I know Bill pretty well, and have spent one on one time with him on many occasions. I wouldn't say we we're close, but we're friends certainly. If you can catch him when he drops the mask of "Billy Mitchell" and is just "Bill", he's the nicest guy you could possibly meet. Always gracious, friendly and down to earth.
He's fully aware of the irony of the character he plays when he gets the white suit on and starts being "Billy". It's quite an art form watching him work a group of people - he hams it up and plays the part perfectly - this is what people expect of him, and he delivers. He has a tendency to want to take over and hog the limelight in a room, but that's just him. If you stand up to that nonsense, he is respectful. He likes us Brits when we go over the USA, because we don't shy away from taking the piss and don't go all starstruck when we meet him - he understands that we "get" that he's playing a part.
I don't really care about the cheating allegations - he's big and ugly enough to fight his own battles - not my concern; but I do know that if I needed his assistance with a project or something, he'd do everything he could to help out.
The King of Kong did him no favours in terms of how people from the outside in, view him as a person - it is a very heavily edited movie - edited to tell a story. There's one particular scene when he finally meets with Steve Weibe in an arcade. He walks in with his wife, stands behind Steve, and says something like "there's certain people I don't want to hang around with" and walks off. All in the space of about 10 seconds. The scene is complete fabrication. What actually happened, was they talked back and forth for a couple of minutes about Steve's game that he was playing, before Bill walks off with his wife. His comment as he walks way was said in jest - if you know Bill, you'll know this is how he talks. If you watch the scene again, you can see where the edit comes in. One minute he's stood "there" and the next, he's walking away from a different position. Editing is a wonderful thing...
But, he played the part (and was rewarded for it, so don't feel too sorry for him) and continues to play the "bad guy" of classic arcade gaming and it suits him well.
Despite what you might read or assume, he's a fascinating character and whilst I might not agree with his actions at times, I do like him. He's a smart man. There's no law against being a bit of an asshole and flexing your ego - it works for him, and there's very few people who can pull that off and make it work.
Billy has been able to continue to ride the wave of notoriety that King of Kong brought him. Even when it seemed everything was over with the cheating allegations. He's managed to turn that to his advantage, and he still gets booked at gaming shows today and is arguably more popular than he ever was.
What is sad, is that King of Kong was a turning point for the playing community and ultimately resulted in the break up of the "old guard" of CAG players in the US.
He's fully aware of the irony of the character he plays when he gets the white suit on and starts being "Billy". It's quite an art form watching him work a group of people - he hams it up and plays the part perfectly - this is what people expect of him, and he delivers. He has a tendency to want to take over and hog the limelight in a room, but that's just him. If you stand up to that nonsense, he is respectful. He likes us Brits when we go over the USA, because we don't shy away from taking the piss and don't go all starstruck when we meet him - he understands that we "get" that he's playing a part.
I don't really care about the cheating allegations - he's big and ugly enough to fight his own battles - not my concern; but I do know that if I needed his assistance with a project or something, he'd do everything he could to help out.
The King of Kong did him no favours in terms of how people from the outside in, view him as a person - it is a very heavily edited movie - edited to tell a story. There's one particular scene when he finally meets with Steve Weibe in an arcade. He walks in with his wife, stands behind Steve, and says something like "there's certain people I don't want to hang around with" and walks off. All in the space of about 10 seconds. The scene is complete fabrication. What actually happened, was they talked back and forth for a couple of minutes about Steve's game that he was playing, before Bill walks off with his wife. His comment as he walks way was said in jest - if you know Bill, you'll know this is how he talks. If you watch the scene again, you can see where the edit comes in. One minute he's stood "there" and the next, he's walking away from a different position. Editing is a wonderful thing...
But, he played the part (and was rewarded for it, so don't feel too sorry for him) and continues to play the "bad guy" of classic arcade gaming and it suits him well.
Despite what you might read or assume, he's a fascinating character and whilst I might not agree with his actions at times, I do like him. He's a smart man. There's no law against being a bit of an asshole and flexing your ego - it works for him, and there's very few people who can pull that off and make it work.
Billy has been able to continue to ride the wave of notoriety that King of Kong brought him. Even when it seemed everything was over with the cheating allegations. He's managed to turn that to his advantage, and he still gets booked at gaming shows today and is arguably more popular than he ever was.
What is sad, is that King of Kong was a turning point for the playing community and ultimately resulted in the break up of the "old guard" of CAG players in the US.
