video+games,+a+lifestyle

  Everybody wants to be the best at something. Some people are amazing athletes, others are artists, and others are really good at math problems. Some are just amazing at video games.

// The King of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters // outlines such competitors. In the film, Steve Wiebe challenges Billy Mitchell, the champion of the arcade game Donkey Kong. After losing his job as Boeing engineer, Wiebe sets a goal of achieving the highest score recorded in the history of the game, 1,006,600 points. Both Mitchell and Wiebe play in different places around the country, ranging from the privacy of their own garages and public arcades. They go to competitions in Las Vegas amidst fans and fanatics and bask in the stardom that comes with being really, really, really, good at something. Regardless of who comes out on top, the film illustrates how valiantly people fight for video game titles and the respect these titles elicit from people in the know.

 It isn't just old school Donkey Kong nerds that vie for positions on top of high score charts. More modern games such as Halo 2 attract competitors, too. In a tournament hosted by Major League Gaming in Chicago, experts, amateurs, and tons of fans showed up to face off in battle. Ben Jackson says he does it for the girls. He makes thousands of dollars from winning tournaments, hosts online gaming lessons for ridiculous sums of money with a company he founded. And he's 19. Anyone can be a hero when it comes to the gaming world. But apparently, this kid isn't even the best.

 Tournaments like the Major League Gaming Tournament show people outside of the realm of video games that people eat this shit up! Competitors can live off of the spoils, fans can gain satisfaction from being near to gaming heros, and the heros can bask in the glory of being awesome, even if they were once morbidly obese and didn't leave the house (as Jackson was before he found video games to change his life). For some, video games are purely entertainment and don't amount to much more than fun in the basement playing Mario Kart. For others, it is a lifestyle. And they're pretty bad ass! http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/movies/17kong.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hruby/071008