I have seen a number of docs in the past year about different forms of gaming, and they have generally been pretty interesting. Part of the fascination is to look into someone else's life and compare it to yours, hopefully making you feel better about yourself. Most of the docs that I've seen don't go out of their way to emphasize how silly or odd some of their subjects may be--they are usually pretty respectful about presenting things objectively, although I am sure they edit the footage to show us the most ridiculous moments. King of Kong was the most successful of these because, I think, it was able to tell a linear story. It had some of the same story elements we are familiar with in fiction, such as exposition, and a climax. Chasing Ghosts is somewhat less satisfying because it just talks to several of the people who participated in a group photo back in the early 80's. Everyone in the picture was a "world champion" of one video game or another. Some of them still take gaming and their accomplishments pretty seriously. The movie seems content to just get by on showing us how geeky the kids grew up to be. I'm not sure what else I could have wanted; I just didn't think it was especially interesting.
Review of Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
