There aren't a lot of movies about video game players as to be honest the subject matter isn't necessarily the most exciting. Why would you watch a movie about a guy playing a video game, when you could actually play the game? Not only was there that issue but there is also the issue of treating the material and the people involved with respect as portions of the gaming population didn't exactly didn't roll perfect 18's in the social skill department. These were at least some of my questions when I got an e-mail from Ben Gonyo about his movie Gamer's, which covers the MMO portion of the market. Luckily Ben answered those questions in more in this interview.
Please introduce yourself and talk about how you came up with the idea for the movie?
My name is Ben Gonyo and I’m a filmmaker based out of Rochester NY. I directed a film called Gamers about what its like to play MMORPG games.
How much experience did you have with World of Warcraft before you started? Did you have any experience with any other video/computer games?
I played Warcraft 1 back when it was a RTS game. I stopped playing most games when I graduated college and began working in the TV industry. Mostly out of time. Growing up I played a tremendous amount of the Nintendo consoles.
From the trailers it looks like you touch on some of the other types of games. What else can we expect to see in the film?
I tried to cover a broad spectrum of MMORPG games not just WOW, although WOW is definitely the king of that jungle. I spoke with free2play games, Cryptic, Curt Schilling and RA Salvatore’s game for 38 Studios. As well as a couple companies that make peripherals such as 3D monitors which some gamers are excited for. Theres a fair amount of convention coverage as well which is always fun and wacky.
It seems like picking on nerds/gamers is fairly easy (Triumph the Comic Insult dog has done some legendary work in this area). Did you go down this road or did you go a different route in how you portrayed the people in the film?
Yes this is an easy road and I didn’t want to put any emphasis on it. There are funny moments but most of it is self depricating. I found Gamers a great bunch of people to hang out with and they are often willing to crack jokes about themselves and how they might fit into this nerdy stereotype as well. In that light I make fun of myself quite a bit as well because of how bad I am at the games or when I’m clearly overmatched in a game of WOW Minis.
There are obvious reasons to pick World of Warcraft but did you consider looking at other hard core MMO’s like EVE Online?
I did cover a handful of other games. About a half dozen altogether. WOW took the lead primarily because most people I interviewed it either played it or used to play it. It’s sort of the gateway MMO.
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