When I was a young man arcades were sleazy dens for teenagers – or was that dens for sleazy teenagers? – and the idea of paid “professional” gamers was nothing but a pipe dream. The far future of gamers as heroes of Society seemed just too far fetched; exemplified by the flawed, but underrated movie, “Gamer”, which had much more to say about Sims/Second Life style human trafficking. And yet it would be nice, wouldn’t it, to imagine a future where eSports were as well considered as football, basketball and other scholarship events, with the “players” elevated to the level of pop stars. Well, now you don’t have too…
I’m warning you now, you are about to lose a dozen hours of your life. Plug in your Internet device of choice and fire up YouTube. Then search for “Video Game High School Season 1”. When you’ve watched the nine 15-22 minute episodes, I’m sure you will be reaching for the six longer shows of season 2, and gnashing at the teeth that season 3 is not out yet. (They do have a KickStarter.) Go, do it now and prove me wrong. I can wait…
Video Game High School (or VGHS to its friends) is a web series that should be on TV; its production standards are fully the equal of broadcast television. The show centers around an unlikely hero, a bit of a geeky wannabe, BrianD, who through sheer luck gets a spot in the elite academy we all wish we could have gone to at one time in our lives, where learning how to play computer games is the be all and end all.
All the main genres are there, from the cool “jocks” of the FPS team, the alpha males and females at VGHS to the pinstriped RTS control freaks, from the DDR foot steppers to the car racing “drifters”. No one is left out, except for the self styled game programmer, Ki Swan, who is the oddball; only there to “understand” gamers so she can make better games. There are, of course, love interests and villains, but its High School Musical skin is only as deep as it’s polygon mesh.
What is so endearing about VGHS are the characters and their genres of choice, all handled lovingly and with respect. From Retro to a wonderfully wrought CoD clone, I don’t have time to praise this show’s “made of awesome” quality, but I can guarantee you will want to “Continue… Insert Coin”
