Games For Dummies: Gameswipe

Charlie Brooker is a bit of a hero of mine, he's a bit like Yahtzee except he knows what punctuation is. He's prepared to attack and praise in equal measure, and manages to take a surprisingly fair handed look at videogames. It's the sort of thing you could show to someone who had no idea what a videogame was and they could probably walk away with an up-to-date understanding of what the fuck is going on. Here's a clip:  

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"What's fascinating about games is that everything is getting better, apart from the storytelling.
"I have a theory. I think a lot of writers, not only in games but also in films, have stopped reading books. They are just watching films. Vice City to me is a really good example of a game written by someone who's only experience of what they are writing about is through film. The only thing that will give a game world and a story a bit of texture and depth is research, and by research I don't mean watching Scarface 20 times."

Charlie Brooker is a bit of a hero of mine, he's a bit like Yahtzee except he knows what punctuation is. He's prepared to attack and praise in equal measure, and manages to take a surprisingly fair handed look at videogames. It's the sort of thing you could show to someone who had no idea what a videogame was and they could probably walk away with an up-to-date understanding of what the fuck is going on. Here's a clip:  

Part 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6

"What's fascinating about games is that everything is getting better, apart from the storytelling.
"I have a theory. I think a lot of writers, not only in games but also in films, have stopped reading books. They are just watching films. Vice City to me is a really good example of a game written by someone who's only experience of what they are writing about is through film. The only thing that will give a game world and a story a bit of texture and depth is research, and by research I don't mean watching Scarface 20 times."

Is it me or did that video keep fucking up?
Charlie Brooker can be funny, but I can certainly have too much of him.

Where's the rest???? I NEED MORE.

I don't know if you have to be in the UK to view this but the bbci player would be the best place to watch it.

" I don't know if you have to be in the UK to view this but the bbci player would be the best place to watch it. "

I love this guy. Too bad I can't watch any more. At least, not from the BBC iPlayer.
 
Maybe he'll be on the BBC channel we get here. Doubt it...
 
Edit: I found a torrent for the episode, so I guess I'll just watch it that way.

" What's fascinating about games is that everything is getting better, apart from the storytelling.
I have a theory. I think a lot of writers, not only in games but also in films, have stopped reading books. "

" Where's the rest???? I NEED MORE. "

That was brilliant, watched all of them on the Youtube. Could've used maybe a bit more analysis and a bit less summing up but thanks to the host it was thoroughly entertaining regardless. And it had the Scottish dudes on there from Consolevania!

That was pretty entertaining. Anyone that really considers themselves a gamer probably won't learn anything new, but it's all presented with enough humor and brief moments of insight to make it worth watching. More than anything though, I think this could definitely serve as a decent primer for anyone unfamiliar with the world of video games.

but we have movies and books for those types of stories, I don't see why Videogames NEED to tell stories in the same way. 
If anything stories in videogames are getting better at the same pace stories in movies got... The first silent films were all  slapstick comedy and flashy visuals to show off this new medium and I don't see how dumb marines and explosions is any different.  I don't see why people are so quick to have games become the one and only medium to meet all their entertainment needs.

" I don't see why people are so quick to have games become the one and only medium to meet all their entertainment needs. "

"What's fascinating about games is that everything is getting better, apart from the storytelling."

" But his comment is completely wrong. Games like Uncharted , Half life, Bioshock even Dead space to some degree show He is wrong, the Bulk of movies and books released are also trash in the story department (not to say thats a bad thing) The stories ARE getting better and at quite a steady rate. His comments come off like a man that has only played about five games in the past few years. "

I watched a repeat of family guy instead of this. Lulz

Yeah someone else mentioned this around here yesterday. Can't remember who. Meh, anyway yeah I watched it. Good stuff.

Haha on the fourth video at around 5:50 he compares a saturday night in my city to a game where you play two naked women trying to catch sperm in their mouth XD

It was a powerful scene that was woefully out of place in the game it was in. Pretty awkward.

