I turned the way-back machine ahead about twenty years tonight so I could get in the right state of mind to watch the Sunday January, 22nd edition of the CBS network’s (very) venerable newsmagazine, 60 Minutes. If you could stay awake thought the utterly fascinating report about Alberta’s wealth of natural resources and some guitar jockey’s run for the Texas Governorship, you would see something rare. An almost entirely positive story on broadcast television about our ever growing corner of the media landscape. I know, I didn’t believe it either, but there it was. No Jack Thompson, no Hot Coffee, no cumbersome/unconstitutional laws, or ‘deeply sympathetic’ drones condescending from behind plywood news desks. Just Steve Croft and his subject, Jonathon “Fatal1ty” Wendel.

You know who he is so I’m not going to bother with the background here (if you want to bother, go here instead). The point is that the ‘outside world’ got a look into gaming culture and saw a positive, up-beat, true American kind of story. It is the story of a young man who had a dream to make money playing games professionally and made it come true. I need to make you understand what this means and how important it is. The ‘mainstream’ is only otherwise exposed to gamers in nightly news horror stories or in lousy episodes of CSI: Miami or Killer Instinct (they could recast that show with Jago and Spinal and I still wouldn’t watch it (Black Orchid…maybe)).

Fatal1ty, as seen in the 60 Minutes story, is too modest (on TV at least) to call himself the greatest living gamer, but I think he should take this ball and run with it. Even those of us who can name the best or most famous gamers in the world could only come up with four or five and rarely would they overlap. Gaming culture needs a hero right now, someone to stand behind the microphone for millions of us who don’t have a voice the next time overzealous lawyer or politico tries to unload the world’s problems on our shoulders.

Don’t get me wrong, the ESA is great, but they don’t fight for us, they fight for the industry. The next time the traditional media gets the vapors over the latest gamers-collapse-society story, there has to be one of us there to fight back. If I can’t be me, I want it to be some other intelligent, articulate person who knows what he’s taking about. Who other then the man who 60 Minutes called the Babe Ruth of the 21st century?

Comments?  Questions?  E-mail me at seth410@gamertransit.com.  Complaints?  There is no such thing as bad publicity!

Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.