10 Video Game Documentaries Every Gamer Should Watch

Indie Game follows the lives and struggles of Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, the creators of independent game sensation Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish, who created the hotly-discussed puzzle-platformer Fez, and Jonathan Blow, whose game Braid is amongst the indie gaming world's original keystone titles. The film delves deeply into the incredibly intimate and time-consuming process of producing indie video games, as well as the philosophies and methods that separate these titles from mainstream works. Indie Game is available to watch on Netflix.

GTFO is a candid look at the gaming world's long and often-dismissed history with discrimination and misogyny, featuring the personal accounts, research, and opinions of several prominent female gamers and academics. You can purchase GTFO on iTunes.

Ecstasy of Order charts the progress of several record-holding Tetris masters preparing to compete in the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship, as well as their interactions and personal histories with the game and beyond. The film is available for purchase here.

Second Skin explores the popularity and effect of MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), such as World of Warcraft, focusing specifically on the questions: "Why do these gamers wish to assume new identities?" and "How has it impacted their lives?" You can buy Second Skin on Amazon.com.

The King of Kong focuses on one of gaming's most intense rivalries, which is, in turn, centered around one of history's most notoriously difficult video games: the original Donkey Kong. It's a David-and-Goliath story of giant vs. newcomer, and one that does not disappoint. You can watch The King of Kong on Hulu.com.

Chasing Ghosts is a film about the Golden Age of video gaming, and more importantly, the Golden Age of arcades and arcade culture in the 1980s. You can watch Chasing Ghosts on Hulu.com.

Video Games: The Movie is a film about, well, video games. But more specifically, the documentary digs deeply into how games are made, marketed, and consumed, both past and present, and from the perspectives of game developers, publishers, and players. You can watch Video Games: The Movie on Netflix.

Atari: Game Over chronicles the history of video game giant Atari and sets out to prove or debunk the myth of a mass-dump of old Atari 2600 game cartridges of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial that were allegedly tossed into a landfill in the 1980s. You can watch Atari: Game Over on Netflix.

The Smash Brothers is an online documentary series that followed the lives of several competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee players and delved into the history and culture of the competitive Smash Bros. community as a whole. You can watch the entire series on YouTube.

Free to Play (produced by the gaming company Valve) follows three professional gamers from around the world as they compete for a million dollar prize in the first Dota 2 International Tournament, and reveals how their commitment to Dota 2 has impacted all other aspects of their lives. Free to Play is free to watch via Valve's YouTube account.