00:00:00

BOY: I could play nonstop for days on end without getting bored.

     Games just sort of overtake your life in a lot of aspects but, I mean I've past that point now, I think.

TITLE: Biggest Gaming Festival - Insomnia

00:00:34

GRAIG FLETCHER, EVENT ORGANISER:     I mean gaming's huge, it's not just individuals in bedrooms anymore, I mean that's where people believe it is, but these people are coming together online in the hundreds of millions. And here we are at an event that will see forty thousand people through the doors over the weekend to share a belief in gaming. A sense of belonging.

00:01:10

JOE, DAD: Yeah, we were here till four o'clock this morning gaming and we headed home and got up this morning, had a quick shower, a wee bite to eat and back out again. As long as he's not feeling tired or anything like that, he's excited.

CIARAN, 10: My favourite game is Black Ops 2, but when Black Ops 3 comes out it will definitely be that because it looks so good.

00:01:37

CRAIG FLETCHER: When people first come to Insomnia and they don't know what to expect and I'm pretty sure quite a few expect to see a load of teenagers hunched in anoraks over flickering CRT screens, never having seen daylight before. But it really couldn't be further from the truth.

00:01:50

REBECCA: Literally sort of adopt that Avatar that you're playing, and you can be anything and anyone.

TITLE:              Identity

00:01:57

REBECCA: My costume is inspired by Renoa from one of the Final Fantasy games.

ADAM: I designed this based on Archam Asylum, the video game version.

DAVE: I am dressed as the Penguin from the movie, Batman Returns.

00:02:08

MARELLA: It's not your own life like your life could suck but you're this amazing character, it's given me a lot of confidence because I've found characters I want to dress up as, I feel strong and everything else, I feel like I'm them.

00:02:24

SAM: Gaming saved my life, it is wasn't for that I don't think I would be able to deal with the situation I'm in. I hit a rabbit on my motorbike at ninety five miles an hour, I was driving a Yamaha YZF R125 and it's caused me to be paralysed.

00:02:41

     I was a very physical active person before my crash, so it's just any games like on Grand Theft Auto, when I play that I just drive round on a motorbike the whole time. Like first person view on a motorbike driving around swerving in and out of traffic just doing silly things because it reminds me of my past, I can still live that past so but this time I won't die.

00:03:21

AMY, 8: When I play things it makes me feel excited and happy.

ROBERT, 12: Boys enjoy more of violence kind of thing.

AMY, 8: Sometimes I can't be bothered to shoot, and I just pretend I'm dancing.

TITLE:             COMPULSION

00:03:37

REBECCA: When a new game used to come out, me and my friend would sit there for two days and play it straight and stay up for as long as we can and sleep and then keep going.

00:03:45

JAMIE: I used to be in a horrendous pattern, I used to play for around I'd say over thirty hours a week.

REBECCA: I played one night and thought, oh the suns going down and then realised no it's actually the sun rising.

ROBERT: Guns and explosions and killing. Once you get into it, it's very hard to stop, you always just want to keep on playing it. Like there is very few people who can stop.

00:04:22

MAX, 17: It's so addictive and it's so much fun and I think that was probably why I didn't get very much revision done and that's why I didn't do very well in my exams.

00:04:29

MORGAN, 17: I've been diagnosed as being a gaming addict, so yeah, I'm obviously, I'm obviously addicted to it, but I don't know, I don't really play much any more so it's just this event and then that's it, no, it's dangerous because like it's so fun so you don't really recognise it as being an addiction.

00:04:45

MAX: I'm here to have like a four day sess of just gaming over and over and over again for the four days, twenty four hours. I'm here to just do it and then quit for a year so I can get good grades and go to the university I want to.

00:04:58

MORGAN: I'm just giving up that and just going into PE.

DAVE: I've been gaming literally since I could actually type on a keyboard, I've lost years and years of my life playing Frontera League 2 on the Omega and Sensi Soccer. You know, that did more damage to my education than anything else. Girls, drink, no nothing compared to those games and then went to Uni and lost years of my life after that playing Eve Online. Internet space ships are very addictive.

00:05:46

     There was an awful lot of coffee, an awful lot of junk food, an awful lot of takeaways.

00:05:52

ADAM: You want to be able to just reach in, grab a handful, eat and keep playing and I reckon I got to about sixteen and a half seventeen stone.

REBECCA: It's very easy to lose yourself in it, it's like being in another world sometimes and, you know, injured myself because of playing actually, to be honest, so, I have a, I have a wrist injury from playing too much Pokémon.

00:06:12

Q:   Do you have a girlfriend?

JAMIE:                Yeah.

Q:   What does she feel about your gaming?

JAMIE:    She doesn't like it one bit.

00:06:21

DAVE: I should point out now I am an engineer, I do have a proper job now.

TITLE:                Money

CRAIG FLETCHER: Is this the next billion dollar industry in terms of Esports or community, absolutely, and that's bred this whole generation of You Tubers and Streamers that generates the sort of audiences and thousands of people crowding round one person you see today, these are the celebrities of the modern world.

00:06:44

MAX: You Tubers to gamers are what movie stars are for Hollywood.

00:06:50

BOY: In the future I'd like to be an actual games developer.

GIRL: When I'm older I want to be a You Tuber.

TITLE:      Syndicate You Tube Star

TITLE:             Friendship

00:07:18

ADAM: You know every single person here is at least partially into what you're into.

JAMIE: Gaming has made me have a lot more friends, than, than real life things.

00:07:32

REBECCA: Recently I've like been invited to a group that we all play, like a game called Smite together, and basically you know, I just go on every game, like log on, we all talk on team speak together and it's just like, you know, they've welcomed me into their group and if I have a problem you know, they're always there for me and it's like you know, it's a nice community to be part of, you know. I don't have many friends back at home so knowing even there is someone out there that I can talk to just makes you know, things better for me. So, yeah.

00:08:02

SAM: Being able to just turn my PC on in the morning, make my breakfast, have a coffee and be able to talk to my friends from all over the world and, because it's hard for me to get out and around places. I have better connection with my friends in different countries thousands of miles around the world than I do with people I grew up in school and family members even.

00:08:21

LEWIS: Gaming is really viewed as a social activity in a way, but it gave me more friends than going to school has.

00:08:30

REBECCA: It's nice to have people that understand me and like me for who I am and not having to pretend to be someone else just to make friends, you know what I mean.

TANNOY: Your attention please, your attention please this is a stadium announcement, would any persons that have become separated from their friends please make their way to Guest services in the main reception. That's anybody that's become separated from their friends, please make their way to the main reception.

00:08:54

END