Fish & Crown Films presents an hour-long documentary about MMORPGs titled GAMERS. Filmmaker Ben Gonyo traveled throughout United States to interview video gamers, game developers, comedians, psychologists, and critics — including Jay Mohr (Comedian/BlizzCon Host), Curt Schilling (Professional Baseball Player) and R.A. Salvatore (New York Times Best Seller Author).
Frank Sinatra’s niece, Kristin Sinatra, is a guild master lvl 70 rogue in World of Warcraft. She heavily criticizes that Blizzard Entertainment doesn’t have strong presence at GenCon. She wants the BlizzCon store coming to GenCon.
Ben Gonyo talked with people in Boston, Buffalo, Indianapolis and Los Angeles in search of cutting-edge companies, conventions like BlizzCon and GenCon, and gamers to film this documentary based on MMOs, and focusing on the most popular one: World of Warcraft.
It’s actually informative, and funny. A player confesses to have had the cops visit him after neighbors have reported intense yelling and cussing. He was just upset about his raid wiping to a boss. Another player met his girlfriend playing WoW. She lives in Canada. Couples playing the game together, that sort of thing.
The documentary demonstrates that MMO gamers are not just the geeky guy living on their parent’s basement, but hard-working people with jobs going online after work to play and connect globally with other people from other countries.
Massive Gamer editor-in-chief Mark Arsenault says an estimate of 180 million people worldwide play some sort of MMO, and every month more titles keep coming — especially in South Korea.
The documentary explores the subscription model versus the free-to-play model. Many game developers are starting to shift toward the free-to-play model allowing players to experience content with no strings attached. Those game studios make money by selling virtual items themselves, and creating new content for sale based on fan feedback and suggestions.
Around minute 52:20, Ben Gonyo talks with Jeff Kaplan (WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Game Director)
- Follow filmmaker Ben Gonyo on his hilarious journey into the world of MMO games like World of Warcraft.
GAMERS is a documentary film that follows filmmaker Ben Gonyo into the world of MMO style video games and the World of Warcraft. Having not played video games for nearly ten years, a lot of things have changed since Ben last picked up a controller. Ben dives headfirst into a whole new genre of video games called MMORPG’s, which he describes as, “living in a movie.” In this humorous yet informative documentary, viewers will learn what these games are, where they came from, how they’re made and what it takes to conquer a virtual world.
Ben interviews players, critics, super fans, game designers, visionaries and just about anyone involved in MMO gaming. It’s a light-hearted look into real people’s virtual existence. A combination of player interviews and trips to gaming conventions tells the story of a subculture of obsessed fans. Celebrity interviews include Red Sox pitching great Curt Schilling, comedian Jay Mohr and popular fantasy author RA Salvatore.
MMO Games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest are a global phenomenon. Some estimate that around 200+ million people play some sort of an MMO. Warcraft alone has 11.5 million subscribers paying Blizzard $16 a month to be a part of their virtual universe. Tickets to Blizzard’s “BlizzCon” convention in 2008 were $100 a ticket. They sold 15,000 in 15 minutes. Mt. Dew released two official World of Warcraft sodas called Gamer’s Fuel.
The game space is one of the fastest growing populations in history. From player growth to ad revenue to licensed products, it’s just about recession proof. Ask around, everyone knows a person or two sucked into these games. This film dives headfirst into this virtual underworld with a fun DIY aesthetic.
