Twitter has followers, tweets, retweets, quotes, mentions, favourites etc.

You can't say "social media" in general, just like you can't say "FPS games" in general.

Doom being to FPS games what Twitter is being to social media. If you had to pick one.

MitchKoobski

humanji

brianregan09 wrote: »

I know i understand the points but if you're gonna pick twitter , why not pick facebook or any of the other social medias out there ? why not just say social media in general would have been a much better answer, I thought thats what he was going to say when he mentioned PS4 and Xbox1 putting a focus on social media

Yeah, but Twitter is the most game like of the social media. Also, remember that if the show just ended with another game, it'd have little reaction. It's better to make a statement. Which, ironically is kind of gamificating the process of TV show design (I'm going to assume gamificating is a word).

Dyr

as it progressed it became more and more up their own arse only interested in social commentary and media impact than actual games

dara o briain and graham linehan did well though

Duggy747

Really enjoyed that.

It wasn't a Top 25 list but most of the choices made sense, it wasn't going to be able to include all games of significant impact on the industry. Was nice to see Papers Please get a bit of a look in :pac:

Twitter made some sense when he elaborated on it though I imagine it would've worked better if the No. 1 was a collection of all popular social media and it's culture like Facebook since many people play(ed) games through it with Candy Crush and Farmville. But in terms of people using Twitter, he did have a point.

Brooker had stated before how this show had to open enough to allow the average person / casual gamer to understand the gaming industry and it's cultural impact throughout the years.

calex71

Balls missed it , thankfully we have Ch4 +1 .... or for those that want to watch it again

Creamy Goodness

Or YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWbr5z1Uu_U

calex71

Actually watching Indie Game the movie i have a strong urge to.... if i ever meet him this is, to walk up to the super meat boy guy and kick him square in the balls and say "thats for super meat boy"

humanji

calex71 wrote: »

Actually watching Indie Game the movie i have a strong urge to.... if i ever meet him this is, to walk up to the super meat boy guy and kick him square in the balls and say "thats for super meat boy"

No, you say "that's for everyone who played it!" then kick him in the nuts again!

GTR63

Enjoyable enough even if it did trail off towards the end, was shocked Nintendo wasn`t brought up more bar the obligatory Mario & Wii mentions

Fnz

Bambi wrote: »

as it progressed it became more and more up their own arse only interested in social commentary and media impact than actual games

I haven't watched it yet but, it is called "How Videogames Changed The World". The scope should be wider than a Let's Play video. What did they do wrong?

Reekwind

Bambi wrote: »

as it progressed it became more and more up their own arse only interested in social commentary and media impact than actual games

Except that that was the whole point of the show. It charted how games went from bedroom designers through media scares and on to establishing itself as a feature of mainstream culture. It wasn't a 'history of gaming in 25 objects'

And incidentally, that's why ending with social media makes sense. I don't entirely agree with Brooker on 'Twitter as a game' but it is a valid argument and nicely captured the way game design concepts have been bleeding over into other fields. It's a demonstration that the influence of games has never been higher

Dyr

Reekwind wrote: »

Except that that was the whole point of the show. It charted how games went from bedroom designers through media scares and on to establishing itself as a feature of mainstream culture. It wasn't a 'history of gaming in 25 objects'

Because they, like you, mistake media impact for actual change

Snake Plisken

I thought it was good really delighted the Spectrum 48k was there and showed the classic Manic Miner and all contributors actually were gamers themselves. Just wish Charlie had maybe a monthly show reviewing games. I'd watch that.

GTR63

Fnz wrote: »

I haven't watched it yet but, it is called "How Videogames Changed The World". The scope should be wider than a Let's Play video. What did they do wrong?

A lot of it was based more on a British perspective tbh

GTR63

calex71 wrote: »

Actually watching Indie Game the movie i have a strong urge to.... if i ever meet him this is, to walk up to the super meat boy guy and kick him square in the balls and say "thats for super meat boy"

They came out of it looking the best(Edmund in particular) I felt Blow did it to get his own point across & try show he isn`t a smug twat. Fish was getting more & more annoyed/annoying as it went on(couldn`t help but blame him for the demo breaking down as he said he made too many late changes, if you have a stable product dob`t go fiddling with it at the last minute).