When Videogames Publishers Go 'Street' 345
Thanks to 1UP/OPM for its article discussing what they describe as the 'thugging' of the videogame industry, referencing games such as Def Jam Fight for NY and Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition. The piece suggests: "Whether it was established franchises morphing into more streetwise versions of their former selves or new franchises emerging wearing their hip-hop influences on their sleeves, it was clear that the urban lifestyle is being embraced by developers and publishers alike." Marc Ecko argues "I think the problem is that the games industry is generationally nostalgic", and Steve Allison of Midway charges: "The guys bitching about this new trend are inching up on 35 years old, and they grew up on old-school gameplay. They're a very vocal bunch, but they're just not the market anymore."
Say wah? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Say wah? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Say wah? (Score:2)
35 years old (Score:5, Interesting)
Fuck this rap-wannabe bullshit. It's hysterical. This musical fad is as long-lasting as glam was, disco was before it, and doo-wop was before that. The culture has already saturated itself--it's become the joke that glam was in the early 90s. Every rap video has the same oversaturated high-contrast video filters, the same sports jersey-wearing rappers, the same lyrics. It's around so much because it's extremely easy to produce this music. Just click in some drumbeats with your mouse in a tracking program and have someone write rap lyrics in 5 minutes, featuring today's flavor-of-the-month rapper. Bam, new single.
Midway, and any other companies getting into this, are making a huge mistake and will be laughed at in five years. Meanwhile, I'll play something that doesn't date itself so badly, like Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 (I still play Doom 1 now and then!).
Re:35 years old (Score:5, Informative)
That's not at all true - the genre's been going strong for 20+ years [allmusic.com].
Every rap video has the same
Judging a musical genre by its videos is hardly fair! You could make the exact same criticisms about the pop & rock genre by talking about Avril Lavigne or Slipknot videos.
Just as in other genres, there's huge differences in style and quality between different musicians.
Re:35 years old (Score:2)
Calling them musicians is laughable. They're more producers than musicians. Which isn't a bad thing really, but it's like calling someone that mows lawns for a living a "stock car driver".
Re:35 years old (Score:2)
There are plenty of Hip Hop producers who can play. Though much of the music is simple and may not be to your taste, there is nothing in the definition of music that excludes what most rappers rhyme over.
Re:35 years old (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, I DO try to listen to is BECAUSE I still don't get it. I'm not one that judges something if I personally haven't tried it out. And where did I say I hated the music? I don't hate it, I just don't get it yet. I don't see the appeal, but I'm sure the people that a
Re:35 years old (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:35 years old (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:35 years old (Score:2)
This kind of (what appears to me) corporate crap really doesn't appear to be music to me, although obviously it's popular.
I've always had different tastes in music (read: been an outcast) to the majority, at the moment it's a crazy icelandic band ca
Re:35 years old (Score:2)
Re:35 years old (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Say wah? (Score:2, Funny)
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
and dumb pic [thestinkers.com].
Also, you could have googled it [justfuckinggoogleit.com].
Have a good day, and, um, word to your mother. =)
Sell out (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, this is likely true, but as one who used to play online shootemups, I can say the trend toward this has been going on for a little while at least. When all the little white kids got their computers around the same time hip-hop started going mainstream, you started seeing comments like "Whasssup Biatch" when someone joined the game or "I'm your pimp daddy" or some other affected effort at manifesting some pathetic street cred. I have sort of expected this sort of thing for a while now, but see it as a continued effort to squeeze some more marketing $$s out of a saturated hip-hop market. Perhaps when NWA or Ice-T was around this would have been interesting but come on now folks, the hip hop scene is dead and has been replaced by the thug-life affected persona that now simply looks and appears absurd. Nowhatimsayin?
So, essentially what Steve Allison from Midway is saying is that Midway has sold out and are adopting the grow the company, mainstream marketing bit. Steve..........Do you know what this means?.............It means that Midway is no longer cool. This of course is the risk companies take when they try to break from their roots and become something they are not, but hey......that's America and at least companies have that option.
Re:Sell out (Score:5, Insightful)
Bonehead.
Re:Sell out (Score:3, Insightful)
If they simply ask which games the teens are playing most, it only gives them a partial picture. It doesn't take into account how many of those games were really purchased by parents as gifts, and how many additional sales they'd have if they managed to release titles with appeal to both the teens and the adults.
