Do you guys feel that video games need more references in other media?

To give an example as to what I'm asking:

In the show The Big Bang Theory, video games are occasionally referenced, but it's usually a mainstream video game like Mario Kart and Halo. With a show about geeks, you'd expect more references to video games. I'm thinking that Mass Effect, and Batman Arkham should definitely get references (considering Batman is a pop culture icon). Also, in one episode, one the characters is playing Mario 64 on an N64 emulator. That is a start to more nerdy references, but it's a good one (Also, laughing at it because a character says something geeky, SO FUNNY

I do get that most TV audiences will not likely get the reference, but say if your show is about geeks/nerds, then reference more nerdy video games because the demographic that your show is about will get the reference.

No I don't.

No.

Maybe you should make the title a more open-ended question, people seem to think a good forum thread involves a bunch of one sentence or one word answers.

I agree with the overwhelming negatory sentiment, by the way. Big Bang Theory is kind of IT when it comes to mainstream shows that pander to general geekdom. All the others are either scifi/fantasy stories that don't even link directly to modern culture or they're focused on one facet, like Cosplay or trivia. Okay, there is that one Reality show where people try to prove their nerd credentials by competing and living together, but adding references to that and BBT are pretty much the only things that aren't going to come off as needless.

Games just haven't broken far enough out of their ghetto to make references draw in crowds yet.

So you want your hobby, that's still largely ostracized by society as a whole, associated even more with geeky tv shows and fictional nerds?

No.

References don't have any value outside of people who get them getting them. There isn't a reason NOT to have more references, but they certainly don't NEED them. It really is a non-question, since there isn't any objective -and hardly any subjective- ways to decide or argue it.

If you did it right it wouldn't be even more associated with geeks. If you've got a character who is both a jock and smart, and who likes video games, you can start getting them associated with other groups.

It's just a question of what executive in his or her right mind would even bother to try it in the first place.

theres only two ways a reference gag is going to go down.

either other characters in the show get it (which will almost invariably be two of the same type of clique) or no one gets it and an awkward silence ensues and paints the character who said it in a less than positive (dare i say it, pathetic) light.

...neither way is really preferable. its not even that funny in the first place, but its enforcing a stereotype in both cases (except on the rare occasion where the person who gets it is of a diffent stereotype); in the former its pretending that all geeks play the same games (...i talk to a wide variety of people on skype, and of all of them, very few who could be called geeks actually have the same taste in media as each other).

Not for nothing, but you would at least think the Triple A titles would be mentioned a little bit more as a casual thing these days. But eh, all in good time. Eventually it'll be there, and then whatever new piece of entertainment exists then will be ignored.

Also, some of you seem to assume only geeks play games.

edited 7th Jul '14 10:05:11 AM by Odd1

Reminds of all the difficulty I have sometimes with discussing some anime that I happen to enjoy with this one Skype friend of mine... when she does not even knows half of them.

It wouldn't have to be a gag at all. Hell, just having an obscure gaming system in a person's room would be a start. Maybe a pile of games away from the central focus of the screen but close enough for those who know to read the titles.

A couple of people you wouldn't even expect to play games bonding over one people haven't heard of before. Or someone wearing a gaming shirt, giving just enough of a view of it to get those in the know to recognize it.

There's all sorts of ways it could go down, I just don't think we're out of the ghetto far enough to make it work yet.

It's true that geeks aren't the only people who play video games. Though are geeks the ones that play video games as a major hobby?

edited 7th Jul '14 10:08:30 AM by powerpuffbats

im basically talking about the only way these gags go down in sitcoms like the big bang theory.

i do not consider myself a geek and yet i play games a helluva lot, so no, i dont think that.

Yeah, no, for this to have any positive outcome, it can't be in a sitcom. Has to be a drama. Those are the only ones people take seriously.

And I can third the different tastes thing. I have very few games that all my Steam friends also have. Most of them have maybe one or two friends into them as well, and there are quite a few where I'm alone.

Of course... it partially depends on how one defines a term such as "Geek".

For example, in America someone might be considered extremely knowledgeable in anime simply because he knows the mere existence of a certain show about armored pretty boys but around where I live that show is so famous that even people who have no interest in Japanese Cartoons knows about it.

edited 7th Jul '14 10:13:03 AM by SaintDeltora

I will fourth the different tastes as well. All my friends love to play Call of Duty and WWE games. Whereas I play Co D from time to time, and I don't like wrestling to begin with.

Though my friends love to play games like Mario Party and Smash Bros. with me.

i only think of people as geeks when they actively identify as such.

otherwise, i dont classify them as anything. (...unless they identify as something else of course)

edited 7th Jul '14 10:15:58 AM by Tarsen

I don't identify as anything, I've just had the terms geek and nerd shoved on me all my life by others because I read and play video games a lot.

Which is exactly why references won't work. You still get labeled just for liking vid games.

Then that depends on how they see those terms,

Remember, terms like "geek" and "nerd" are still seen as insults by a lot of people.

I would like to see more of gaming treated more as a "normal" hobby in shows about entirely other things, but I'm fine with a lack of direct references and gags.

0dd1 makes a pretty interesting sidebar: Why don't Sony or Microsoft IPs or Third Party AAA games connected with major studios get much Product Placement? It's not just kids' parents that buy stuff they see on TV.

Or are there any Third Party AAA developers connected with TV Studios? If there's not, then that would explain a lot.

edited 7th Jul '14 5:21:46 PM by DonaldthePotholer

Attention for attention's sake is pointless. If it gets mentioned, fine, if not, oh well. It's not like games are an oppressed minority forced out of the spot light, it's an entertainment medium. Radio doesn't get much attention these days either.

Vivendi used to own Activision Blizzard, for what that's worth. I should mention that Heavenly Sword appeared in an episode of Heroes and Resistance 3 was on a billboard in Battle: Los Angeles.

And then there's this.

Still, publicity is publicity, and the success of Call of Duty and Halo I believe can be contributed in no small part to how much advertisement Microsoft was willing to give those franchises. Super Bowl ads, frequent commercials on channels like AMC, FX, Sy Fy or even Home & Garden TV, billboards, viral marketing - all of that helped out quite a bit in the long run. Both franchises are now common household names, even amongst those who almost never play videogames.

I guess there's also stuff like this, but I suppose that depends on whether or not you consider Breaking Bad to be highly mainstream and promotion for that poor excuse for a game to be relevant.