Author Topic: King of Kong and other video game documentaries (Read 8064 times)

S-U-P-E-R · « **on:** March 28, 2009, 03:25:48 AM »

I saw "King of Kong" on netflix-instant and thought I would take a bit and watch it, combining my love of documentaries and video games. (I unironically watched the documentary on the Helvetica font btw) If you have netflix, you should be able to stream it on your pc or 360 or whatever.

Quote

When Steve Wiebe got laid off, he turned to the classic arcade game Donkey Kong for solace; soon, he decided to challenge Billy Mitchell's long-standing record score. So began the bitter rivalry that lies at the heart of this curiously compelling documentary. Providing a history of competitive video gaming and a look at some of the key players, The King of Kong is at its best when revealing just how far Mitchell will go to retain his crown.

It's easily the best game documentary I've seen, and it's wildly hilarious/gripping/sad/etc. It paints Billy Mitchell as a major douchebag and perhaps deservedly so. (watch the part carefully where his Billy's goon looks emotionally destroyed after Steve rolls into his first live event. It is hilarious what you can read on his face.)

Seen any good documentaries/programs/etc on games lately? Share 'em if you got 'em.

vudu · « **Reply #1 on:** March 28, 2009, 10:32:33 AM »

Technically, we already have a thread about this.

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #2 on:** March 28, 2009, 12:05:13 PM »

yearg. I even searched!

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 28, 2009, 01:54:52 PM »

Quote from: S-U-P-E-R on March 28, 2009, 12:05:13 PM

yearg. I even searched!

The search function sucks major amounts of ass.

Anyways, I agree this movie was great. I also agree that Billy's goon was hilarious. My favorite part was when he kept going around the arcade going "There might be a death screen soon" like the good little goon that he is XD .

It sucked that Billy never truly challenged Steve face to face. In fact, Billy acted like a coward, never truly facing his rival and opponent, especially after all the talk about having cajones and such.

Khushrenada · « **Reply #4 on:** March 28, 2009, 07:27:59 PM »

But Billy did play a perfect game of Pac-Man and you can't take that away from him. Billy is king.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 28, 2009, 08:34:33 PM »

Quote from: Khushrenada on March 28, 2009, 07:27:59 PM

But Billy did play a perfect game of Pac-Man and you can't take that away from him. Billy is king.

Yeah, but the movie was about him being challenged to the game of DONKEY KONG. It doesn't matter if you are a God at any other game, if you refuse to face a challenge then what's the point?

Billy was obviously threatened by Steve. But he also knew that he had the support of many people. He could have faced Steve head on. But he pretty much ignored him, and when he tried to outdo Steve he didn't do it face to face, he made a video that jumped at odd places.

He talked the talk, he needed to walk the walk.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2009, 11:56:10 PM »

Quote from: pap64 on March 28, 2009, 01:54:52 PM

The search function sucks major amounts of ass.

Maybe that's because it was made by the same company who gave us the X360 and its red rings of death?

Zing!

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #7 on:** March 29, 2009, 12:36:00 AM »

what

oh yeah, since the documentary, it seems like they've traded the lead a few times. Billy holds the record currently by only a couple hundred points.

I've seen some other documentaries on games but they're really boring/outdated. Are there any others out there? I just realized I never saw Bang the Machine, I'm gonna look around for it now.

edit: I guess it exists but it was never really released

Khushrenada · « **Reply #8 on:** March 29, 2009, 01:11:28 AM »

Hate to burst your bubble but the movie spliced footage they wanted you to see and made a story based on that to make a hero and a villain. The whole story isn't presented there. While I hate to quote Wikipedia, they do mention discrepencies about the film and actual events. This is an interesting fact as well:

"Director Seth Gordon has also admitted to skewing facts and altering time-lines during various interviews concerning the movie. Through careful editing and instigation, Seth Gordon was able to create a storyline loosely based on reality. However, Gordon contends that the movie would have been "darker" had he not played with the facts; a 2008 interview/article by Retro Gamer Magazine, 52nd issue, with Billy Mitchell, Walter Day, and Steve Wiebe suggest otherwise."

I'm not saying the whole movie is false or that there was a head to head live competition never shown between the two. Billy could have rose to the challenge better. But the movie made things appear more worse than they are. Heck, I bet Billy probably didn't have any idea that the movie was about Wiebe trying to break his record. He probably just thought it was a documentary about competitive gaming and was probably asked a wide variety of questions and was filmed doing many things involving that. For instance, we are shown him sending the old lady to play Q-Bert. That was him being involved in his competitive gaming community.

In fact, that is alluded to in this interview:

AVC: You thought it was going to be a more direct documentary about video gaming?

BM: The truth is, I never knew it was even going to be about Donkey Kong, I thought it was competitive video gaming as a whole. But the truth is, none of us are ever mean. None of us are ever vindictive, and we've never had a mean-spirited movie or story or film done about us, so this was a first.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 29, 2009, 02:14:39 AM »

Even if I do agree that its likely the film was edited so that a clear villain and a clear hero was portrayed there WERE many instances in which Billy showed some of his nastier sides, and I doubt the film's director spliced those scenes up.

The fact that he never faced Steve is there. He was given many opportunities to face his competition and he clearly avoided them. Once more, I doubt that was edited and manipulated.

