Video Game High School Analysis

Video Game High School was a Kickstarter idea developed by Freddie Wong that is shown on YouTube and also later taken by Netflix to stream on their site.

VGHS is about a budding gamer that gets into VGHS after defeating a first class gamer and follows his journey through the school. Early on we were able to identify the characters and their roles within the first two episodes as they were only 10 minutes long each, making the story line develop quicker.

This show appeals to a lot of people as it has elements of comedy, drama and interests, such as gaming, obviously. It also stars YouTubers such iJustine and Harvey Morenstein so fans of theirs will start to watch the show. Although the show is low budget and doesn’t have the most amazing actors in it, therefore making it cringe, there’s something about the show that because it’s so bad, it is so good that you keep on watching the cult TV show.

The Kickstarter (Freddie Wong, 2012) was an obvious success gaining pledges of $5 to $50 to $10,000 for which 2 people had pledged. In total, the show had 5561 pledgers gaining $273,725 which was a lot higher than the intended amount of the $75,000 goal, making it an overwhelming success. The show ran for 3 seasons from 2012-2014 with hopes of a fourth season returning.

Merrill Barr of Forbes.com, compared the show to the likes of Game Of Thrones and Sons Of Anarchy stating ‘While expected from the likes of a Sons of Anarchy or Game of Thrones, it’s amazing to think Video Game High School has managed to achieve that same level of dramatic tension by expanding on just a few key characters traits within its main cast.’ Proving that it is more than just your average teen cult web series and actually has levels of drama and seriousness to it which will help it appeal to a wider audience.

References:

Freddie Wong. (2012). Video Game High School. Available: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/freddiew/video-game-high-school. Last accessed 29/10/17.

Merrill Burr. (2014). Review: ‘Video Game High School’ Promises a Great Final Year for the VGHS Gang. Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillbarr/2014/10/06/review-video-game-high-school-promises-a-great-final-year-for-the-vghs-gang/#19a900687e83. Last accessed 29/10/17.