News

If you have heard of any professional video-game player, chances are very good it is Johnathan Wendel. The 24-year-old American competes as Fatal1ty, his gaming nickname, in tournaments around the world. He has won almost $500,000 (U.S.) dexterously blowing things up with a mouse and keyboard.

He was front and centre again Sunday night in a 60 Minutes segment about video games becoming a spectator sport. Reporter Steve Kroft began in Wendel's computer-filled basement and then followed him to several competitions and appearances. Wendel has his own line of computer accessories under the Fatal1ty brand and signs autographs wherever he goes -- well, he does as long as he goes to gaming tournaments.

The 60 Minutes segment is the latest in a string of television and print pieces featuring Wendel. They all follow the same pattern: This guy makes his living playing video games -- video games, those things that used to be for kids! -- and then portray professional gaming as the next big thing in sports.

One problem: If you have ever been to a gaming tournament in Canada or the United States, the last thing you think is next big anything. Sponsors -- the folks who put Fatal1ty stickers on their keyboards -- love them, but outside of Asia they are sparsely attended affairs.

Family and friends show up, at least until the headaches overpower them, and as a spectacle they still rank somewhere below table tennis on the North American sports calendar. They are great fun for the people who play, but don't make for great viewing.

The most interesting part of Kroft's report -- aside from the absence of a single woman, even standing innocently in the background somewhere -- was a short sequence showing how popular gaming tournaments are in Asia. Over 100,000 people attended a recent outdoor competition in South Korea, watching the action on a big screen, and video-game TV shows are ratings hits in several Asian countries. Over there, Kroft intoned, the top gamers date movie stars and models -- okay, tell me more about that! Fatal1ty's messy basement pales by comparison.

My Korean is a little rusty, so help me out: Why are gamer competitions so big in Asia, and could that be applied here? You can watch the 60 Minutes piece on the CBS News website (cbsnews.com, in the SciTech section, click on GameCore), and my e-mail address is below.

Fatal System Error:

Buy iPod Immediately

Computer operating systems can be very powerful things. Windows will send you, the computer user, a message and suddenly you're downloading drivers or looking for some mysterious guru called the System Administrator.

Apple's operating system, OS X, sent me an odd little note recently. I bought a music CD and copied it to my hard drive, then received a kindhearted pop-up message along these lines: Your music is valuable; back it up. Seems to make sense, backing up something, but I have never seen that message using text documents or any other kinds of files -- usually computer makers do not go out of their way to say, "This product could fail at any moment." Of course, a good way to back-up music -- as any employee at an Apple-approved retailer will tell you -- is to buy an iPod. Yes, operating systems are powerful things. Other examples of this would be most welcome.

Five to Try

A special To Try section this week, with 50-per-cent more content and no trans fats. Last week, LostRemote.com was listed as a front runner in the "websites that have changed the way you watch TV" category, prompting managing editor Steve Safran to e-mail a lighthearted bribery offer. One thing led to another and a discussion broke out about how TV programmers can now monitor viewers.

Safran says interactive television services -- personal video recorders such as TiVo, video-on-demand and pay-per-view channels, and iTunes episode downloads -- are increasingly playing a part in which shows are kept on the air and which ones are cancelled. TV viewers, as they reach out for content instead of sitting back and waiting for episodes to air at a designated time, are becoming easier to track. "It's no longer a 'We must reach 100 shows for syndication' model," Safran says. "It involves VOD, PPV, downloads, rentals, DVD sales and more."

Will any of this save Arrested Development? Maybe not at Fox, Safran says, but having a dedicated, measurable audience may be enough to attract niche distributors like Showtime. Good news for cult shows and the people who love them.

Here are some other TV sites to check out; the next category is below so keep the links coming.

1. TV Tattle. A catchall site for news and gossip. tvtattle.com

2. What Badgers Eat. A sight gag from The Simpsons is stretched into an interactive site all its own. whatbadgerseat.com

3. Television Without Pity. Scathing recaps of episodes you may have missed. televisionwithoutpity.com

4. Soap Central. Save time and brain cells by reading the plotlines of the major soaps instead of watching the shows. As prose, they are hilarious. soapcentral.com

5. Zap2it. This is where TV guides are heading. zap2it.com

Next time: Sites you simply must check every morning or you don't feel right -- the Web equivalents of coffee. Send your caffeinated bookmarks and other feedback to pluggedin@globeandmail.com.