I'm writing a story about competitive gaming in my film screenwriting class and have some questions.

[PlatinumPad]

I don't really want to get too much into the plot but I have a few questions I feel like asking people out of curiosity. You don't have to answer them all.

1. Would you prefer the main character be west coast or east coast?

2. Do you think a series of fighting game competitions can make a good sports movie?

3. Do you think non-gamers could feel introduced into the gaming world by a movie made by someone very familiar with gaming.

4. Would you be interested in a movie about competitive gaming or would you feel it would be invasive to your culture?

5. How do you feel about the gender of the protagonist in a story about gaming?

6. Between fighting games, mobas and first person shooters which do you feel would make the best movie?

I will probably come up with more questions as I go through the this class.

 

[skull person]

1. East.

2.

3. Yes.

Watch Valve's "Free to Play" film.
I've talked to people who didn't know anything about competitive gaming that appreciated it a lot more after seeing that documentary.
There's also people inside the film who shift their views which is explained in the interviews.

4.

5. Male.

6. Whatever one has the most money, largest crowds, hypest events.

 

[Psychopath]

1. Why does this matter? As far as getting the most information (both second-hand and first-hand), go with whichever is more local to you to make filming easier to coordinate.
2. Do people like watching Rocky films? Same concept, just a bit more abstract than physical sport.
3. Depends on how you ease them into the game you're focusing on. It's a lot more difficult to get someone to understand a game of Civilization than it would be to get them to understand Worms. If you can present all of the overhead information in a way that is both clear and concise or paced in such a way that it doesn't feel jarring to jump into your story, I think you can introduce a new demographic to most genres.
4. Depends entirely on how it's written. One of the last things anyone wants to see is writing that's blatantly patronizing and misrepresenting the culture.
5. This feels like it shouldn't be a question. A player is a player no different from you or I. Yet at the same time, different players face different real-world struggles outside of the game itself while interacting with the surrounding community. Sex and gender aren't the only factors into how individuals interact with the community. I feel that it'd depend on what angle you're going for with the writing, and as stated above: how it's written makes a big impact. It feels like one of those things where the focus shouldn't be on some singular facet of their character.
6. As far as lowest common denominator goes, the FPS is probably the simplest to write for since its mechanics are based in the real-world knowledge of guns: point at other guy and pull. It's when you start incorporating fantasy mechanics such as unrealistic weaponry and advanced movement that the line blurring "easy" and "difficult" to present is torn down entirely.
MOBA is probably the most complicated to introduce as a film due to the overwhelming about of overhead information that goes into how these types of games work at a core level and how all of the character classes interact with one another and the world. If you're up for a challenge, this can be considered.

Both of these categories have 1 big thing over the FG: a very distinct team structure. Very rarely will you find instances of competitive FPS or MOBA where each player is out for themselves a la Doom deathmatch. Team dynamics are easy for viewers to understand but can be difficult to showcase what sort of comms are going on in between these players and what's going through their heads. However, having so many screens to worry about makes it difficult to coordinate what's going on outside of just watching the team's collective reactions to making plays and managing their opponent's team.
On the flipside, FG is typically going to be 1 player vs 1 player with all of the important information on the same screen. There's no comms to worry about, most of it can be deduced from watching player's facial expressions as the game progresses. Plus this makes it a lot easier for commentators and spectators alike to have their eyes on what's going on and get hyped accordingly.

Regarding what Skar said in response, I'd disagree. It's harder to get a good story written out of maybe the top 16 of a 500-participant tourney with big money. While it's definitely hype, there's a lot of missed information as you get no sense of scale for what the battle through pools was like and you'll typically gleam over all of the underdogs who never made it far enough to even interact with your focal personalities. Combo Breaker's scale is probably a good metric if you want to go off recent memory. It was a big enough turnout without feeling overwhelming. There was a sense of community rather than a sense of crowding. Just my two cents on the matter.

I don't know how focused you want to get on the individuals rather than the collective community in competition, though. So who's to say what's right or wrong for your script.

 

[Beta Ray Bill]

1. I'd rather he be from bumf@&k nowhere. His origins shouldn't be of import. Unless you feel you can give him more personality and background by basing him in personally familiar settings. But then you run the typical Marty Stu risk. So it depends on the writing.

2. It depends on the writing.

3. It depends on the writing.

4. Personally, though I've always loved gaming, I've also always treated it as a guilty pleasure. Watching others' attempt to present gaming culture as "cool" and "popular" just seems... contrary to the nature of gaming. But that's obviously just my perspective. Still, when I was a young boy, 5-12, video game movies blew me away every time. Despite how terrible they were =p

5. How do I FEEL? I feel as though this obviously shouldn't be of any importance at all. But that's not how the internet community operates, is it? So just stick to a male protagonist to avoid a whole slew of BS.

6. Fighting games, though mobas are so popular now that they might work as well. Don't make a movie for the FPS crowd. FPS's were my "main" before I got into skullgirls, and I only realized this after getting glimpses of the FG community that before, for more than a decade I actually hated my own community. I compare them to raving packs of wolves. If you're part of a pack, they'll treat you nice enough, but all the other wolves will tear you apart. And I don't mean to make them sound "cool" by comparing them to wolves, they're more like wild dogs, buncha selfish douchebags out for themselves. Yes, I realize not everyone is cast in the same mold, but I could still write droves on why the FPS community is a bad community so tl;dr fps's suck stick to fg's / mobas's

The only time I ever really felt a sense of teamwork and community was back in the Tactical Gaming servers for BF2142, because they forced you to Squad up and have your Mic ready or you got kicked.

Oh and Natural Selection 2. In that game as a marine, everyone either pulls together with full cooperation or you ruthlessly lose every single time.

 

[Mr Peck]

6. Between fighting games, mobas and first person shooters which do you feel would make the best movie?

As someone who used to play at FPS tournaments before moving to fighting games, fighting game events feel so different to FPS/RTS/'esports' events that I don't know where to begin. I think FGC events are a billion times better than esports events, but you should do whatever speaks to you personally.

If you have the time to watch two feature-length documentaries, go see Paris Is Burning and Pageant. They're both about the same subject on the surface, but they cover two completely different communities from completely different backgrounds and it results in two movies that feel nothing alike.