I've tried watching three of them, found them all pretty "meh". Not completely dreadful, but I'd never recommend them to anyone. From my own experiences, all my friends have heard about The Gamers but generally have a similar opinion too.
If I do decide to recommend RPG themed films to people, I go for the following:
Of course, tastes for shows are definitely very individual (eye of the beholder), so of course the following is just my opinion...
Especially because of my research work, I have seen a lot of very insulting movies about gamers, most were probably not made by RPGers, while The Gamers movies by Dead Gentlemen and Zombie Orpheus seemed to be labors of love, with a lot of tongue in cheek of course, and one of the few that was not being downright mean-spirited about gamers.
* There is a terrible "Gamers" move by Sideshow Productions, that is absolutely horrible and mocking of gamers. Any chance this is being confused by some?
The movies I think have been to varying degrees poor to terrible representations of gamers, and found to be anywhere from just boring and focusing on too many of the inculcated dysfunctional negative stereotypes about gamers (that research has for the most part disproved as far as the larger gamer population as a whole) to downright horrible and mocking (they vary between tabletop RPG, LARP, and computer-based RPG):
* The Dungeon Masters
* Role Models
* Lloyd the Conqueror
* Screw It, I'll play make believe
* Dungeon Crawl
* THAC0
* The Assemblage of the Crystal Sphere
* Second Skin
* Monster Camp
* Unicorn City
* Darkon
* UberGoober
Not as bad:
* Gamerz with a z was better than those in the above list, but didn't enjoy as much as The Gamers.
* Knights of Badassdom, I actually liked the first part, until the horror film part kicked in, and the butchered editing that happened with the release.
While not shows dedicated to RPG, representations of RPG in TV and movies has also for the most part been further reinforcing of the inculcated negative stereotypes about RPGers (Big Bang Theory, Commmunity, etc.).
The D&D movies, while gaming based in origin, don't exactly work as representations of role-playing gaming itself. There are many fantasy films that could be discussed along those lines. Of course the First D&D movie was a disappointment for many.
I have not heard of Astropia, I will check that out. Thanks Fasckira!
I found Unicorn city boring, and also yet again propagating so many negative stereotypes.
Definitely welcome additional suggestions from others.
Sorry to hear that The Gamers movies didn't resonate for you, it does seem to vary between folks.
I was actually in (2 small roles) the third movie Hands of Fate. As a "Cass Fanboy" (tall one in the tan sweater), and as Pirate #2 (hauled the GM's girlfriend to the pirate jail).
While the production quality of the first Gamers was rough, they were film students then and just roughing out the concept. The production quality has been better with each successive film. For me, what is the most fun is all the gamer in-jokes, and having gamed sine 1979, it will take a long time before they use up all the potential material.
Relatively inexperienced and non-RPGers really don't get much of it, even if they are mildly entertained, but veteran RPGers get far more of that. Of course, whether that connects for them, definitely varies.
The third The Gamers movie they did a great job from a technical perspective, but for me was a little disappointing, though still well worth watching and very good production quality. It was personally a little disappointing because it was more a mix of RPG and collectible card games, and I personally haven't ever liked the whole CCG/TCG thing, while fans of that medium seem to have liked it very much, as you have indicated. Some people have commented how it strongly connected for them because of the specific card game and the issues represented therein.
The extended edition of Hands of Fate I think is even better than the regular cut, it has more time spent on relationships and other interesting parts, that has also made it more accessible and enjoyable for non-gamers that have watched it. I agree about the almost "preachy" feeling of the third one, it feels more like an extended info-mercial for the card game, while the extended felt like a more well-rounded story.
The cyber-based short, Natural One, was fun, and they just tried a Kickstarter for a sequel, but not enough people knew about it, so they had to cancel it unfortunately.
