The first film that comes to mind when I think about representations of gamers is the 2006 film, Grandma’s Boy. The main character, Alex, is evicted from the flat he rents and has nowhere else to go but his Grandma’s house. Alex is a frequent drug user, leading to many a hilarious antic involving old women accidentally getting high... But basically, the audience is made to view him as a loser. Overall, Grandma’s Boy is a comedic portrayal of gamers and the video game world.
The 2009 film Gamer offers a more serious storyline surrounding gamers. The film is set in an alternate reality where the avatars are real people being controlled by gamers in a third person shooter video game. The game is called ‘Slayers’, and allows the player to control the real person avatar in a multi-player environment. Gamer conforms to the notion of gamers being teenage boys who will become psychopathic killers from overexposure to video games. The film critiques violent games, and presents a world where video games are taken too far, as a warning for the future. It is hypocritical because it condemns video games as bad and thoughtlessly violent, but also presents this violence to its viewers in the form of a film. By giving the player of the game Slayer the ability to control another human being’s body, the film presents a metaphor of the game itself controlling the boy who does not care what happens to his avatar as long as he doesn’t die. Really, it’s about scaremongering. It presents the worst-case scenario of what people see as a moral dilemma caused by violent video games; The youth have become so desensitised to virtual violence and killing people, that they risk the lives of real people in order to compete in video games and be the best! Gamer presents gamers as a serious threat to society.
Rarely are gamers portrayed positively. According to most Hollywood films, they don’t really have anything to contribute to society at all.
The 2009 film Gamer offers a more serious storyline surrounding gamers. The film is set in an alternate reality where the avatars are real people being controlled by gamers in a third person shooter video game. The game is called ‘Slayers’, and allows the player to control the real person avatar in a multi-player environment. Gamer conforms to the notion of gamers being teenage boys who will become psychopathic killers from overexposure to video games. The film critiques violent games, and presents a world where video games are taken too far, as a warning for the future. It is hypocritical because it condemns video games as bad and thoughtlessly violent, but also presents this violence to its viewers in the form of a film. By giving the player of the game Slayer the ability to control another human being’s body, the film presents a metaphor of the game itself controlling the boy who does not care what happens to his avatar as long as he doesn’t die. Really, it’s about scaremongering. It presents the worst-case scenario of what people see as a moral dilemma caused by violent video games; The youth have become so desensitised to virtual violence and killing people, that they risk the lives of real people in order to compete in video games and be the best! Gamer presents gamers as a serious threat to society.
Rarely are gamers portrayed positively. According to most Hollywood films, they don’t really have anything to contribute to society at all.
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