To All Netflix Subscribers:

[mik3cap]

The King Of Kong is now available as a Netflix instant watching movie. I highly, highly recommend this film! It's an incredible piece of modern cultural history framed by the eternal struggle of the underdog outsider versus the establishment. And hey, DONKEY KONG!!

I witnessed Steve Wiebe achieve the fourth ever known kill screen here in New York and heard him speak at MoMI. He's a great guy, and it's a great story.

Comments

[dariusk.livejournal.com]

I assume you've read this?

http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/000574.html

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Firstly, that dude seems to have a wicked case of sour grapes going on. He's pissed that his video game documentary has "the door shut" on it and KoK has seemingly undeserved success. I'm not really sure what is potentially stopping this guy from making his own documentary really... it's not like only one doc about one subject can ever be produced!

Second thing is, it's not like anyone was forced to speak lines from a script; even though content was edited to increase the drama, plenty of the stuff that came out of Billy's or Steve's or anyone's mouths could be judged simply on its own contexts.

His latest blog entry makes him seem pretty biased overall. But the thing about documentaries is that the film maker has a right to edit in the manner he or she sees fit; they're usually more like opinion pieces with messages than straight reporting anyhow.

[vossanova.livejournal.com]

Hah, I was actually considering posting that exact same blog link. I know Jason pretty well, and admire his hard work and speaking ability, but yeah, he can get on some pretty obsessive, one-sided tirades (just search for "Wikipedia" on his blog) - not to mention using every opportunity to reference his own material. He may be a bit bitter about KoK's success while working on his own documentary, but I think he does realize his is at no risk of being redundant. Some people like to use editing license to make documentaries entertaining, some don't.

That having been said, the KoK viewer is missing some key facts. From what I've seen, the best place for "fact-checking" has been Walter's posts at Twin Galaxies: http://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=86 . But hey, the subject matter of KoK is so narrow, I don't think the entire history of video gaming is tainted by it.

[sketchthecow.livejournal.com]

I frequently reference my own material because it stands as a testament that I don't just sit at my armchair and give the thumbs up and thumbs down; I live the life and draw from experience.