Video Games | Off Book | PBS

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Video games are important. They are a storytelling medium, a place for self-expression, a sandbox for the human imagination, and an extension of an ages old tradition of gaming. We play out some of the most essential aspects of our culture in games, and we learn more about ourselves and the world around us in the process. From the powerful cinematic experiences of mainstream gaming, to the hyper-personal environments of indie games, we are in the midst of an explosion of gaming activity that, as some predict, will continue to define the way we live and interact with information, and each other, far into the future.


Featuring:

Eric Zimmerman, Game Designer
Jesper Juul, Game Studies Scholar
Leigh Alexander, Game Journalist
Syed Salahuddin, Game Designer and Curator

Music by:

4mat, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/4mat/
The Shortsleeves, http://theshortsleeves.bandcamp.com/
Trash80, http://trash80.net/

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Produced by Kornhaber Brown: http://www.kornhaberbrown.com

• Category

  Gaming

[assman767]

a designer should strive to learn from anything, and be open to the ideas, creativity, and opinions of others, whether they be good or bad. you're just shutting it out like a spoiled child just because you've 'played thousands of video games'. you shouldn't dismiss the indie crowd of doing absolutely nothing new, you couldn't possibly know of every single indie title or concept that is out there. you may call yourself an amateur game designer, but you're a pretentious ass to boot.

[EnsisCruentus]

My ex said gaming is stupid. Key word is "ex".

[EinsunsZwei]

When the video mentionned Planescape:Torment, a flow of old memories just came through. Such a good game. Now I have to play it again.

[timestrail]

When I saw the ending, and saw Okami, I got excited.

I have Okami for the PS2 and Okami HD for the PS3.

Okami is such a great, and beautiful game.

The story line is great as well.

I give y'all point for mentioning Okami. :D

[QuinCOBOL]

Being a garage developer (that's my term for indie since most titles aren't done by one person alone; small team with a low budget), means to make the games that you want to make. Turns out, most people want to make games just like the old 80's and 90's titles because that's what they grew up with.

Why is there something wrong with that? Are they morons for busting their balls working on something they love?

If so then at least I'm a happy hardworking moron rather than an angry one. ;D

[QuinCOBOL]

I kind of wish people looked at System Shock 2 more than Bioshock because Bioshock's story was taken from their last game (they originally wanted to make System Shock 3, but things happened and it became Bioshock so they just used the same story).

Bioshock's story is still good, mostly because it's taken from an even better story from a game I bet they enjoyed making a lot more.

[QuinCOBOL]

I'm kind of getting pissed that most people put me in the "indie" crowd with so much judgement about who I am just because I want to make games on my own. Look, I simply want to make this stuff because I want to make any kind of game I want; I'm not some "hipster" trying to be different or snotty like most people have already judged with.

I guess people have to slap their stickers on something, but do I really have to be judged so much for wanting to make games for fun, for people to have fun?

[Nathan Johnson]

Limbo! shadow of the colossus! those are good games. Kind of wish they showed bit.trip or journey, those are also pretty good.

BTW i know i've played that game too. Pretty sure it's on atari anthology. It's HARD.

[moogle301]

What is 1:24? I'm sure I played it once!

[EnsisCruentus]

I wish Notch or Jonathan Blow could of spoke in this vid.

[Neko Vermillion]

Not these days. I agree that many indie developers are creating great stuff, but I noticed that quite a lot of indie develops are starting to fall into certain trends. At first it was just the amateur crowd who made the majority of stuff through XNA, but now I see it as more common. Not that I'm going to overlook interesting titles like Overgrowth. Just that indie is seen more as a thing to do to be trendy these days than for the love of game design. Also, some bigger developers do try.

[Neko Vermillion]

It wasn't totally asinine. Just highly ignorant. A lot of what they say have very good points, but their views and info I have a hard to agreeing with. For example, indie games. Yes, they make good points about indie games, but how they describe the indie games has me shaking my head in disbelief. I also can't believe they think the indie "trend" was a recent thing when indie games were a part of the industry much farther.