WHEN U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) introduced a dry little bill affecting a modest government panel sifting through the nation's antitrust laws, it didn't exactly grab national headlines.
But Brandon Smith was psyched, even though he knew next to nothing about the Antitrust Modernization Commission Extension Act of 2007. Smith, a 24-year-old law student from Brooklyn, N.Y., is an avid "fantasy" Congress player. It's a game similar to fantasy baseball and football leagues, but in this league, players draft teams of representatives and senators, and earn points depending on how well their bills survive the treacherous political gauntlet.
When the bill passed, Conyers' little-known coup earned Smith a whopping 50 points and vaulted him into his league's lead.
"It may seem weird to get excited about this type of stuff in the abstract, but it's the same way that in fantasy sports, I can get excited about random stats," Smith said.
Fantasy sports leagues still dominate the genre, but more and more leagues devoted to other interests are lighting up computers across the nation.
Instead of picking the NFL's top running back, how about a fantasy husband? There's a website for that, along with fantasy leagues centered on celebrities and Hollywood blockbusters.
"People have always enjoyed taking ownership of the things they are into recreationally, and the Internet has made that more and more accessible to more people," said Nancy Baym, associate professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas.
An estimated 15 million to 18 million people manage fantasy sports teams, according to a study conducted by the Fantasy Sports Trade Assn. Revenue is raised through participation fees in the $2-billion industry, and 90% of the participants are men, the study found.
But Andrew Lee felt left out of the action in his cramped Claremont McKenna College dorm room three years ago.
His roommate, Eric Chow, kept screaming "boo-yah" during a Monday Night Football game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. A fantasy football victory, a week's worth of strategy and trash talking with friends, rested on the game's outcome.
LEE, then a freshman, lost his concentration while scrolling a political blog. And then, something dawned on him. "I thought that if there was a way for people to relate to Congress as much as they can to sports, then it would make for a better government and more-informed nation," Lee said.
