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I read Sarah Thornton’s Club Cultures again the other day. I read it first three years ago before I decided to turn my interest in videogames into my vocation. It and Dick Hebdidge’s Subculture make interesting reading. While reading them I couldn’t help but think about videogame players. Are videogame players a subculture? WHat consists of subcultural capital for a gamer?

I think that obviously he who has the best computer has a certain amount of capital. Also, there is a certain amount of bragging rights to being able to say that you played Counter-Strike earlier than the other guys (beta 3 baby!). But is that enough to make a subculture? I don’t know. I am not sure what calling gamers a subculture gets me and my research. If gamers are a subculture, then so what? Is this a question worth pursuing? Is a label meaningful? Is it useful? I’m not sure. Something to think about.

I’m Dreaming of a White Dungeon

Since the weather here is frightful, I thought I would give a little update on my reading material.

I finished Dungeons & Dreamers recently and found it to be interesting and entertaining, if a bit scattered in its focus. Like Masters of Doom, it is a non-academic historical look at gaming, with particular interest paid to RPG’s specifically the role that Dungeons and Dragons and the Ultima series had in the development of videogaming.

I might write up a formal review for Reconstruction, the web journal that published me last review, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Let me just say that I found the first half that focused on Garriot to be very interesting and once it moved away from him I found it to be rather fragmented in focus and not nearly as personal or as interesting. It is a good light read and fun. I think I would recommend Masters of Doom over it. However, that may be simply due to my stronger interest in FPS games than RPGs.

I study things that people actually do

Over at Thinking With My Fingers, there is a post about academics having to justify their research. I must be pretty lucky. I really don’t recall ever having to justify studying videogames and people who play them. Maybe it is a matter of being in the right academic climates. I really do not see how I should have to justify my research when I run into people studying 17th century left handed poets.

People are playing videogames at this very moment. Can people who are resistant to videogame research say the same thing about their work? Are people spending hours a day engaging with it?

As I always seem to do in questions like this, rather than attempt to justify something which seems infinitely more relevant than 75% of the things I see going on at most universities, I have to ask why people care what other people think of their research. Basically, if you don’t like what I’m doing based soley on the principle that it is not a valid subject, then there is a pretty damn good chance that I think you are an elitist ass and your opinion doesn’t matter to me anyway. While I love being in school, there are certainly enough elitist snobs here, they can go hang out with each other, they don’t need to bother me.

Now, if you don’t like my work because you think it is inferior or flawed or just plain bad work, but the subject material is valid, that is another matter. I make no claims to my work being good, just valid and relevant.

Gamers a Documentary

I purchased Gamers: A Documentary back before Thanksgiving. I usually review books as soon as I finish reading them. For some reason it didn’t occur to me to review this documentary untill just before Christmas.

I submitted it to an online journal some fellow Bowling Green alums are running called Reconstruction. The review is now up.

So head over to Reconstruction and read my review. You might as well read the whole site as well. They’re smart kids doing interesting work. Rock on.

My favorite lawyer…

Well, we all knew it wouldn’t be long before I had to bring up my favorite lawyer, Jack Thompson, could it?
I was surfing around for new videogame blogs and ran across buzzcut.com. According to a post on the site, Jack Thompson took part in a debate. A student emailed him about his stance on issues of regulation and such. Not surprizingly, according to the post, Jack is in favor of lawsuits. What? A lawyer in favor of lawsuits? So am I correct in saying that Jack Thompson who seems so concerned about children and videogame violence would rather wait untill something bad happens so that he can sue rather than pass laws and prevent something bad from happening? You mean that it is possible that his motives aren’t the most altruistic in the world? Who knew?

A Request

What would be really nice would be a web site that reviews videogames and tells me which platform is the best for a specific game. I’ve got a PC and I’ve got an X-Box. So when a game is available for both of them it often becomes difficult to decide which to buy. Sure a game like Tony Hawk will almost certainly be better on X-Box because of the controller. However, what about a game like Deus Ex 2 or Prince of Persia? or Knights of the Old Republic? Someone make up my mind for me!!!

Video Game Documentary

GSN (that’s the new hip cool name of the Game Show Network) is going to show a documentary about videogames. has a press release that ‘VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION’ will premiere Sunday March 21 at 9P.M. ET/PT. Since I KNow Yahoo doens’t keep new stories around forever, here is the entire press release:

Game Show Network Premieres Two Hour Documentary ‘VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION’
Friday January 9, 5:00 pm ET
Documentary Hosted By Pro Skateboarder and Video Game Star Tony Hawk And Premieres Sunday March 21 at 9P.M. ET/PT

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ — GSN, the network for games (formerly Game Show Network) will premiere its second documentary, VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION. This documentary will cover the creation and evolution of video games, and will be narrated by skateboard and video game icon Tony Hawk. VIDEO GAME INVASION will debut Sunday, March 21 from 9 to 11 PM ET/PT. The announcement was made today by Rich Cronin, President and CEO, GSN, as part of the network’s Television Critics Association presentation.

