Video games have long been blamed for creating couch potatoes. Yet several new games are actually getting kids to break a sweat.

The new video games, known as "exer-games," come with special equipment to replace the traditional hand-held joystick -- including pads kids can jump and dance on, isometric equipment that requires muscle to control a game and cameras that put kids in the center of kung-fu and skateboarding action. Some games even include calorie counters.

A few years ago, Johnathan Wendel was just another kid in high school with a yen for playing fast-paced computer games such as "Quake III."

Nowadays, the 22-year-old is drawing the attention of MTV documentarians, courting endorsements from major chipmakers and launching his own PC line, all based on those same "Quake" skills.

By most standards, Wendel, better-known as Fatal1ty, is the top star on the burgeoning tournament gaming scene, in which computer gaming buffs compete head-to-head in shooting games such as "Quake" and "Unreal Tournament," gunning for fame and five-digit prize packages.

Wendel was one of the first tournament gamers to go pro. Gaming has been his life the past few years, and he estimates he earns an average of $50,000 a year from tournaments, not counting perks such as free travel to the top tournaments and increasingly lucrative endorsement contracts from tech companies looking to boost credibility with the lucrative hardcore gamer market.

Ah, competitive video gaming. Man, to have been born two decades later than I was. All those hours playing Galaga, Missile Command, Defender, Tron, Jungle Jim, Gauntlet and what do I have to show for it? Strong thumbs, but no money. Now kids make big bucks as competitive gamers.

This is all part of the further evolution of "sport" and "play." Author Virginia Postrel praised this evolutionary change in this speech based on her influential book The Future and Its Enemies:

At the 1996 Republican National Convention, Newt Gingrich briefly ventured off-script. Before he started his formal remarks, he pulled Olympic gold medalist Kent Steffes on stage and celebrated Steffes’ sport as an example of the unpredictable, inventive culture that makes America great.

"A mere 40 years ago," said Gingrich, "beach volleyball was just beginning. Now it is not only a sport in the Olympics, but there are over 30 countries that have a competition internationally. . . . And there’s a whole new world of opportunity opening up that didn’t exist 30 or 40 years ago -- and no bureaucrat would have invented it. And that’s what freedom is all about."

Postrel goes on to document how pundits laughed at Gingrich for his weirdness -- what the Hell was he doing talking about beach volleyball? But for all Gingrich's shortcomings, he was mostly right. American culture -- and this includes sport and game culture -- is rapidly changing and will continue to do so.

Technology will be a big driver in this process. I have friends who put on Madden NFL football, pick their favorite teams and then let the computer play a game with the two teams -- the video games are more interesting than reality (usually they make a wager on it to make it even more interesting). It's easy to laugh at this notion. Meanwhile Jonathan Wendel is making more money than a lot of people my age. And he's playing vids for a living. With apologies to Cindy Adams, only in America folks, only in America.