The Angry Video Game Nerd Speaks!

With the advent of online communities like MySpace and YouTube, directors, professional and amateur, have the potential to reach vast and constantly expanding audiences. If their videos resonate with viewers, distribution of the material may turn "viral", extending the network of viewers and creating a source of celebrity.

In the world of online videos, eye-catching, humourous and sometimes painful material exerts the strongest pull with viewers, as seen in the Badger Badger video, the Numa Song and the hordes of Jackass-style stunt videos.

Director James Rolfe is on the brink of such notoriety with his series entitled The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN), in which he lampoons video games from the late 80s and early 90s.  Based at ScrewAttack and available through Cinemassacre, the AVGN has spread rapidly and has become a hit. I asked James about his films and the wave of popularity he is enjoying.

Danny Smooth: Hello, James! According to your webpage, you've recently got a surge of hits (over one million in October 2006) because of your series of videos entitled "The AVGN". Why do you think these videos have stuck a chord with the online community?

James Rolfe: Yeah, it's crazy. I got 3 million hits during December. When I first created the "Angry Nintendo Nerd" [now known as the AVGN] in 2004, it was just an in-joke for my friends. I had no idea that so many other people would find it so amusing. These are targeted at mature gamers, people my age who grew up in the time of NES & SNES, but I guess everyone's interested in the past. Somehow, it just spread like wildfire. I abandoned most of my other film projects for the meantime, to try and keep up with the nerd videos, since people keep wanting more of it.

Article Author: Danny Smooth

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