Prince of Doom - Hank Leukart

COOL GAME!

Hank and his Internet friends became fascinated by a computer game called Doom. Before it even came out, Hank wrote a FAQ (which stands for "frequently asked questions"), a file posted on the Internet telling all there is to know about a certain subject — in Hank's case, Doom. The publishers of the game saw Hank's FAQ and asked him via e-mail if they could publish it as part of the game itself. Hank agreed. "It became one of the most widely read FAQs in existence," says Hank.

Then something really unexpected happened. “Hank's dad and I didn't really even know what he was doing on the computer,” Hank's mom recalls. “Then we came home from work one night and he said to us, ‘I have two companies and they've both asked me to write a book and I don't know what to do.’” As it turns out, three different publishing companies had read Hank's FAQ and each had asked him via e-mail to write a guidebook about Doom. The last offer came from a company called MIS: Press, which won his services.

"The funny thing is," says Hank, "because all of our dealings had been on the Net, they didn't even know I was a kid until probably three days into negotiations. When I first told the editor-in-chief I was 15, he kind of had a heart attack on the phone. Fortunately they were open-minded enough to let it go ahead."

DESIGNER DOOM

What, you might ask, is so great about Doom, and why would a computer game need a guidebook?

"Doom is a first-person 3-D game," Hank explains. In other words, the visuals are incredibly realistic, and you look at everything from the same point of view as you would in real life. "There's monsters standing around and you have a weapon, and you shoot the monsters." It's the same concept as many games that came before — shoot the monsters — but with one major difference.

"You have the ability to edit the game. You can change the monsters to look like people you know. You can change the map to actually look like your house instead of walking round in worlds you've never seen before. That's what my book is about. It's not about beating the game, but changing it."

HACKER’S DELIGHT

Hank wrote Hank Leukart's Hacker's Guide to Doom, in less than tree months. "I spent most of Christmas break on it, and also after-school time, says Hank. "Through the whole business I didn't tell anyone besides my parents that I was writing this book. I was kind of afraid that it wouldn't be published. If I told everyone and then it didn't happen, I'd look dumb." Now, Hank looks anything but dumb. The hacker's guide is the most popular book of its kind on the market, and has outsold all expectations. It has received great reviews and made a minor star of its author. Hank has done book signings and appeared in People magazine. There was even some talk about a Letterman appearance. Hank now writes a regular computer column for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and writes game reviews for some magazines.

Hank says the Internet is very important for one reason. "It's kind of a utopian world. In real life, you see people; you have first impressions. You see their age and their race. On the Internet, you can't see the other person. Everything is based on what a person writes, so it's actually possible to judge people by what's on the inside."

CAN COMPUTER GAMES MAKE YOU VIOLENT?

Doom is the most popular computer game on the market. But it's not a peaceful game. It comes with a warning of "animated blood and gore" and a rating of "mature," meaning not recommended for children under 17. According to the guidelines, Hank shouldn't even be playing it, much less writing a book about it.

Why all the fuss? Well, there's an ongoing debate about violent games.

A lot of young people who enjoy computer games think on-screen violence is harmless fun. They're convinced video violence has nothing to do with real-life violence.

Hank agrees with them. "Any sane person can tell the difference between computer games and reality," he says. But research shows that violent games do have measurable effects on their players. A recent study found that college students who'd just played violent games were more likely to have aggressive thoughts and a higher pulse rate than those who were merely watching others play. In that way, violent games are worse than violent movies, because the players don't just watch the violence, they take part in it. Two U.S. Senators, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, were so concerned about video-game violence that last year they pushed for ratings.

In response, game publishers now mark their products using one of two ratings systems: Some are ranked for age appropriateness with symbols ranging from EC (early childhood) to AO (adults only); others are labeled with thermometers indicating the level of violence, nudity/sex, and foul language.

Still, those are just recommendations. Most retailers are happy to accept kids' money for any kind of game.

Talk about it: Where do you stand? Should everyone be allowed to buy any game, or should there be some restrictions on extremely violent games?

Or, to put it another way, is freedom of choice more important than the possibility that one or two people with violent tendencies will be pushed over the edge by a gory game?

Imagine a world where age, sex, and race don't matter; where nobody can stop you from doing what you want because you're “just a kid.”

That's where Hank Leukart dwells.

It all started, according to his mom, Barbara, when Hank was just a baby, "When he was two years old, he used to play with the computer," she says. "It's always been sort of a passion for him."

"They were creating a physics program," says Hank. "I didn't understand the physics part at all, but I learned C++, the language that they use to program most computer games."