I'm not very big on modern video games. Perhaps it's just a sign of my age but I definitely prefer the old-school, classics especially Ms. Pac Man. Of course, a simple love of video games would never have compelled me to see a documentary about a bunch of Donkey Kong players. What did drive me to see this documentary (despite the fact I couldn't find anyone else even remotely interested in seeing this film) was a fascination with what Dick Hebdige calls subcultures. In the united states, when we use the term ethnic we usually think along racial lines. But, as documentaries like King of Kong, American Hardcore, and Word Wars clearly show, ethnicity is not necessarily something into which you are born. Ethnicity can also be something you choose. The world of competetive videogaming is not unlike any other subculture (whether it be something as mainstream as athletics or as obscure as scrabble): there are unique values, rituals, histories, and a sense of family. I think the filmmakers went a bit too far into trying to carve a clear, linear narrative with a clearly marked good guy and bad guy dichotomy such that the conflict between Billy and Steve (the two main foci of the film) synecdochically stand in for a red-state/blue-state conflict. In other words, the film attempts to mainstream the conflict rather than appreciate the unique, subcultural nature. With all that said, I have to confess that I couldn't help but get caught up the struggles of "the good guy" and quickly found myself rooting against the "bad guy."
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