As someone getting close to 35 myself, I still find that the ga
Re:Sell out (Score:2, Insightful)
You seem to be under the impression that hip-hop is about rap, it's much more than that. It is a way of life that many young people feel comfortable with as their vehicle of self-expression.
Is it really selling out when aspects of a sub-culture break out to the greater culture? When did Rock sell out? And is it a bad thing that it did ?
Look, if you don't agree with what these companies are doing, don't give them your business. That's the ultimate test of who is truly seeing the world co
Re:Sell out (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sell out (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. When your sub-culture is a counter against bubble gum pop culture, and you buy into the bubble gum pop culture for a wider market, then yes Virginia, you have sold out. When you find FUBU in every mall, it's all about the money. When lyrics went from
"teachers teach and do the world good, kings just rule and most are never understood"
to
"it's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes"
you've lost your purpose. My problem is that the purpose driven mainstream hip hop no longer exists. You have to go behind the scenes to find it. Take a look at the artist in my sig and you'll find a taste. Oh, and he's also a EE. You don't have to de a thug to have credentials.
Re:Sell out (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sell out (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you meant to end this paragraph with "Yah'mean?"
Moreover, it enfuriates me to no end when I'm out and I see a preppy thug trying to act tough. Some metrosexual who spent 2 hours ironing perfect creases in his sweatpants and 76ers jersey thinks he's a tough guy.
Every wannabe gangsta and his mother wants to talk about his Glock. It has even gotten to the point where idiots like "Brotha Lynch Hung" say things like "Take ya glock off safety" [apluslyrics.com], but, as anyone who has ever held a Glock pistol will tell you, there is no external safety on a Glock this gangsta thug has just exposed himself as a poseur.
The other thing that drives me crazy is when I'm out and there's some white dude who you just know was listening to Korn 5 years ago who thinks he's cool now because he's blasting Eminem in his Rice Burner.
The crossover of hip hip into the mainstream has only fostered te persuit of style over substance.
LK
Re:Sell out (Score:4, Insightful)
Just out of curiosity
a) What would make being "the real thing" so fantastic?
b) What generation hasn't had some sort of silly set of idols? What generation hasn't looked for "style over substance"?
I think the reason that idol emulation is so silly today is that the people being emulated are generally movie characters or music characters, which are over-the-top people that aren't exactly living out human lives (particularly in their movies) and emulation of them can come off as a bit more obvious than emulation of people in real life.
Re:Sell out (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like in the spaghetti westerns where they'd fire their revolvers 38 times without reloading. At the very least, if you're going to portray a character that you've made up, you should make a nominal effort.
b) What generation hasn't had some sort of silly set of idols? What generation hasn't looked for "style over substance"?
In hip hop, at one time (and still in a few places) the ability to "rock the mic" was more important than the ability to sell records.
LK
Re:Sell out (Score:4, Funny)
"You say all of my shit is complete nonsense,
Fuck my CD and the shitty ass contents.
Bullshit! My shit's the bomb.
Siamese twins want ménage a trois.
Robot bitches want their backs massaged.
They may not be real but their tits is large."
"White kids love hip hop and axel, tractors and Rambo, playing unreal tournament with
infinite ammo.
Taggers and vandals in black socks and sandals, doin' as many drugs as they
can motherfuckin' handle.
Skippin' school, breakin' rules and flippin the bird, fast food, cartoons after ittin' some erb.
Freakin dem flirts, making 'em purr till it hurts,
just a couple nerds clockin' the curbs, a couple a words about my nilla wiggas,
packin' peters that are measured in milimeters.
We don't talk in the theaters like we're Siskel and Ebert.
We drink box wine and we listen to Weezer."
Re:Sell out (Score:2)
Why should that be enfuriating?
I see the same thug and metrosexual posers (in NYC and Queens) but they don't anger or intimidate me. I understand that people -- especially kids -- want to belong, and that that's the culture of cool they've subscribed to. It is sad that most of time they've been manipulated into buying into a co-opted culture of cool, but that's another story...
Me? I'll continue to commit social suicide
Re:Sell out (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm black, you idiot.
Let people be what they want
It's a free country, people can be what they want. I am also free to make fun of them as I see fit.
LK
Re:Sell out (Score:2)
And what content publishers of any sort in any market haven't "sold out"? They're a *business*. They're out to make money. That may well involve marketing.
It's not as if marketing of some sort hasn't swept every generation of teens off their feet.
Best of both worlds? (Score:5, Funny)
Dig Dugg 2: The Electric boogaloo
Defender...of Compton
or heck just play Dopewars.