In making the announcement, Cronin said: “Video games have had such an enormous impact on popular culture and on the leisure time of young people that we felt it was important to document the birth and growth of this amazing entertainment phenomenon. The video game industry now generates 20 billion dollars in annual revenues, and the profile of the average gamer is changing. Some 41% of computer gamers are women and more than half of all players are over 18, demonstrating the continued expansion in popularity.”

“We knew that to do justice to the amazing thrill ride that is the video-game industry, we had to capture all the drama, the intrigue, the scope, even the humor that’s been part of the industry from the beginning,” says David Comtois, executive producer. Adds David Carr, executive producer, “And as producers of numerous personality-driven documentaries, we knew that the best way to accomplish that was through the human element. All these folks were off-the-wall, wildly colorful pioneers in a business with no boundaries. We couldn’t have asked for better subjects!”

Hosted by Tony Hawk, world champion skateboarder and co-creator of such hit video games as “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” and “Tony Hawk’s Underground,” VIDEO GAME INVASION explores the creation of video games in an entertaining and comprehensive fashion. Taking viewers through the maze of games that comprised the evolution of video gaming, VIDEO GAME INVASION focuses on the impact of the human element, and the behind the scenes competition between these impassioned geniuses who create video games. Bold and irreverent, VIDEO GAME INVASION delves into the fascinating world of tech-heads as they pushed the technological envelope to create such breakthrough early games as Pong and Space Invaders, and subsequently emerged with the huge international corporations that now dominate the multi-billion dollar video game industry. Paying homage to those unique individuals for pushing the game envelope and making the industry what it is today, VIDEO GAME INVASION takes us on an adventure through the phenomenon of video games and explains why they have become a global obsession. VIDEO GAME INVASION will be sponsored by Planters.

VIDEO GAME INVASION is executive produced by David Carr and David Comtois of Beantown Productions, and includes interviews of Nolan Bushnell, former CEO of Atari, Al Alcorn, former Vice President of Atari and designer of “Pong,” Seamus Blackley, CAA agent who leads their video game division and former CTO and lead designer for Microsoft Xbox, John Romero, CEO of Monkeystone Games and co-creator of “Doom” and “Quake,” and many other industry pioneers.

Beantown Productions, founded by David Carr and David Comtois, is a leading independent production company and an acclaimed TV advertising and marketing powerhouse. The company’s recent TV production credits include Lifetime Television’s Operation Style; AMC’s Behind the Planet of the Apes; The Alien Saga and 20th Century Fox: The First Fifty Years; A&E’s Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies and Hugh Hefner: American Playboy; and the Fox Family Channel’s LeoMania. On the film side, the company recently handled editing and post production work for Family Tree, a semi-autobiographical short from Oscar-winning Shrek director Vicky Jenson. Beantown Productions is based in Los Angeles with offices in New York City.

GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing. The network features game shows, reality series, documentaries, video game programs and casino games. As the industry leader in interactivity, GSN features 84 hours per week of interactive programming, which allows viewers a chance to win prizes by playing along with GSN’s televised games via gsn.com. Reaching 54 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation. For further media information, visit GSN’s press website at corp.gsn.com.

Should be worth a look. I know I’ll pop a tape in and copy it and add it to my collection.

American Mcgee’s Cut Scene

I started playing today. Them kids sure love cut scenes don’t they? Well, I hate them. I would like to be able to play more than two minutes at a time without watching some stupid movie. I know, I know, I sound like a broken record. I just can’t get over how frustrating I find them.

The game thus far is rather unremarkable. I am not real confortable at how the game has sexualized a little girl. Alice is all gothy and has this seductive voice. …and she’s what? 12? Nice.

The Video Game Theory Reader discussed

I was getting ready to sit down and write my review for The Video Game Theory Reader and I thought I’d look around and see what others have said about it. I ran across a message board with some interesting reviews of some of the articles over at Matt Barton’s site.

As for my own thoughts on the book, let me just say that it is an interesting book. A bit too film based for my tastes. Like any anthogy, a couple articles rock, a few are just average and the rest are just lame. There are a couple more lame articles than I would like, but overall it is worth reading.

more coming…