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #10 on:** March 29, 2009, 02:27:36 AM »

I did have a hunch there was a little bit of a skewing, but that can only do so much. Harken the lols:

Quote

But the truth is, none of us are ever mean

Come on.

vudu · « **Reply #11 on:** March 29, 2009, 11:18:05 AM »

Was the movie skewed quite a bit? Fo' sure!

Does that change the fact that Billy Mitchell is a complete tool who says things that make him sound like a pompous ass? Not a bit!

UltimatePartyBear · « **Reply #12 on:** March 30, 2009, 01:23:44 PM »

The only such documentary I've seen is Chasing Ghosts, which I lucked into seeing in the listings on Showtime (I think). It covered the entire competitive gaming scene going back to the start of Twin Galaxies, including Billy Mitchell. It seemed pretty neutral to me. If anything, it may have skewed just how sad some of them seemed, but I really don't think it would be necessary to make people who obsess over game scores look sad. Oddly, at the same time I felt like the presentation was very sympathetic to them.

I think Billy Mitchell gets a bad rap because he actually looks like a villain (from an early nineties Jackie Chan movie, perhaps). The hair, beard, and preppy ties make him look like he takes everything way too seriously.

NWR_DrewMG · « **Reply #13 on:** April 02, 2009, 09:28:55 AM »

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/02/steve-wiebe-to-go-for-donkey-kong-hi-score-at-e3/

Go Steve!

UncleBob · « **Reply #14 on:** April 02, 2009, 07:59:02 PM »

Before you look too deeply into KoK and the Hero vs. Villain vibe of the film, you should read through this: http://forums.twingalaxies.com/viewforum.php?f=86

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #15 on:** April 03, 2009, 02:27:25 AM »

Quote from: UltimatePartyBear on March 30, 2009, 01:23:44 PM

The only such documentary I've seen is Chasing Ghosts, which I lucked into seeing in the listings on Showtime (I think).

Netflix doesn't have this in dvd or digital form, nor does google. Can anyone point me to somewhere to watch this?

UltimatePartyBear · « **Reply #16 on:** April 03, 2009, 12:31:41 PM »

Apparently there's been no DVD release or any talk of one. It'll be on Showtime again on the 7th, according to this page.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #17 on:** April 04, 2009, 09:25:21 PM »

Quote from: vudu on March 29, 2009, 11:18:05 AM

Was the movie skewed quite a bit? Fo' sure!

Does that change the fact that Billy Mitchell is a complete tool who says things that make him sound like a pompous ass? Not a bit!

ALL documentaries are skewed to a certain extend. Their main purpose is to try and drive a point across, and educate the audience on that.

If the documentary is about vegetarianism the film will make the meat industry look cruel, barbaric and heartless. If the documentary is about the government they will try to make it look really, really bad. Finally, if the documentary is about an up and coming talent they will make it so that the person faces a rough and even evil world.

King of Kong fits the description of the latter. Its about how a middle aged, hard working man with a family was able to beat a legend at his own game several times and what he faced in order to achieve it. They made a great job with this and I am sure they exaggerated some of Billy Mitchell's parts.

But even so, there were some scenes which showed a cold hearted side to Billy, and many of these scenes he did on his own. IE, no one edited the scene, no one messed with it, he dug his own hole.

Not saying he is the root of all evil, but he is no saint either. He is very business savy and is the type to step on anyone just to get to the top.

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #18 on:** April 05, 2009, 06:35:27 AM »

I read all of Walter Day's comments on King of Kong and he seems to imply that Billy and Steve got along great for a while at least, and then something happened to sour their relationship and he never said what and we never see it in King of Kong either. Can anybody explain what happened?

Morari · « **Reply #19 on:** April 05, 2009, 12:53:20 PM »

Quote from: pap64 on April 04, 2009, 09:25:21 PM

ALL documentaries are skewed to a certain extend. Their main purpose is to try and drive a point across, and educate the audience on that.

If the documentary is about vegetarianism the film will make the meat industry look cruel, barbaric and heartless. If the documentary is about the government they will try to make it look really, really bad.

Not that either of those things need any help looking evil...

vudu · « **Reply #20 on:** April 06, 2009, 02:41:12 PM »

Quote from: pap64 on April 04, 2009, 09:25:21 PM

If the documentary is about the government they will try to make it look really, really bad.

Believe it or not, there are actually some pro-government documentaries out there.

Also, is this a political comment? Banned.

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #21 on:** April 12, 2009, 11:05:18 PM »

I just watched King of Kong and got mad. Then I came here and got sad. The documentary was bad.

I do hope Steve breaks the record at e3 though, just because that would be...like, cool, or whatever. e3 needs something like cool or whatever to happen so it doesn't like you know suck.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #22 on:** April 14, 2009, 11:56:55 AM »

My favorite video game documentary is probably "Wizard" with Fred Savage. It recounts the true story of an autistic kid who manages to become the best video game player in the world, and at the end it unveils the Super Mario Bros. 3 game for the very first time.

Dirk Temporo · « **Reply #23 on:** April 14, 2009, 05:15:56 PM »

I can't tell if you're joking or if you actually don't know what a documentary is.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #24 on:** April 15, 2009, 07:16:25 PM »

Quote from: Dirk Temporo on April 14, 2009, 05:15:56 PM

I can't tell if you're joking or if you actually don't know what a documentary is.

Sure I do. Its those sorts of films Michael Moore makes.

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Author Topic: King of Kong and other video game documentaries (Read 8064 times)