There’s a nerdy loner sitting in the dark explaining how he’s “really into computers.” We watch him manhandle a control, pressing a million buttons at once in no specific way, and the sound effects we hear are random bleeps and bloops before some deep, ominous voice says “Game Over.”
This is how Hollywood sees the average video gamer.
Video games as they are depicted in the movies are horribly dated representations based on clichés from the ‘80s that in no way resemble the way modern video games look and feel. In the 30 years since games started becoming a subject of movies, most games have evolved to a point where they could and should be called art. The media however still views them as a joke.
Suffice it to say, a movie like Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph” will not convince many adults that games are for people other than kids. It’s a movie that attracted a lot of attention in the gaming community by essentially being “Toy Story” for video games and for being jam-packed with Easter Egg references to cult favorites. But it’s a sugar coated story about being yourself that has more scenes of animated movie chaos than simulated levels that would provide depth and understanding about games. Continue reading “Video games in movies need a reboot”