King of Kong is a very
interesting film. The documentary explores the world of competitive arcade
gaming, a subculture that really no one knows much about. To link
this week reading and the movie, in James Newman, “Everybody hates
videogames”, says that video gamers are people who are antisocial and that
videogames teach us nothing of value. But in the movie we see how the place
Twin Galaxies is like a haven for gamers and that the people involve, form a
community in which all relate.
The movie portrays the
competitive gaming culture in a funny and at the same time serious way, making
several allusions to other movies. At one point in the movie I felt I was
watching The Godfather of arcade videogames, because everyone
in Twin Galaxies were calling Billy Mitchell to tell him how Steve Wiebe was
playing Donkey Kong and the score he was achieving. At the same time we see
Steve Wiebe playing some sort of Rocky, being the underdog trying
to beat Mitchell’s world record.
Society has portrayed
videogames and the people that play them as a group that do not relate to the
world. I think the film was successful in showing us that video gamers are
human beings which feelings and ambitions like the rest of people in the world.
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