I now have a far greater reason to hate Glenn Beck. I'm guessing he'd report on the story that a kid hired whores the play Halo, or as he'd call it, "the Socialist Whore Magnet That is Destroying Your Children and is Destroying America."

The best part of the show to me was that it didn't treat gamers or non-gamers like idiots because it was made by people who play games themselves.

I'm in the middle of watching all the links you posted. Thanks for posting this by the way, never heard of this guy before now. I'm finding in very entertaining, maybe it's the British sense of humor that I've liked since I was a kid in the 70's. Monty Python, Benny Hill and all the great British television programs that ran on PBS when I was a kid, Fawlty Towers and The Good Life. They said there were only 3 Networks in the 70's, but people forget about the independent stations and the fabulous PBS. Thanks, sorry for the tangent.

that was a pretty decent watch.

Pretty neat show. I'm looking forward to seeing more episodes of it.

That was a profoundly entertaining show. Part of the problem with our medium(and, really, you could say, any discipline) is that most people can only understand it or explain it in terms that have been created within the medium. People who know what you're talking about will know what you're talking about, and people who don't will be unable to process it. That show did a really lovely job of not worrying about "Framerates" or "graphics" or "gameplay" as much as it focused on broader things that most people would be able to understand. That's a powerful talent that shouldn't be wasted.
 
As to your blog's focal point, I happen to agree with you that the majority of storylines in games are shitty, and that game players need to spend some more time reading, and reading everything, rather than assuming that movies are the cultural medium from which every facet of humanity has already been documented. However, that doesn't mean that the proper writing doesn't exist, and that research isn't being done. Bioshock certainly has more power because of the game's devotion to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (even if it's so obvious that it loses it's power). And Grand Theft Auto 4, for all of it's violence and vulgarity, is a powerful look at the fundamental flaws of the American System: the U.S constitution is built on a system that assumes that the best government is one of cooperation, where interaction and compromise between every player in the system(the government, the people and everything inbetween) is best for the country. However, American History has shown that progress has oftentimes been achieved by drowning out other voices and opinions and acting in individual self interest; Lincoln felt the government had the right to bring the south back into the Union by force, Roosevelt felt he had the right  to intervene in the economy directly to save the country, and Bush felt he had the right to wiretap citizens. These three men defied the basis of the constitution because of their beliefs, and were tremendously important in history. (well, two of the three).
Grand Theft Auto 4 sees this situation clearly; The american system is a fundamental hypocrisy, a mish-mash of values and beliefs that have clashed with history directly. and, as GTA4 intuits in it's tragic finale, there is no happy ending for this system. Neither choice, cooperation or independence, will necesarily lead us to a happy ending. The system is so flawed that it is a literal American Dream; a system that we have imagined as perfect, but in actuality is clawing and tearing itself apart.
 
That took some FUCKING research on Rockstar's part.
 
So, what I'm trying to say is.....yes. You're right.

" And Grand Theft Auto 4, for all of it's violence and vulgarity, is a powerful look at the fundamental flaws of the American System: the U.S constitution is built on a system that assumes that the best government is one of cooperation, where interaction and compromise between every player in the system(the government, the people and everything inbetween) is best for the country. However, American History has shown that progress has oftentimes been achieved by drowning out other voices and opinions and acting in individual self interest; Lincoln felt the government had the right to bring the south back into the Union by force, Roosevelt felt he had the right  to intervene in the economy directly to save the country, and Bush felt he had the right to wiretap citizens. These three men defied the basis of the constitution because of their beliefs, and were tremendously important in history. (well, two of the three). Grand Theft Auto 4 sees this situation clearly; The american system is a fundamental hypocrisy, a mish-mash of values and beliefs that have clashed with history directly. and, as GTA4 intuits in it's tragic finale, there is no happy ending for this system. Neither choice, cooperation or independence, will necesarily lead us to a happy ending. The system is so flawed that it is a literal American Dream; a system that we have imagined as perfect, but in actuality is clawing and tearing itself apart.  That took some FUCKING research on Rockstar's part.  So, what I'm trying to say is.....yes. You're right. "