Re:Best of both worlds? (Score:5, Funny)
Bounce dat pizixel ball off mah padaddle, smack!
Re:Just to be fair, grand theft auto (Score:2)
Video Games and Teen Thugs (Score:3, Interesting)
Video game designers realize there is a pile of money to be made on criminals, too, because one of their favourite hobbies are console games. I'd wager that most criminals dislike computer games, yet I think with Doom 3 around the corner, this may change.
Thuggin: Spending money like an idiot, drinking to an excess, being only turned on by bimbos with no brains, beating eachother senseless with tire irons or whatever, shooting people you hate, getting shot at by people who hate you, eating only at drive thru, drinking alize and crystal, attending strip clubs like they were the new church, membership at the The Player'S Club, Gucci, bling-bling, busta move on da dance flo, Po Po, bein' Po cuz ya spendt it awl (not the same as Po Po), scrappin, etc.
Re:Video Games and Teen Thugs (Score:5, Insightful)
Spending money like an idiot, drinking to an excess, being only turned on by bimbos with no brains, beating eachother senseless with tire irons or whatever, shooting people you hate, getting shot at by people who hate you, eating only at drive thru, drinking alize and crystal, attending strip clubs like they were the new church, membership at the The Player'S Club, Gucci, bling-bling, bust
Riiiiiight.... with Daddy and Mommy's money. I think this kind of thing is just another outlet of "validated" rebellion the way Rock music was in the 70's - an ultimately safe way for middle-class kids to pretend they're pushing the boundaries.
The real people who actually live that lifestyle are revolting thugs.
Ouch.. (Score:2)
Re:Video Games and Teen Thugs (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a joke, right?
Re:Video Games and Teen Thugs (Score:5, Interesting)
Most video game companies still don't engage in this kind of behavior. I'm really big on sports games; in fact, that's basically all I play. I play them on my XBox, regrettably because I should've gotten a PS2 with an expansion HDD (my laser is a piece of garbage, my XBox told me that my discs were damaged the first time I put them in on the past two games I've purchased), and I enjoy them. I don't buy that NFL Street garbage or any of that.
I've recently made the switch back from a Madden gamer (2002-2004 games) to an ESPN gamer (2K-2K3, 2K5-). One thing that bothers me about the ESPN game is the "Crib" feature. As best as I can tell, this thing is designed to allow you to buy material possessions in order to make your "Crib" exciting. There's posters of girls you can put up on the walls, and while it's not as bad as the NBA Street games where you buy beautiful women and fast cars, it's unnecessary. I don't need that. I want a football game, not some excessive garbage about "pimpin' tha crib." It's absurd.
There sure is a lot of money to be made by these games as there is an entire culture of adolescents, as mfh outlined. We're talking about individuals who need to make up for some sort of inadequacy by acting tough. This is nothing new. People do this on a regular basis. I was walking down the street last night minding my own business, and a speeding little Hyundai piece of trash goes by and some drunkard yells out the window. I have no idea what was said, it was more of an "AUUHGHHH!!" I know where these people come from, too, and it says a lot. These are folks who just got back from their first year at college and away from their safety blankets. In order to make up for how inadequate they felt, they came back home and harass people drunkenly. They speed, they break laws, and they think they're tough, cool, and popular.
The same thing is occuring with these video games on a less personal scale. Immature people identify with the "thug" culture because it is wholly material. Beautiful women treated like objects and possessions. Fast cars, big houses, bling-bling. The video game industry is just buying into this cultural problem. They're out to make money, and they're doing it.
I will say, however, that the punk in question from Midway ought to realize that a large part of the video game market is not interested in this kind of crap. Calling legitimate complaints "bitching" and then accusing a mass of people whose demographics he obviously does not have the first clue about of pushing the age of 35 is just bad for business and it's a bad attitude. It's not like Midway is the shining beacon of video game producers anymore either.
Thats not culture, thats the truth. (Score:2, Insightful)
Women prefer the "thug" men over the nice guy weak men. Men who commit crimes successfully almost always have a girlfriend.
You don't have to be a violent criminal, you just need to have a nice car, lots of money, and the tough guy image. You see its all an act just like my name being adolph hitler is a persona, the "thugs" are acting out a persona to get the girls.
Women generally hate nice guys and consider them weak and inferior. Women are attracted to thugs who spend excessive money on them. As much as
Re:Thats not culture, thats the truth. (Score:2)
I think your name might be turning them off.
