Uber Goober (2004) User Reviews

A film about gamers?

[SeptumSin · 7/10 · 24 October 2010]

Well there are many documentaries out about pretty much everything in this day and age. Pinguins, mafia hit-man your neighbor's mop... but of course now they have gone to the gaming industry.

Let me warn you first before I give my review. I am a gamer and this will therefore effect my rating. I am also a table top gamer and this will also effect my rating.

Let me start with the plus side of this film. It was very good for what it covered and managed to show off not only the less offensive aspects of gaming but also try and sate many of the critics of gaming calling it satanic. For those aspects it is a good movie for trying to debunk your relatives that think gamers go off and sacrifice a goat every Friday night.

On the down side the movie tends to cater more to the live action and war gaming crowd almost totally leaving out the table top and card players which make up the vast majority. It still kind of paints gamers as a bit off form mentally but live action does this occasionally. For a non gamer this movie leaves one with more questions than answers. In a way this is good as it gets people asking but it is bad if watched alone.

In the end I believe Uber Goober is a fairly good film about live action and war gamers as well as a good game to try and dispel some of the negativity around gaming but without someone to explain it I would not recommend this to non-gamers.

If you are looking to understand what your child does every Friday night then you need to ask them and don't bother with this film.

Rather insulting

[ChurchillsKGB · 3/10 · 8 May 2011]

As a gamer myself, I found the entire film insulting. It seems as though it was made in the 1980s, not 2004. Especially the fact every interviewee is the stereotypical overweight, long haired, be-speckled anti social nerd. The main points seem to be: First, never tell anyone you play D&D for they will ostracize you forever. Your boss will fire you, your friends will disown you, and your spouse will leave you.

Second, there is no such thing as girl gamers. My own gaming group contains not one but two attractive female gamers. To state that finding a girl that plays D&D is a fantasy is simply wrong.

The entire part about religion was pointless. There was no weight to either side give by the filmmakers. Simply reporting every viewpoint is lazy. I especially like the guy who tries to convert his gaming group because it's "like Jesus with the alcoholics and prostitutes." Is it really? Same goes for the suicide part. Overwhelmingly cover the viewpoints that state it's very dangerous and a gateway to violence and suicide, and then 30 seconds of somewhat supported facts that render the previous 10 minutes wrong. Again, what's the point? I'm not even going to get into the LARPing part. It's just a further argument about these fantasy settings magically make people unable to distinguish reality.

On the whole, as a fully functioning member of society with a real job and everything, it completely misses the point that it is entirely possible to be a gamer and be "normal." It's quite easy, in fact. This documentary seems like it was made from outside the gaming world using the already prejudiced lenses of social assumptions. Come make a movie about my group instead, it's a fair more honest and average perspective.

A delightful look at the "gamer" subculture

[ppecena-1 · 9/10 · 31 July 2004]

Uber Goober is a delightful, often funny, and well-done look at the world of "gamers". The director begins with the historical miniature gamers. They come across as the most normal, and indeed they apparently consider themselves at the top of the "Goober" (gamer)social hierarchy. The film then shifts one step further away from reality and shows us the world of people who play role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. The final stage is the truly odd world of live action role-playing. In all honestly, the live action role-players seem to be having the most fun as they dress up like unicorns and hit each other with foam rubber swords in the park.

The documentary includes some clips of people who oppose role-playing games.

Some man-on-the-street interviews also show how the general public views these forms of gaming. But at the end of the film, the viewer leaves with the impression that these "goobers" are just a bunch of folks who like to have goofy, harmless fun.

This was a nicely done documentary.

Excellent

[the_judge_texas · 10/10 · 11 December 2004]

Brilliant debut documentary. A gentle, affectionate humorous look at a misunderstood and often-reviled sub-culture, the gamers. Not as sarcastic or obviously tongue-in-cheek as Trekkies was to Star Trek fans. Gamers are presented as imaginative, goofy, friendly, sociable and somewhat anal-retentive. Demented and sad, but social. The LARPers (Live Action Role-Players) are sweet, but cringe-inducingly earnest as they weep for fallen characters or batter each other senseless with foam blades in a "Braveheart"-like battle-scene, complete with crashing soundtrack.