The King of Kong

G4 has been advertising the hell out of this documentary for the past month, so when it premiered last night, I dvr'd it and watched it today. It turned out to be pretty good, if not a bit scary. As the title implies, the movie tracks two competitive Donkey Kong players and their respective bids to be World Champion. My favorite part of the movie is when Wiebe is trying to videotape a world record attempt. His kids starts yelling in the background that he needs help right when Steve is set to beat Billy Mitchell's record. Steve tells him to hang on a sec, but the kid will have none of that. He yells, "Daddy! Wipe my butt!"

Haha, been there, wiped that.

I don't think the movie or the people in it have much in common with video gaming as we know it today. At first I thought Steve Wiebe's obsession matched that of WoW eng-game raiders. Really though, the only thing they have in common is that they're video games and they consume a lot of discretionary time. WoW end-game raiding requires social skills, planning, and scheduling outside the game. Donkey Kong is strictly a solitary endeavor. I'm not trying to take anything away from Wiebe or Mitchell (who comes off as kind of a dick in the movie), it's just I didn't find their gaming to be as insightful as I first suspected.