3 Billion want 'X' (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, no no no!
Don't ever think that! I'll leave aside the issue of generalising what three billion women want (makes about as much sense as me saying that all men want 'x'). But nice does not mean weak. Yes, weakness is rarely a trait that turns a woman on, but 'niceness' which I take to mean consideration for others is not the same.
If someone is only nice because they are afraid to upset someone, then are they really nice? I wouldn't think so. But a man who will stand up for you, protect you? Now that would be nice.
Some women will go for the badguys, but not many. Badguys in real-life are not like bad-guys in the movies. Do you really think most women want a life filled with violence and aggression? I promise you they don't.
Of course a certain amount of unpredictability is exciting. Everyone is attracted to someone who does the things that we wish we could do but can't. But I think that's really different to what you mean.
And in case you think all this has been meant in a physical sense, well yes it sort of was, but women can want a trophy boyfriend (the car, the clothes, the muscles) just like men want trophy girlfriends. But don't forget that not all men want that. (Relationships like this rarely last.) The other side of the gender-divide is not that different.
find me a woman who will go on a date with a homeless man with no job. Better yet find me woman period.
You're probably limited to other homeless women at the moment. It's not that a woman would or would not like you, but is she willing to make the sacrifices for you that dating a homeless man would involve (housing you, feeding you, driving you places)? When you're back on your feet then a woman is no longer having to make big lifestyle changes to accomodate you and you'll be a better prospect.
But it has nothing to do with you not being a "thug."
Re:Video Games and Teen Thugs (Score:2)
Actually, it just sounds like poor folk got their hands on some money. Seriously, I've lived here and there, in the states and in europe, and poor people are poor people, wherever you go. Poor people get money, and they spend it. They'll spend it on stupid shit that they can afford, RIGHT NOW - that's one of the reasons they're poor.
I speak, of course, from experience.
Re:Bling it on! (Score:3, Funny)
Something for Mr Allison to think about. (Score:3, Insightful)
But in five to ten years time we will be in control of the market's purse-strings. Don't ignore us.
Re:Something for Mr Allison to think about. (Score:2)
And should that be the case, you'll want to maximize your return on investment, which you'll notice means attracting a decent market share, which is what Steve Allison is talking about.
As a representative of the old-school (Score:4, Funny)
Yo momma!
huh? (Score:2)
what does generationally nostalgic mean?
Not A Big Deal (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not A Big Deal (Score:2)
Thug Geeks (Score:5, Interesting)
However, as you're all aware, the videogame industry is now outpacing Hollywood, which means geeks are no longer the main target audience. Games have gone mainstream in a horrible way.
Well, horrible for us at least. Which is what I'm getting at. You see, we may look down on this trend, I know I certainly do, but its not really our place to judge the people who they are now targeting.
Every generation has had their share of kids like this, the fad has just been different. Today its hiphop and thug culture. Doesn't make me like these kids any more, but they are certainly entitled to act this way. They're KIDS for fuck sake. Hopefully they'll grow out of it, otherwise, I'm sure with all the guns in the culture, Darwin will take care of the rest.
Fact is, this is only a phase that the games industry is going through, just like all the other ones they've gone through. Who knows what it will be next, but it really is luck that determines if it is compatible with older generations of gamers.
Don't fret though, once the gaming industry becomes more mature, we will start to see more stratification of companies as they target smaller audiences, and inevitably there will be some who choose to target older, more mature gamers.
And yes, Midway has sold out.
Re:Thug Geeks (Score:2, Insightful)
Sure it is. Anyone who acts like a cretin should be judged to be a cretin. Anyone who acts like a thug is a thug.
Re:Thug Geeks (Score:2)
If you want any proof of this, check out Madden 2005. While at EA's "Hot Summer Night" press event, they noted that songs on video games get more spins than the TV or even the radio. There is now a lot of pressure to sign "the next big thing" for a game to both boost game sales, and album sales of "the next big thing". And
An oath (Score:3, Interesting)
First, make it not suck
I'm just jealous... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm just jealous... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yep. I've always been mystified by that, even when I was young. Is it white guilt? Whatever it is, it's been going on for a long time. Clothing and music trends start with the young black people and they get copied and mainstreamed by middle class white kids who want to be "street" for some reason. Fashion and music wise it's cool for white kids to take their lead from the black kids.
The interesting thing is that it doesn't really work the other way around. Black kids who get good grades, show up for class, etc. are accused of acting "white."
