(GotFrag) - My first exposure to PC Gaming was in 1998, when my husband brought home Half-Life and I spent several days obsessively playing the single-player game, and getting my first taste of the frustration and elation that is the gamer's rush. I finished the game, without cheating, and gave control of our PC back to him. Fast forward 10 years and today half of our household income comes solely from gaming. It is hard for some to believe that people can make a living playing videogames, and even more of a stretch to believe that someone could make a living just writing about people who play videogames.

When I sat down to read Michael Kane's GameBoys, I felt like I was cheating just a little bit, because I already knew that the story had a happy ending. I already knew that CompLexity beat 3D. I knew that professional videogaming safely rose from the basement to the big time, thanks in part to the people and and events portrayed in the book. Gaming is currently alive and well in TV land, although most major players in the e-sports game are coming to the realization that the final frontier for professional gaming is not television, but rather the medium that created the beast itself: the Internets.

Halfway through the book I put it down to pace and fret about Jason Lake's well-being, the state of his finances, his marriage, and his team. This was out of genuine concern for the man Kane has painted as the All-American good guy, with the white hat, who is grimly and idealistically riding his dream as it goes down in flames throughout the book. Make no mistake, Jason Lake is the hero of this tale from the first time he appears at CPL Winter in full Bobby Knight mode, red-faced and bellowing. His Vince McMahon performance on TSN, boasting his intent to take powerhouse team 3D out of first place, was straight-up sports drama. GotFrag faithful and the Counter-Strike "community" as a whole will be familiar with much of the book as Kane frequently cites e-sports authority GotFrag.com as the source for scores, stats, and scoop. Many of the stories in the book play out in articles and forum threads on GotFrag and Lake's introduction to the community was no exception. Immediately, the GotFrag forums lit up with "Who the hell is this guy, and how did he get balls that big"?

Kane spends a lot of time with Lake, even visiting him at his home in Atlanta and enthusiastically recounting every plasma screen, Mercedes-Benz, and pool table he found there. He takes every opportunity to discuss Lake's personal financial backing of CompLexity and the rise of the "tab" from $200,000 to $400,000, along with Lake's repeated and failed attempts to secure sponsors. He paints a picture of a wife with a baby on her hip, tapping her foot, complaining about "this whole videogame thing" and giving her long-suffering husband the evil eye every time he opens up the laptop. I imagine the truth about Mrs. Lake's home life to be a little bit different. She probably knows by now, as I do, that the gaming industry is a massive, thunderous presence in American society that is not a passing fad. Her kids will grow up immersed in a culture that was born of games called Halo and Quake and Half-Life, and they will never know that such things did not always exist. By the end of the book and after years of struggle, it appears that Lake's single-minded pursuit of his goal, to legitimize e-sports and win sponsors for his boys, has paid off for his family and for CompLexity.

Kane's portrayal of Lake as the Superdad: Attorney-at-law hero plays beautifully against his scathing account of the villian, the anti-hero, the Bluto to Lake's Popeye....Craig "Torbull" Levine. Just as Lake is painted with a golden brush, so is Levine drawn in broad strokes as a ruthless businessman, a cheater, a sleazy sneakpants who sidles up to other players and whispers promises of sponsors and salaries, twirling his long evil villian mustache. Levine has money, a lot of it, and a team built of both wickedly talented players and wickedly handsome eye candy for the TV cameras. He systematically makes allies and enemies, but it's all part of the game. 3D was a way for Levine to make money, but never was he foolish enough to believe that his gamers would continue to lay golden LAN eggs and expect nothing in return. So he secured the two biggest sponsors in e-sports and turned his team into a business and an elite brand. Kane's comparison of 3D to the Yankees and Levine to George Steinbrenner is an impeccable analogy. Baseball fans complain about the Yankees but they can't stop watching ESPN when A-Rod is about to sign a contract.

Kane's account of Levine's shenanigans is unmerciful, and quotes from Levine's peers and players are sometimes harsh. Kane himself repeatedly refers to Levine's, shall we say, follically challenged appearance. But most of it, including the whole Tylenol scandal in Paris, confirms Kane's picture of Levine as the calculating mastermind, old for his age and single-minded about his goal. While Jason Lake was the football hero, Craig Levine was the image of the token gamer, literally playing in the basement with a primitively hacked Ventrilo-type setup. However, by the age of 18 Levine had put together the original Team 3D and had already started networking with the likes of Samsung and Steel Series. Clearly, his aptitude was not in playing the game, but marketing and managing it.

The story plays out predictably, and Kane has added enough detail about the videogame industry and the mechanics of Counter-Strike to intrigue the non-gaming reader. There are plenty of colorful characters throughout, from Punkville and the Mug N Mouse crew to Alex "JAX" Conroy, the Richie Rich of the gaming community and the guy who is always voted best-dressed, and always knows where to find the nearest strip club. Players from both CompLexity and 3D are featured as well, and the stories of their home lives and personalities are tailor-made for short human interest segments on a prime time sports show. The Godfathers of e-sports are mentioned too, and Kane has assigned good guy/bad guy hats to Angel Munoz, Frank Nuccio, Matt Ringle and all the rest.

Kane's Hunter S. Thompson-esqe immersion in his subject matter is very evident. Although skeptical at first about professional videogaming, and admitting that the last video game he played was Ms. Pacman at the pizza joint, he ends up following the circuit for 18 months and becomes knowledgeable enough to write an entertaining and accurate account of competitive e-sports that will appeal to everyone. One possible exception may be the World of Warcraft faction. The author pokes fun at the fantastically named quests and objects and the game's addictive nature when describing the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game). As a Warcrack addict, I would like Mr. Kane to know that I am surreptitiously conjuring up a glowing ball of wrath to fling in your general direction, and my Night Elf Druid will kick Ms. Pacman's ass.

Michael Kane's Game Boys is available at Amazon.com and more information on the book can be found at www.gameboysbook.com.