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Reader and Southern Illinois University student John Scott sent us over his senior thesis (a 20-minute documentary) based on video game culture and wow, we hope he got an A on it. John says the point of the thesis and doc was to take a look at how video games can and do effect individuals and our society.

It's an interesting and not too long of an examination of an important subject and we hope you enjoy this departure as much as we do. Let us know what you think. 

Pro-tip: Don't ever play your GBA while driving. 








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39 comments | showing # 1 to 39
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glg20decoy's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 01:33
glg20decoy
Very good find Summa.
cjpkiller's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 01:44
cjpkiller
its interesting what the psychology teacher said about rules in game, and how when you paly with friends you make up these rules and work on management, but video games jsut throw that at you. hopefully games will evolve to a point where you do get to make the rules up.
something like a soccer game where you get to line up the players and pick the ones you want, and then you can put penalties on your best players, or put enhancements on weaker players.

really interesting.
tehuberone's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 01:51
tehuberone
Awesome video Summa, guy deserves an A.
tehuberone's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 01:52
tehuberone
cjp its called options, patches and handicaps.
stangend77's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 02:02
stangend77
Pretty good video that showed some different viewpoints. My one question though is what is the thesis he is trying to prove? There is probably a paper to go along with this work to clarify it, but as it stands all we get is a few examples with no unifying theme. (Yes I know I'm an asshat but as an English major. This is how my thought process works, haha)
stangend77's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 02:06
stangend77
Wow, my grammar was excellent there in that small aside. Perhaps no sleep during the week of midterms is a bad idea.
GnappyAssassin's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 02:16
GnappyAssassin
That was damn good.
johnny1up's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 02:16
johnny1up
Well, as an undergrad thesis (as they called it), I essentially wanted to show the underlying addiction and common criticism of video games and their industry. I serve up multiple viewpoints, but in the end, I allow the viewer to determine his/her opinion regarding the media. I never intended to provide a clearcut opinion one way or the other; I only open the eyes to both sides of the argument to this obfuscatory issue. I just hope you enjoy it! :)
tehuberone's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 02:25
tehuberone
johnny be good
stangend77's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 02:30
stangend77
Definitely enjoyed it, and with your intent clarified for me I can now rest and stop bein a critical bitch. haha. Good yob mayn.
johnny1up's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 02:32
johnny1up
By the way, in my opinion, video games kick ass, agent!
kittridge's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 03:45Image Hosted by ImageShack.us</a><br/>
kittridge
how about the parents man.. i think theyre in denial about their child's video game ab/use. it's not just the neighbor's kid with a problem. the games are only becoming more immersive.

good look at the culture. A- I would have liked to see more child junkies and a bit less waah from the one kid but it was interesting nonetheless
MYL0R's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 03:48
MYL0R
Great doc, I enjoyed it alot.

Side note:I know "architecture student", he was really good friends with one of my best friends when he went down to Carbondale. He tried out for my old band. Really random to see him in a video on Destructoid.
pierce's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 04:11
pierce
Great video, i really enjoyed watching it. you better get an a on that thing!
Milofo's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 05:06
Milofo
I have to disagree with the proffesor about his argument about how kids don't make up the rules anymore. That only happens if the kids are lazy. There are plenty of ways to customize game rules in order to make them different. Lets take an example of say a FPS. There are multiple types of game modes for those from bomb planting, capture the flag, territory control, and good old deathmatch. Now from these game types you can control things such as overall time before the match ends, how many of what needs to be satisfied for a win, and even the types of weapons that show up. From that if you are playing friends its very easy to invent rules and get your leet friend to only use pistols or something and allow the sucky player to use a rocket launcher. Its not pure imagination such as when I was a kid and my friends and me would play like we were x-men but it goes along with his example of making a new game from using a soccer ball. You could even make up your own rules that the computer doesn't follow to determine the winner. I've played matches lke that with my friends sometimes when normal matches were getting boring.

I can concede on the proffesor's point somewhat because some multiplayer games might not have such customability built in so it would be entirely dependant on the player, and you don't have much chance to make up your own rules when you play a single player game

Oh and one final thing. Someone PLEASE get that guy's driver licsense revoked. I don't want him on the road killing someone because he needed his gameboy fix.
UglyDuck's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 07:00
UglyDuck
I kinda agree with Stangend. It would have been nice to make a few more consice points... the filmography was awesome, great professionalism, people could use this as an example of how to get ameture film correct. I think there's a lot of people out there could do to study this :). But still, i thought it was a good video but not a great video. It wasn't something which really went beyond what i already know or suggested something which i hadn't thought of before. Most documentaries make me stop and think about what i'm watching, this just kinda affirmed what i already know and suggested a couple of interesting facts...

I think i wanted to see the responce to those comments, i think there were a lot of things i was asking the interviewee in my mind and they weren't getting answered. That's probably what bugged me... good video though :).
BlackDove's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 07:12
BlackDove
lol @ post credits scene.

VIDEO GAMES ARE THE TOOL OF THE DEVIL!
wardrox's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 07:15
wardrox
I found that realy interesting, might have been abit better with more balance, so as not always singing the praises of video games. Some games dont ensight an emotional responce and are just about killing, those games kinda suck, but they still exist, mind you, some games have no violence in them at all. I guess with only 20 mins there is only so much that can be said.

