Gamer Revolution

Anticipation builds in Seoul, South Korea as 20,000 screaming fans await the arrival of their video game idols for the ultimate game-off - Beatlemania 21st century style. In Romania, teens slave away in a "virtual sweatshop" racking up points for Westerners who are too busy to play their own games. And somewhere in a small town 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, the largest gathering of online gamers in the world is getting underway.

Computer games are a global phenomenon and a $25 billion dollar a year industry. Over 800 million people worldwide are regular players. GAMER REVOLUTION, shot in HD, is the first full-length documentary to look past the hype, paranoia, and hoopla to explore the real stories behind the computer game revolution.

GAMER REVOLUTION explores how computer games are not only a new medium for the 21st century, they are a massive form of change in our world." says Rachel Low, President, Red Apple Entertainment. "The idea of living inside a computer-generated universe is happening right now. The line between the real world and the virtual world is disappearing. Millions of people feel that they have a life inside these games."

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Google - Behind the Screen

Google - Behind the Screen

Produced with the assistance of SBS, this smart, stylish Dutch documentary examines the mother of all search engines.

First, company employees explain that Google doesn't produce information, it merely filters websites according to popularity. That's why, say, if you search for "September 11", the first "hit" might be the site of a conspiracy theorist, simply because that site is the buzz of the internet. In a workplace with masseurs and volleyball courts, where employees are encouraged to spend one day of their working week doing something they love, Google strives for neutrality.




Even so, concerns are surfacing. Google is huge, with offshoots including Google Earth (which zooms into any location via archived satellite images) and Machine Translation (aiming to provide accurate translations of documents). Will this enormous store of information infringe on people's privacy? Will governments abuse it? What about terrorists?




To these worthwhile questions, Google employees struggle to give convincing answers. Their stuttered responses suggest the bosses need to spend more time addressing the ethics of their work. Google's quasi-motto, "Don't be evil", is all well and good, but it's worth remembering that one man's evil is another man's virtue.

The best point is made by Vint Cerf, the man dubbed the father of the internet and a vice-president at Google since 2004. He agrees that information can be manipulated, noting that the makers of this program will be able to manipulate their interviews in the editing suite. One smart cookie.

Rise of the Video Game

The video game revolution has been under way for decades, progressing from simple amusements created in the 1950s to an all-pervasive force in today's popular culture that rivals — and will perhaps soon surpass — film and television. What began as a subculture pastime has evolved and transcended genres to become a unique form of expression impacting everything from modern warfare to interpersonal relationships.

Rise of the Video Game is a comprehensive and progressive exploration of the past, present and future of video games and video gamers. From the early days of Pong to today's ever-popular Halo 2, and from Atari 2600 to Nintendo to PlayStation, Rise of the Video Game tells the story of the people, the ideologies and the technology behind video games and how they have exploded into a cultural phenomenon. The evolution of gaming has seen the pendulum move from the days of games replicating society, to society replicating games. Featuring interviews with giants in the gaming industry of yesterday and today, this five-part series examines the evolution of the video game and its cultural impact on the world of entertainment today.

LEVEL ONE




The videogame started not with a bang but with a ping. Unlike other forms of entertainment, videogames turn the viewer into a player who actively shapes the outcome of their experience. At first video games and the creators were as misunderstood by the public as rock & roll in its infancy. But those closest to the videogame business persevered and never lost sight of the ability videogames had to become a dominant form of entertainment.

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LEVEL TWO



In the late 1970s and early 1980s, instead of controlling spaceships and tennis rackets, videogame technology allowed players to command recognizable characters with real faces and back stories. This paralleled the importance of the hero's journey that was popular in movies of the time like "Rocky" and "Star Wars," as well as mirrored the rise of individualism and conservative meritocracy, where one man can make a difference. Game creators were liberated to create more complex videogames with heroic journeys, and Japanese creators like Shigeru Miyamoto rose to prominence with star characters Super Mario, Luigi and Zelda.

Watch Rise of the video game part 2 | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

LEVEL THREE



It was a foreign concept to early game designers but with games like "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" and "DOOM", video games grew from their primitive 2-D roots into richly detailed 3-D worlds. These groundbreaking 3-D games led the industry down new paths both thrilling and troubling. Critics questioned if these games were getting too real, too violent and too addictive. For the first time game designers had to grapple with tough questions.

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LEVEL FOUR



Since the invention of the computer man has feared "the machine" and its ability to think. But a computer's unique computational power has also led to the development of seminal games that are unpredictable, intelligent and malleable. "God games" like SimCity and Civilization simulate entire worlds and let players experiment with cause and effect. Other designers have used artificial intelligence to create lifelike characters and worlds that shape themselves to each player. And some games are so technologically advanced that they have become tools for learning, or better yet, creative expression.

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LEVEL FIVE



Can a computer game make you cry? With the introduction of PlayStation 2's "emotion engine" in 1999 game developers had the technology to enable deep, moving stories that tugged at gamers' heartstrings. The rise of online virtual world games added another emotional dimension, letting players make real connections (including marriages) through a virtual game and helping them escape a world rife with violence and terror.

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Steal This Film 2 Documentary

These are strange times indeed. While they continue to command so much attention in the mainstream media, the 'battles' between old and new modes of distribution, between the pirate and the institution of copyright, seem to many of us already lost and won. We know who the victors are. Why then say any more?

This documentary highlights the fact that because waves of repression continue to come: lawsuits are still levied against innocent people; arrests are still made on flimsy pretexts, in order to terrify and confuse; harsh laws are still enacted against filesharing, taking their place in the gradual erosion of our privacy and the bolstering of the surveillance state. All of this is intended to destroy or delay inexorable changes in what it means to create and exchange our creations. If STEAL THIS FILM II proves at all useful in bringing new people into the leagues of those now prepared to think 'after intellectual property', think creatively about the future of distribution, production and creativity, we have achieved our main goal.

It has been an exciting and demanding year for us and we really hope you'll enjoy the work we've done. It would not have been possible without the thousands of donations you have given us. We have a plan for the future and if you would like to continue to support us, go here. Thank you.

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Cyber War

The cyberwar began after a mid-air collision between a US spyplane and a Chinese fighter aircraft on 1 April. The Chinese plane crashed into the sea killing its pilot while the US plane and its crew of 24 was held by China. The crew was released 11 days later. As the US crew were still being held, US hackersbroke into hundreds of Chinese sites, leaving messages such as "We will hate China forever and we will hack its sites". In response, the Honker Union announced it would launch its own electronic graffiti blitz. Tit-for-tat web defacements followed, causing damage to sites run in both countries.

At the time, the Honker Union called on Chinese software engineers to increase internet security on Chinese websites, which had been attacked by American hackers. Correspondents said companies from both countries scrambled to patch up security systems and to temporarily shut down web sites deemed a security risk. A statement by the Honker Union, carried by Chinese portal Chinabyte, says: "Any attacks from this point on have no connection to the Honker Union." The Honker Union of China statement called for improving network security in China, and said that the sites that were violated were mostly small. "Because of this incident, network security in China will see great improvement. At least more people will become serious about building up network security," the statement said.

Gao Yongan, an executive at the Beijing-based network security firm NSFocus, said many web sites would be vulnerable to hacker attacks until network administrators tightened up the security of their servers. Most hacker attacks, including web site defacements, are made through a chain of passive servers that act as springboards. Mr Yongan, who claims to be a reformed hacker, said: "The only way to solve this problem is to improve the global network safety level, and to make sure that no computers are available for attackers to use."