hipsters infiltrating video game culture

[RagTagBand]

Super cool story bro.

I thought that it looked pretty interesting, a documentary about the smallest developers which risk everything they have just to make a single game. Super Meat Boy and Braid being great examples of Indie dev success stories and Fez looking to be another of these successes.

I don't know where you got the idea that this was about "Retro game elitists", probably directly from the depths of your ass, Indie developers are pretty much forced to make "retro" style games because that's all they can afford and can possibly hope to do on a budget of nothing with a work force of <10. You think modern games cost hundreds of million's of dollar, years of work and upwards of a hundred people for shits and giggles?

Also, the documentary wins MAJOR points for having Jim Guthrie do the music (he did the music for INDIE game and critical masterpiece "Swords and Sworcery").

 

[Khada]

absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Do research first, THEN form an opinion. The people in that video are not 'hipsters', they are Indi devs. But that's OK, smart people often seem strange to stupid people.

 

[Elsarild]

So... What's wrong with the video you linked? Seems pretty interesting to me.

Yeah I second that, I'm a little confused about this, the movie seems like a very interresting piece to me.

 

[gigastar]

Hipster [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_%281940s_subculture%29], as used in the 1940s, referred to aficionados of jazz, in particular bebop, which became popular in the early 1940s. The hipster adopted the lifestyle of the jazz musician, including some or all of the following: dress, slang, use of cannabis and other drugs, relaxed attitude, sarcastic humor, self-imposed poverty, and relaxed sexual codes.

The various inde game stuidos sound nothing like that to me.

After all it would be pretty embarassing to idolise and emulate Activision's dev stuidos.

 

[DracoSuave]

If hipsters are elitist snobs and the OP doesn't want hipsters in his hobby, does that not make the OP by definition a hipster?

Also, hipsters infiltrated retro video game culture [http://walyou.com/img/geeky-t-shirts-space-invaders.jpg] before it was cool.

 

[oktalist]

KILL IT WITH FIRE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhaT78i1x2M

Movie looks fucking awesome. I don't see how it relates to the rest of your post in any way. Are you sure you didn't accidenally link to the wrong video?

Kind of like posting a link to a Nike shoe ad and saying it's indicative of the popularity of the trilby hat.

 

[EvilPicnic]

The movie looks great. Is this thread just about that one of the devs wears thick glasses? That's pretty shallow and... hipsterish.

Spoiler

Says the guy with the Zappa-tache avatar. Frank Zappa? Oh, he was in a band you've probably never heard of...

 

[SwishiestB0g]

Well your link is irrelevant to what you're actual question is so I'd remove it.

Being an indie developer making platformers, rather well done, thought out and well polished platformers has nothing to do with people playing 90's games like Mega Man.

For younger generations, mine included, yes claiming you have played all nes Mega Man games is like name dropping some random band not alot of people have heard of. Is it elitism? Not really. Depends on HOW you say it but I can say I've played every Sonic game. Why? 'Cause it's a branch of games I like. Doesn't make me better.

Aficionado can be the word for it. Sometimes it CAN be elitist don't get me wrong, but take my brother, he knows tons of bands whom no-one else in the house has heard of and my entire family is musical. Can he be elitist about his taste? Sure, but he also just LOVES music and wants to know where things came from, how things developed.

It can be the same with videogames, I never got to play any FF before 8. So does me going back to FF2 make me elitist? No, nor am I an aficionado, I'm simply curious to see how these games were developed.

There's nothing wrong with playing and claiming you've played 90's games. Claiming that playing those games makes people elitist means entire generations of gamers are elitist. Those games can still be fun today, why not play them if you have the means?

The movie looks great. Is this thread just about that one of the devs wears thick glasses? That's pretty shallow and... hipsterish.

Spoiler

Says the guy with the Zappa-tache avatar. Frank Zappa? Oh, he was in a band you've probably never heard of...

Frank Zappa? I LOVE that guy!

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Sorry, I didn't mean for the video link to imply that I was attacking independent developers specifically, or that simply because the word "indie" appears in the title I had mistakenly assumed that it meant something other than independent development studio. I guess I just wanted to draw attention to that dude's epic mutton chops and Ray-Ban prescription lenses. The movie itself looks absurdly overwrought, though. Most of these guys are just screwing around in Game Maker rehashing dated platformers with a crappy physics engine thrown in.

I was actually trying to express a creeping feeling I have that some gamers' attitudes towards games are changing into that of an exclusive club mentality. Gamers are taking sides, with CoD games on one half and Suda 51 fans on the other, to use but one example.

