Frag (2008)
Been a while since I've done one of these; haven't been watching much lately, and I can never get in the writing mood anymore.
Frag (2008) ( http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1266566/ )
Directed by: Mike Pasley
IMDB rating: 7.0/10 (21 votes)
Frag is a documentary about the professional gaming industry. It start with an introduction to what professional gaming is and how it was formed. It goes back to the 80's, where "professional" gaming was all about achieving the high score. Last year, there was a documentary that covered this era of professional gaming called The King of Kong, which I've not yet seen. It then jumps forward into the 90's with first-person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. This ultimately leads to the present, where professional gaming involves big corporate sponsors.
The focus of Frag is ultimately on the experience of what it's like to be a competitive gamer at the present time. Short version: it sucks. For talking heads, there's some competitive gamers to discuss the issues they've faced, some e-sports journalists, which I wasn't aware was a job title, and the head of a big gaming league (CPL).
There's absolutely nothing surprising here. Young kids want to get paid money for playing video games as well as all the praise for being the best, but the only way they can accomplish this dream is by becoming sponsored by some big company. The big companies obviously use these kids as human advertising for their products and often screw over these kids with bad contracts. The big e-sports leagues are no better, often failing to pay out winnings or holding winnings for a year.
This film is already out-of-date with its information, even though it just came out a few months ago. The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) folded earlier this year after many competitive teams refused to take part in their winter event because the CPL hadn't paid many players from past events. About the same time this film came out, the CPL was bought by an investment group from the United Arab Emirates.
It's also mostly US-centric. Competitive gaming is undoubtedly much bigger in South Korea, where top players can become minor celebrities and they have television channels that host Starcraft matches and other games. There's absolutely no mention of this anywhere in the film, instead focusing on how hard it is for US players to make a living playing games, which is extremely unsurprising because no company is going to dish out a lot of money to players that only a handful of people know about.
It was somewhat interesting to hear about LoSt-CaUzE's struggle to become a professional gamer because I'd heard he won an Unreal Tournament 3 (which I play) competition not too long ago. On the UT3 forums, one of the top players was whining that people were calling LoSt-CaUzE the top North American UT3 player, when he was really so much better but couldn't make it to the tournament.
Anyway, this could have been a better documentary had they focused less on the obvious hardships of being a 'professional' gamer in North America and instead focused on how professional gaming is becoming a bigger concept. They briefly and superficially touch on this when talking about a professional Guitar Hero player, but it goes into a stupid montage of people playing Guitar Hero.
5/10
Frag (2008) ( http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1266566/ )
Directed by: Mike Pasley
IMDB rating: 7.0/10 (21 votes)
Frag is a documentary about the professional gaming industry. It start with an introduction to what professional gaming is and how it was formed. It goes back to the 80's, where "professional" gaming was all about achieving the high score. Last year, there was a documentary that covered this era of professional gaming called The King of Kong, which I've not yet seen. It then jumps forward into the 90's with first-person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. This ultimately leads to the present, where professional gaming involves big corporate sponsors.
The focus of Frag is ultimately on the experience of what it's like to be a competitive gamer at the present time. Short version: it sucks. For talking heads, there's some competitive gamers to discuss the issues they've faced, some e-sports journalists, which I wasn't aware was a job title, and the head of a big gaming league (CPL).
There's absolutely nothing surprising here. Young kids want to get paid money for playing video games as well as all the praise for being the best, but the only way they can accomplish this dream is by becoming sponsored by some big company. The big companies obviously use these kids as human advertising for their products and often screw over these kids with bad contracts. The big e-sports leagues are no better, often failing to pay out winnings or holding winnings for a year.
This film is already out-of-date with its information, even though it just came out a few months ago. The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) folded earlier this year after many competitive teams refused to take part in their winter event because the CPL hadn't paid many players from past events. About the same time this film came out, the CPL was bought by an investment group from the United Arab Emirates.
It's also mostly US-centric. Competitive gaming is undoubtedly much bigger in South Korea, where top players can become minor celebrities and they have television channels that host Starcraft matches and other games. There's absolutely no mention of this anywhere in the film, instead focusing on how hard it is for US players to make a living playing games, which is extremely unsurprising because no company is going to dish out a lot of money to players that only a handful of people know about.
It was somewhat interesting to hear about LoSt-CaUzE's struggle to become a professional gamer because I'd heard he won an Unreal Tournament 3 (which I play) competition not too long ago. On the UT3 forums, one of the top players was whining that people were calling LoSt-CaUzE the top North American UT3 player, when he was really so much better but couldn't make it to the tournament.
Anyway, this could have been a better documentary had they focused less on the obvious hardships of being a 'professional' gamer in North America and instead focused on how professional gaming is becoming a bigger concept. They briefly and superficially touch on this when talking about a professional Guitar Hero player, but it goes into a stupid montage of people playing Guitar Hero.
5/10