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Video Game Documentary Stirs Up Controversy
Game Master writes "Billy Mitchell has long been one of the gaming industry's most recognizable players. He appears in a new documentary, King of Kong, which has been screening to very positive reviews at film festivals around the country, and has been picked up by a major motion picture distributor. The movie, which portrays Billy in a very negative light, has come under fire recently in an article posted at MTV.com, where Billy and others spoke out about what they believed to be an unfair portrayal in the film. 'Ultimately, the documentary hasn't settled the Mitchell/Wiebe debate, which has been going on for nearly a half-decade. Mitchell, Day, Mruczek and several other arcade aficionados are now compiling a response to the film, a timeline they plan to post on TwinGalaxies.com in June. An early draft of the document lists [what they refer to as] KOK fiction, like, "Billy Mitchell will stop at nothing in order to keep his DK score," and promises facts that will prove those assertions wrong.' The end of the article seems to imply that legal action may follow."
I've read this summary six or seven times and I still have no fucking idea what it's supposed to mean.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
The guy who formally set the world record for Donkey Kong (considered a stand-up guy) feels he was unfaithfully portrayed in the new movie King of Kong which apparently paints him as a bit of dick (despite the fact that he plays himself).
Sigs are for suckers.
Never heard of the guy. Why is this relevant? It's a Donkey Kong high score, for christ's sake.
We're all going to die. i intend to deserve it.
I mean, everyone who gives up after 50.000 at that game MUST be a GIGANTIC *loser*.
shrug.
With great power comes great electricity bills.
Take them to the hottest club in Miami, LA, and Vegas. Have each one try to pick up the hot chicks using their DK story. Person who gets laid the most wins. I mean shouldn't be hard, 1+ million points in DK.....chicks dig that
Since the responses so far seem to not understand, let me put it in context. I saw this at the SXSW Film Festival in March. It was one of the best films of the festival, and one of the best documentaries I've seen.
This is a documentary about Steve Wiebe, a down-on-his luck man who tries to achieve the high score in Donkey Kong. He picked this particular game almost at random, noting that the old high score had stood for almost 20 years. The old score was set by Billy Mitchell as a teenager in the early 80s.
Twin Galaxies is the organization that "officially" tracks world record scores in video games. (I say officially because they are recognized in the field, and because Guinness "subcontracts" this record tracking to them.)
In the film, Billy Mitchell is not portrayed as an asshole. Billy Mitchell is an asshole. The film just portrays him in his natural habitat. It also shows how Twin Galaxies has its own "Good Ol' Boy Network" to identify who it trusts regarding scoring. This comes into play because most high scores are earned at homes, where the proof is a video camera pointed at the screen. Theoretically, someone could modify their boards so that the game acts differently, thereby cheating to win.
Wiebe is portrayed as a very nice, down-to-earth man. I have no reason to believe otherwise. He seems the same way in person. And yet, his attempts are continually scorned, while Mitchell's new, shady high scores are immediately accepted without question. Put this together with Mitchell's on-screen arrogance, and you'll agree that these documentary film makers filmed more drama than a weeknight on TNT.
In my history of video games book (which I just happened to be reading during SXSW), on the Donkey Kong page, you'll find the signature of man who has earned the highest score ever in Donkey Kong. It's signed Steve Wiebe.
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If you see the movie:
At one point a film of Billy Mitchell's game is submitted to Twin Galaxies, and almost immediately accepted. Yet, the film has static and glitches that make it hard to see the score, and at one point the score seems to jump while covered by static. After the movie, during Q&A, the film makers noted that they have viewed the original tape of the game (not just copies), and the static and jump are present there as well.
This wouldn't matter so much if Twin Galaxies hadn't already explained up how strict they were when judging tapes, and rejected Wiebe tapes with much less uncertainty.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
"Billy Mitchell has long been one of the gaming industries most recognizable players..." Really? Maybe I'm not that clued in, but I can't find anyone who knows who this guy is-- and we do a lot of gaming around these parts (and most of us can remember Donkey Kong when it was 'in the arcade'). That doesn't mean they can't make a documentary about him or whatever, but a little more context would help.
A competition where even the winners are losers.
Deleted
Someone please rescue me from trying to wrap my brain around why this is important enough to care about.
TLF
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Macky (Shotaro Makisumi) or the Mao brothers on Rubik's Cube?
Buckethead on guitar?
Thresh (Dennis Fong) on Quake?
Maurice LaMarche or Billy West for voice acting?
Sure, we might have heard of these people - I assume the last one is a real gimme for the /. crowd - but not everyone has, and I think that's precisely why a documentary about a person like this is interesting. It gives a chance to look at something we would not see otherwise.
Unfortunately, this is also an opportunity for objectivity, perception, editing, and storytelling to step all over each other's toes. I would have to assume the editor and the director think that they have either a) correctly represented Billy Mitchell or b) represented Billy Mitchell in such a way that they will actually sell tickets to a documentary. March of the Penguins? Trekkies & Trekkies 2? I'm sure they aren't the only three documentaries on the last 10 years. Good luck selling tickets to the others though.
i can't wait until they start making documentaries like these about wow players..
I know what the problem is!
People are trying to claim that gaming is a sport!
I'm a big gamer, too, but it's not exactly physically grueling.
We're all going to die. i intend to deserve it.
I never knew video gaming had so much drama! ^_^
"There exists an electron microscope so powerful it can see the atoms, the very building blocks of matter that control the universe. If I were to use that microscope, I would not be able to locate my interest in your problem. Good day!"
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