Ollanna Finds Kong in Dalaran

The King of Kong, a documentary of the competition between Mitchell and Wiebe for the world championship of the the arcade version of Donkey Kong, shows not only the intensity of the gaming environment, but also the influence of this game in real life (IRL). In particular, the men extrapolated the experience of competing against Kong, to an intense competition between each other.

I believe that the spirit of competition is, at the very least engaging, and at the very worst, addicting. For the purposes of this discussion, in honor of game Donkey Kong, I would like to denote an archetypal "Kong" as a physical representation of the spirit of competition.

And to diverge just a bit, I wanted to say that after viewing The King of Kong I was very excited to come home and share some thoughts on the game Donkey Kong, specifically, and video games in general. But before commenting, I decided to get a screen shot of Ollanna, from World of Warcraft, for the blog header, just as a point of interest.

When I logged onto Ollanna to get a current screenshot, somehow, as if to make a point, I (as Ollanna) was standing right next to Kong himself. I asked Olarian (another player) if I could get a photo with his pet, Kong, and Olarian was more than pleased to oblige. I felt the fountain would provide a contrasting background and asked Olarian if he would send Kong down to stand by me. In a matter of seconds we composed the photo and I asked Olarian if it would be all right if I posted Kong in my blog. Olarian was more than agreeable.

I did not take the time to ask Olarian why he had named his pet Kong. But I can tell you that this pet type is a formidable companion warrior pet and that it is likely that the name Kong is a title of honor. It this is indeed the case, we might assume that the the archetype of "Kong" as a competitor, has a reverential status.

Another example of a gamer revering "Kong" in the spirit of competition is demonstrated by the generation of a pseudo religion, "Kongism," started several years ago by my boyfriend's brother. The rules of Kongism are:

1. Technically you should try to play video games every Sunday (Holy Monkey Sunday) or at least once a week.

2. A Kong Totem, a physical representation of an ape or monkey, should be placed at the highest point in whatever room you want, but usually the video room.

3. More Kong Totems please Kong, and he will look upon you with favor.

This is a tongue-in-cheek example, of course, but the fact remains, that competition is central to gaming.

And that fact points to a parallel fact that in literature, when there is no conflict, there is no story. (This is a handed down quote, which I attribute to the ex wife of my ex husband). Literature is boring if you know how it is going to end. And the same is true for games. If you know how it is going to end, it isn't really a game is it?