The Top 10 Best Portrayals of Gamers on Television
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
I'd add Parker Lewis Can't Lose to the list. The main character was cool, relaxed and awesome, and him and his friends stewed in 90s pop culture which of course included video games (SEGA AND NINTENDO). One episode even had an upbeat and surprisingly profound take on videogame addiction.
What's this? Once again Bob ignores the glories of Spaced? He ignores the greatness of Tim Bisley?
How in the 9 hells do you make a list like this without including Tim? Essentially an "every man" 20-something late 90's- early 2000's geek. He worked in a comic shop, enters Robot Wars, Plays Videogames, casually references nerd material, but these references are never played for specific laughs (unless it's for a particular pastiche). He's not displayed as weird, strange, mal-adjusted. He is the simple every gamer.
Can't help but feel that once again Bob's own American Imperialism is at play: "STOP ERASING MAH CULTURE MAN!"
In all seriousness, I asked him on Twitter and he said if it was a top 11-12, which fair enough I guess the importance of the Character is down-played heavily if you're not a late 20's - early 30's British pop culture aficionado.
How in the 9 hells do you make a list like this without including Tim? Essentially an "every man" 20-something late 90's- early 2000's geek. He worked in a comic shop, enters Robot Wars, Plays Videogames, casually references nerd material, but these references are never played for specific laughs (unless it's for a particular pastiche). He's not displayed as weird, strange, mal-adjusted. He is the simple every gamer.
Can't help but feel that once again Bob's own American Imperialism is at play: "STOP ERASING MAH CULTURE MAN!"
In all seriousness, I asked him on Twitter and he said if it was a top 11-12, which fair enough I guess the importance of the Character is down-played heavily if you're not a late 20's - early 30's British pop culture aficionado.
Digital Estate Planning is by far my favorite Community episode, and that's saying a lot, considering its my favorite show. I cannot wait for season 6 to start.
Tell us how you really feel
Also, I'm sad Felicia Day's character from supernatural didn't make the list.
It was my wife who reminded me last year that Clarissa Darling was the first positive gaming role-model she had. Her family didn't encourage gaming as a positive use of the family television, but seeing seeing Clarissa building her own games, she thought that games looked like a pretty kick-ass hobby.
I'm partial to the "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?"
I'm partial to the "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?"
That was my exact first thought.JMac85 said:
OP: Most of these were before my time, but it was an entertaining read anyways.
I can't watch the Futurama Space Invaders scene any more without thinking about the massive shoutout it got in the Chuck episode Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlK8lS6TrmE].
Then I can't look at this list without wondering where Chuck Bartowski is.
[small]Watch more Chuck[/small]
Then I can't look at this list without wondering where Chuck Bartowski is.
[small]Watch more Chuck[/small]
No mention for Frank Underwood? A pity. He really plays into the fact that gaming is essentially nothing more than teaching you systems and then how to beat them or master them. Don't know most/almost all of the above references, but I think the gaming-as-empowerment gets a one-sided view a lot of the time. There's no real learning to succeed or dominate in the broader world in the media portrayals, except for chess, which any master of strategy apparently knows intimately.
A shout-out for Community?
Woop woop! \^_^/
Case in point, this scene:
You never get the sense that he does it because it helps him: it's more of a casual distraction to him. Hell, even BBQ ribs carry more significance to him >.>
Woop woop! \^_^/
Whilst he is brilliant, the few times we see him around a video game seem to exist more for the sake of product placement, rather than saying that 'this dude is brilliant, AND he plays games'.EinSoph said:
Case in point, this scene:
You never get the sense that he does it because it helps him: it's more of a casual distraction to him. Hell, even BBQ ribs carry more significance to him >.>
A totally fair point, albeit one that prompts a debate over how much and what type of gaming is needed to be a gamer. And that's entirely subjective and been done to death. Also yeah, I get that it isn't really his identity, but A: he was the closest example I had to my point, and B: it's actually kinda refreshing to not have the typical game-obsessed/fixated gamer. To be fair, they do make a point of "this dude is brilliant, AND he's bisexual", so I saw the "AND he plays games" part when it came up too. Nevertheless you can't argue he isn't a king of the kind of system exploitation that a really good gamer is too.Sigmund Av Volsung said:
If anyone's read the Liar Game manga, that's a better example of what I mean.
So, when Commander Keen came out, I thought it was Captain N because of the name similarities.
I remember mostly another thing about suezos or something, mostly for confusing my memories of that episode with Monster Rancher. I think that was the right 90's show. Mostly I now remember that as the first instance of MPDG.dalek sec said:
Been a long time since I saw Spaced regularly, but I recently watched an episode where after playing RE2 he goes a bit mad and thinks everyone's a zombie. So maybe it wasn't always gamer-positive!Rellik San said:
Also, did Clarissa ever actually play games other than the ones she made? It's a fair assumption that she was a gamer if she was making them, but don't remember any mentions of her playing anything else.