July 26, 2005

Modders

Last night I went to see the 1995 classic Hackers at Movies of Mass Destruction at the Re-Bar. While it was a fine movie for its time, the do-it-yourself sensibilities of the new millennium call for a sequel. I present my movie pitch for Modders.

A couple of geeks are sitting around an Alienware pc playing Big Car Heist, the latest rpg from Punkster Games. One of them, Tim Wade, a.k.a. Pop-I, wonders if there are any hidden games to be unlocked. Mike Bradford, a.k.a Vitamin Be, discovers a hack that enables them to unlock a secret sex mini-game hidden in the code. They decide to publish their mod under the name “Soy macchiato” on the net. That’s when their troubles begin. Parents of young children across the country are outraged that their kids could access graphic sex on an “M” rated game, so they write angry letters to Punkster Games. Punkster agrees to change the rating to “X”, but the C.E.O., Peter Gaston, a.ka. Blue Crush, decides to get revenge. He invests some of his millions of dollars earned from pre-teen sales of Big Car Heist to pay off the F.B.I. to spy on Pop-I and Vitamin Be. Since Pop-I’s wireless network has an easily guessable password, the F.B.I. are able to monitor their web surfing habits. Pop-I is arrested for publishing a mod for Robotron and Vitamin Be escapes to work at a technical support desk in India. Also, all of the characters ride around on Segways and a climatic scene will involve the phrase “mod the planet.”

Angelina Jolie is rumored to be “interested,” but could not be reached for comment.

* Filed by Eric at 10:54 pm under Arts and Entertainment,Technology
* 2 Comments

2 Responses to “Modders”

  1. mustardpie
    July 27th, 2005 | 9:47 am

    Don’t leave out the dramatic segway chase with a couple explosions and/or people slamming into walls and poles!

  2. Vitamin Be
    July 27th, 2005 | 11:21 am

    I am thrilled with this pitch in a way that I haven’t been lately in my career. Let’s have your people talk to my people and set up a concept meeting, preferrably in a dark bar of questionable repuation.

    I especially like the ambiguity in how the characters are modding the game by providing access to content already there. I’m not sure how to work in unfeasible technical feats, but I’m sure we can use some computer graphics in postproduction to generate impressive-looking interfaces.

    PS — Wouldn’t anyone clever and devious enough to discover secret sex games use only encrypted transports for traffic passing through a dubiously-secured wireless network??

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