I'm not very good at getting my point across, sorry if I confused you

I have to admit, you came off a little too scathing there, but I can see where you are coming from, the style of that trailer was quite hipsterish, especially the bit where the guy with horn-rimmed glasses (that I stongly suspect are just clear lensed) jumps into a swimming pool still wearing the lenses! Wut?

Also the guy saying "I want to make games because I want to communicate with people, but I don't want the messy interaction of having to make friends and talk to people because I probably don't like them" What is that about.

On the plus side: Ohh, Braid is in this, that's pretty cool as that was quite an interesting story in that game.

Oh, and welcome to the Escapist!

 

[Vkmies]

Been waiting for Indie Game The Movie for quite awhile now. Major exited for it! I feel that I am hipstery. I am a retro-collector and I love indie games. And I tend to rub it in peoples faces. But I also really enjoy major modern titles and I don't do the "I did this and this before it was mainstream"-thing ever. But I dont think retro-gaming is that hipster. Seriosly. The amount of retro-gaming culture out there is staggering:
http://retrowaretv.com/
http://www.digitpress.com/
http://www.retrogamingroundup.com/
http://www.retrogamer.net/
Plus the massive amounts of great youtube-communities doing incredible things. AVGN, HVGN, HappyConsoleGamer, LukeMorse1 and many, many others. Not as rare and hipstery as you might think.

 

[Amnestic]

Hipster [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_%281940s_subculture%29], as used in the 1940s, referred to aficionados of jazz, in particular bebop, which became popular in the early 1940s. The hipster adopted the lifestyle of the jazz musician, including some or all of the following: dress, slang, use of cannabis and other drugs, relaxed attitude, sarcastic humor, self-imposed poverty, and relaxed sexual codes.

The various inde game stuidos sound nothing like that to me.

After all it would be pretty embarassing to idolise and emulate Activision's dev stuidos.

This may come as a shock to you, but words often evolve their meaning over time to mean entirely different things. Quoting what the word meant in the 1940s really has little relevance to what it means today. Interesting from a linguistic history standpoint, but when discussing the modern incarnation of 'hipsters', it's about as relevant as pulling up the 1940s definition of video game.

Exactly.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I tend to prefer big blockbusters like Gears Of War and Oblivion to all those indie XBLA titles. I'd much rather watch a documentary about making those.

Still, looks interesting enough.

 

[Radeonx]

Valve is one of the biggest companies out there, and it is an indie studio.
Something popular can't be hipster at the same time.

 

[GiantRaven]

(i.e. their neverending pursuit to uncover music that NO ONE ELSE KNOWS ABOUT, thus removing what made being a fan of pop music fun in the first place-- see last.fm for examples)

I'm sorry, but I completely fail to see how expanding your musical horizons and not listening to the same old music all the time is a bad thing.

 

[ShakyFt Slasher]

Since when was indie gaming retro elitism?

It is when one feels superior to others because they play indie games, yet they don't want others to play indie games because it makes them feel special. I am a fun of both indie and retro games but I also play the mainstream AAA titles as well. I don't feel superior to others because I know more about gaming history, I merely know I am more knowledgeable in that subject. Therefore, I am not a gaming hipster.

 

[s0p0g]

no i do not like hipsters of any kind. have a bunch of them around at the uni, and after two or three words i feel the urge to smash their faces with something heavy ^^
rant: like this one girl who has to stress that she's a girl and playas videogames and that this is special because she is a girl and also she is totally a nerd which is cool because she's a girl and also she's studying mathematics which is awesome because it's sooo totally unusual that a girl like her like studies that
AAARGH!!
/rant


but what's your problem with indie-games and a documentary about them? it's about people who want to see a specific game with specific elements, and instead of whining in forums why no-one is making such a game (what can be observed quite regularly), they just do it. over a long time. they are completely dedicated to what they want to do.
and that's pretty awesome, i think.

 

[ShakyFt Slasher]

Also I do think Yahtzee is a gaming hipster because if your tastes are different than his then he completely nullifies your opinion whatsoever. However, I do not take Yahtzee seriously

 

[Giest4life]

Yahtzee isn't a game hipster. Popular games, he says, are popular for a reason (hint: because they usually have something really good in them). I hate hipsters with a passion, I really do, but indie developers aren't hipsters. Making the AAA games that we are used to playing takes millions upon millions of dollars, an amount not everyone can afford. "Hipster" developers usually have to sacrifice graphics and resort to the retro style because it is easier to program and draw than full 3D objects and animation.

EDIT: The documentary looks like a load of crock.