How Videogames Changed the World

So how did video games change the world? Charlie Brooker’s prime-time documentary was definitely highly anticipated, and after watching the Brooker vs Snow unterview on Friday, I thought that this would be his chance to speak to a willing audience who had no intention of interrupting him.

But did it answer the question it posed? Did we learn why video games are a really important cultural medium?

Here’s 7 reasons why I felt it unfortunately missed such a huge opportunity to really get to grips with why everyone should start to take games seriously.

1. The Countdown Format

Completely unnecessary and misleading. I would have much preferred it to be structured around theme, or (putting my teacher hat on) argument. What does 25 mean? What does 1 mean? Are we that dumb that we can’t understand something unless it is given a number? (And yes I understand the irony here, I have given a reason for my numbering though.)

2. The History of Videogames

When are we going to move on from Pong? Do we really have to start with that everytime? Whilst video games are still a relatively young medium, if we really want to discuss why they are so pertinent to 2013, then we need to discuss games now. The Pong section was very long in comparison with other more recent games, and I just don’t really feel it added much context.

3. Nostalgia

Why did this potentially groundbreaking documentary have to resort to talking heads telling us ‘how great’ a game was? It couldn’t help degenerating into an ‘I Heart’, full of remember whens and fuzzy memories. This is the kind of cheap television that Mr Brooker has previously slammed, and it is hard to take it seriously once it adopts this style.

This documentary could have been seminal itself, but it seemed to chicken out at the last minute and pander to the (supposed) audience. It was Saturday night, 9pm, on a terrestrial channel after all. I’m sure (and I hope) that this was because some commissioning editor didn’t quite get what it was Charlie Brooker was trying to do, and thought they knew best about the format; so I don’t completely blame Brooker, but was the prime-time slot really worth selling out for?

4. Labrinth’s Tekken contribution.

I loved his contribution to the section on video games music. The idea that his (very popular) songs have been influenced by videogames was an example of how they have changed the world, but it wasn’t really developed and taken seriously enough. However, I really don’t see why we needed the part about him using Tekken moves in a fist-fight. If we are going to say that video games do prompt and suffer from copycat behaviour, then don’t we need to address it a little more and no just laugh it off? Ah the memories...

5. Twitter at #1.

This was a brave move. It is a really interesting concept, and I can see Brooker’s point. But putting it at #1 feels like a gimmick. The gamification of RL is there to be seen, but there are better examples that won’t make the audience think that this isn’t just something that videogames fans have made up to flummox ‘outsiders’. Perhaps Brooker could have discussed something like Nike+ first, and then sashayed into his ‘ahah, blam!’ moment.

6. Contributors ‘fake memories’.

This is more a personal gripe, but I wasn’t too keen on contributors who are clearly not old enough to have played Space Invaders around the time it came out telling us what it was like. There’s no problem with them speaking in the present tense in this case. If we want to speak to people who aren’t already fans of videogames, then we shouldn't speak to them in a way that makes them feel like they aren’t welcome unless they were there in 1978.

7. The Title.

The programme gives itself a tricky job when posing such a grandiose question. Unfortunately it was too distracted to ever give a coherent answer. Too much factual information and memories,  and and not enough argument.

Now surprisingly enough, I still really enjoyed the programme, despite my gripes. That’s because I too am a person that enjoys going ‘oh yeah!’ about each game mentioned (except Elite, I didn’t know that one...) The nostalgic angle is very enjoyable, but I wanted to be educated as well as entertained, and I feel it missed the mark. What could have been a remarkable moment for video games seems to have been lost.