But remember: Guns dont kill people... kids who play computer games do.
ZeroTolo's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 07:29
ZeroTolo
Overall not bad, but I'm not sure what he was trying to show with the guy who drove while playing his GBA... it was clearly some sort of obsessive behavior, but why show us that? It seemed to be the guy's only real video game issue. And to balance it out he probably could have used a little more negative insights to show that sometimes video games aren't the best. Those two parents seem to have pretty level heads, although the mother seemed more concerned with it than the father.
Axle's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 07:29
Axle
That was a good video, but it's not something that I think warrants submission as a piece of Higher Education research, rather, it's closer to an overview of the culture. There is no thesis and little critical evaluation. What is your methodology? Perhaps I'm being hypercritical here, but that scene with Connor and his mum asking where his homework was looked like it was staged.

I'm sorry to say it, but although it was entertaining it was really MYV-lite, and if you want to further discussion on culture of videogames, it's probably best to move away from discussions of violence (the interview with the architecture student and the teacher in the middle school were real highlights). 'Derek' plainly knows nothing about kids' culture as Milofo has already pointed out, and that part again seemed as if you were trying to fit the empirical results to fit your ends and it wasn't quite succesful.

I'd give it a B. Good intent, poor execution.

Note: Atari didn't develop 'The Commodore' it was Commodore Business Machines who devloped the Commodore 64 and the Amiga. Atari eventually devloped the ST, but it was Atari Computers and not Atari Games (who are the spirtual descendents of Bushnell's infamous enterprise).

Sorry if that's too critical, but if I was your tutor that would be my response. And yes, I do work at a university.
Snaileb 's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 07:37
Snaileb
Summa's part of the German Army of Masturbating Cats Liberation. I said it. It's been said. It's also 8am and I have a hangover.. I'll check in with the Doc later. -_-

The brain pain..
Aaron Mxy Yost's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 07:51
Aaron Mxy Yost
I found it interesting, wouldn't mind seeing it expanded into a full length documentary.
BlindsideDork's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 08:21
BlindsideDork
So Video Games are going to take the place of little league softball?

Interesting...
itemforty's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 09:02
itemforty
Enjoyable and entertaining, but I never felt like a sincerely opposing viewpoint was really focused upon. However, nice use of the Benny Hill Theme (Yakety Sax).
Also, hot mom what!?
BahamutZero's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 09:06
BahamutZero
I hate video games
Ignignokt01's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 09:11
Ignignokt01
Definitely A material. But yeah he probably should have had Jack Thompson on there just to show how big a fool he is.
LadyLucifer's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 09:41
LadyLucifer
Thanks for posting it. I found it pretty interesting, entertaining and somewhat imformative, of course there are some bias points in the documentary but how can one avoid such a thing? Overall it was well done and he definitely did deserve that A.
amalgamut00's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 10:00
amalgamut00
So he played Final Fantasy 3 back in the day. He must have been spoiled and smart to have had the NES game, a genius to have read all that Japanese text. I mean I'm sure he didn't really mean Final Fantasy 6...

I'm sorry I just hate when people screw it up, I am a big dork.
Milofo's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 10:02
Milofo
@Blindsidedork
With the way parents treat their kids in little league softball it might be for the better.

You know I was half expecting at some point in the interview with game addict that they would crash the car into something.
zaqu's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 10:18
zaqu
damn i love the arcades
yelsa7's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 10:25
yelsa7
I feel like video games, like everything else, should just be played in moderation. Of all of the non-active pasttimes video games are probably the most beneficial aside from books. Stuff I know I have gotten from video games: artistic inspiration, hand-eye coordination, problem solving skills, knowledge of farming from Harvest Moon, strategy skills, planning skills (holy crap Fire Emblem), and now some Wii-exercise.
Niero's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 10:30
Niero
John has excellent taste in video games, as noted by the intro clip
johnny1up's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 10:40
johnny1up
Real quick sidenote and I really should stop "defending" the documentary, but there was a time-frame put on the film. It could only be (roughly) 20 minutes. Take that into consideration. So, I would agree with Mxyzptlk. I'd love for someone to financailly back me and I'll make a fullfledged, full-length documentary.
GodLen's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 10:52
GodLen
*high five!
LadyLucifer's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 12:31
LadyLucifer
I don't know if this was a mistake or not but I believe that there was footage of FF1 when the person (architecture student) being interviewed was talking about FF3... this may have been overlooked or just shown as an example, I just wanted to point it out... ^^
gamehunter101's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/06/2007 21:51
gamehunter101
jack needs to see this
Dr Hairy Dwarf's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/07/2007 18:26
Dr Hairy Dwarf
Niero is right. I'm going to play gunsmoke right now,
mmmmmmmm CAPCOM.
anomalous underdog's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/08/2007 09:51
anomalous underdog
it needs subtitles, the part with the Chinese guy was hard to understand.

about that limiting rule mentioned by the profesor, i'd say the controller used to play the game also plays an important role in setting the limits (you ca'nt type using a joypad, while using a keyboard would so,eimtes be cumbersome and painful to the fingers. its perpetually changing, as the wiimote and that tilt control system are the new guys in the bandwagon.
don't know if its real or not, but i also saw in the tv once where this guy was controlling a skiing game using a device inserted on his finger and that thing captures (synapse?) some brain signals to let him control his skiing. it was discovery channel or something close to that so i was thinking it was still in the research stages. non-obtrusive thought driven controls was more or less the words i remembered. the alternative was to.. guess what, implant devices in your brain)
anomalous underdog's Avatar - Comment posted on 03/08/2007 09:55
anomalous underdog
haha. i remember time crisis. we had this rule by ourslevs where you should finsih the whole game using one token only. sort of a test to show you're really good with the game
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