Showing posts with label Uber Goober (2004). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uber Goober (2004). Show all posts

Monday, February 9, 2009

Uber Goober (2004)

Fun little movie about gamers. The producers of this documentary didn't go for the easy laughs and make their subject look like idiots. Instead, the gamers come across as dedicated people who pursue something they love. The film spends equal time on various aspects of role playing games, even talking to Christian anti-gamer zealots. By far, the best part of this movie is listening to writer Michael Stackpole talk about the growth of RPG's and what attracts people to them. He even delves into the famous Egbert case from 1979 which caused so much notoriety to Dungeons and Dragons.

The film also peppers it's discussion of RPG's with popular culture depictions of gamers. In the early 80's a godawful MTV movie stared Tom Hanks (a role I'm sure he's removed from his resume) as a gamer gone crazy in Mazes and Monsters. Gameers have appeared in other media formats as well, usually as messed-up individuals. Uber Goober features clips from a number of these movies and shows.

The trips to the gamer conventions are quite good and mirror my own experiences. You get to hear people talk about their love for the games they play. One sculptor shows off the miniature village he built just for his RPG.

A little too much time is spent on the Live Action RPG's (LARPS). The filmmakers spent most of their time on one particular LARP and should have delved into other ones. The best comment from this section is a young man who refers to LARPS as "interactive theater". Not the definitive look at the world of RPG's, but as good as there will be for years to come.