I don’t play games. Never have, really. During a blip of my youth you could’ve found me posted up in my parent’s basement, getting down on brick-era Game Boy and SNES classics. True. But for me, as with too many other kids left itching to kick off the dust of the suburbs post-GoldenEye, the magic just sort of died. The consoles got packed away. The cartridges and Rumble Paks sold off in garage sales, or handed down to the dopey kid at the end of the block. And that’s a shame.So to say I’m a gamer – to say I ever was a gamer – would just be wrong. And yet that’s probably what has me so intrigued with the first proper teaser for What’s in a Game, a forthcoming documentary from Brooklyn-based indie-games guru Colin Snyder. (Full disclosure: Snyder is my roommate.) Billed as a tour through “videogame’s dynamic history, from the arcade to the living room and beyond,” What’s in a Game promises to bottle the perfect storm of technology, design, culture, and commerce that’s borne “the most important medium of the 21st century.” The film features interviews and insights from such disparate DIY gaming figures as Anna Anthropy, Nolan Bushnell, Phil Fish, Tim Schafer and many, many more, and for that has me extra stoked, just seeing as it promises to actually, you know, teach games-illiterate folks a thing or two and not just beat the already well-worn Billy Mitchell -is-a-total-dick trope. Even if he is.In other news, Motherboard compatriot Derek Mead recently scooped up a used SNES console and a bucket of games. So basically IT’S ON, PEOPLE.Reach this writer at brian@motherboard.tv. @thebanderson
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