Trendspotting San Francisco « ELOCUTIO .nu | Creativist, Thinker, Blogger, Videogamer

Trendspotting San Francisco

Apr 19 - by Aleida

In this documentary the makers take us to San Francisco and visit the Game Developers Conference. A yearly event where (big) gamedevelopers come together, new games are presented and people talk about the latest developments in the game industry. Part of the Game Developers Conference is the ‘Independent Game Festival’ (?) where small developers and artists show off their games that aren’t developed for the mainstream consumer.

The game industry is booming and is even bigger than the film industry. The ‘Global Entertainment & Media Outlook Report 2008′ estimates the revenue of the game industry will grow in 2012 to 68.4 billion dollars. The documentary focuses on the commercial goals in the game industry and using this new medium for artistic purposes. Are videogames important to make money or are there other things a videogame can do? Think of a violent shooter for adults or a meditation videogame. A game with a deeper meaning or a casual videogame you can play for 5 minutes on your mobile phone. Videogames aren’t just for testosteron-laden young males as many people seem to think *sighs* There are so many different users…

The documentary shows a very interesting side of what people do with this medium. It also shows how videogames developed from boardgames to what they are today. It’s definitely a documentary we can recommend to everyone who is interested in taking videogames to a whole other level, instead of constantly viewing videogames as simple toys for boys.