PBS Off Book Covers Video Games

With oh so lovely networks like Fox News providing us with plenty of ignorant, biased, politically driven garbage in their extensive coverage of video games, it’s nice to see another network giving gamers a break from hearing flat out unpunished slander about their favorite hobby vomited onto millions of viewers. Off Book, a web series from PBS Arts produced by Kornhaber Brown, covered video games in the most recent entry in their coverage of cutting edge art. Previous episodes of the series provide fresh perspectives on Steampunk and Light Painting.

” From the powerful cinematic experiences of mainstream gaming, to the hyper-personal environments of indie games, we are in the midst of an explosion of gaming activity that, as some predict, will continue to define the way we live and interact with information, and each other, far into the future.”

It gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling to hear intelligent people talk about games in a positive light. It’s also nice to see a “games as art” discussion not focused solely on indie games. The video features appearances from industry greats like Eric Zimmerman, Jesper Juul, Leigh Alexander, and Syed Salahuddin citing specific examples of great games that they feel fit into the discussion. Some great namedrops include Minecraft, The Path, Portal, and Hot Throttle. Take about seven minutes out of your Internet time and give it a watch. It even includes an excellent list of great game suggestions at the end.