Obviously I'm painting with a very broad brush here and making observations about race is always extremely touchy here in the USA, but I'm just noting that the culture exchange is not a two way street.
Hip-hop influence ? .... (Score:4, Informative)
As if our video-games didn't have enough mindless violence. Now they'll have this hard core hate that the Hip-Hop preaches like there is no tomorrow.
Think I'm really biased (which I am) or am trolling ? Well apparently Bill Cosby agrees with me [floridatoday.com]
Sunny Dubey
Resident of New York City, lots of mindless hip-hop here
Re:Hip-hop influence ? .... (Score:3, Insightful)
Can you blame people for producing what sells? Look at the number of mild to non-violent video games that go direct to bargin bin. Only with a change in our own consumption can we effect a change. What are your kids buying? What are they watching? What are you buying? What are you watching?
Re:Hip-hop influence ? .... (Score:2)
Bill O'Reilly, is that you? I didn't know you frequented my beloved Slashdot.
LK
Look at it this way... (Score:3, Insightful)
Fifteen years down the road, which will stand up better: a game that was released in 2004 that depicts life on the streets in that same year, or a game like the Legend of Zelda, which isn't set in our world?
Re:Look at it this way... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Look at it this way... (Score:2)
Re:Look at it this way... (Score:2)
Re:Look at it this way... (Score:2)
I just had a mental image of a marketing guy explaining to the board that he's not interested in making lots of money right now, but instead, building a more profitable and long-term customer base with a good reputation.
It's kind of a shame that I find the idea so funny.
35-year-olds? i'm 19. (Score:2, Insightful)
"NBA Nigga Be Ballin' Bling Bling on the Straight-Up Street an' Pimpin aa Bitches 2k4" makes me want to claw my brain out through my nostrils
and then the "audiences" in some of these games doing all their retarded ghetto flailing of arms in their air and stuff. UGH!
i hate what our society is becoming.
Re:35-year-olds? i'm 19. (Score:2)
Is this article some attempt at racism? (Score:4, Interesting)
How does rap music and def jam suddenly equal thug?
Urban maybe, if you want to call it Urban culture go ahead, but thug is definately the wrong word and makes the person who posted the article sound like a closet racist.
Re:Is this article some attempt at racism? (Score:2)
My girlfriend separates her clothes by colors when putting them away. Think the poster's like that too?
Re:Is this article some attempt at racism? (Score:3, Informative)
These games are portraying the current "Thug" lifestyle, which is not "black" or "urban" or "Def Jam", but "Thug".
Sort of like how a game that embraced the ideas of The Clash and The Sex Pistols might be labeled "punk", but would not necessarily be equal to "rock" or "white people".
Thug is 24" chrome wheels on your escalade, spraying champagne on a bikini-wearing skank's ass, while threatening violence for anyone who disagrees with
Re:Is this article some attempt at racism? (Score:2)
Only the last item there is really "thug." Some people like big rims and some people like to objectify women and are nowhere near the whole "thug" image. Threatening violence against anyone who disagrees with you however is classic thug behavior.
None is this shit is particularly special or new. Extravagant cars, marginalization of women, and violence
Re:Is this article some attempt at racism? (Score:3, Insightful)
Urban maybe, if you want to call it Urban culture go ahead, but thug is definately the wrong word and makes the person who posted the article sound like a closet racist.
There is nothing wrong with criticizing behavior, even if that behavior happens to correlate with a particular race. That's not racism.
Racism would be claiming that those behaviors are determined by race. That's a very different thing.
But notice how that idea is implicit in YOUR comment
Hip-hop nation (Score:3, Funny)
And with Arnold as Governor, we have a green light for unlimited violence in the entertainment industry. So there.
Re:Hip-hop nation (Score:2)
So if a Hindu ever becomes a governor of California than McDonalds will go out of business? Or was this comment ment to be somehow humorous?
Re:Hip-hop nation (Score:2)
Probably he won't care one whit about the issue until enough voters make a stink about it. Probably not even then. There are, after all, more important issues to be resolved that doing parents for them.
Re:Hip-hop nation (Score:2)
And with Arnold as Governor, we have a green light for unlimited violence in the entertainment industry. So there.
The inference I draw from this is that those who are violent condone violence in others. However, in my experience, those who are violent are just as quick to condemn others and even quicker to punish them. People are normally violent because they selfishly think it serves their needs. Selfishness is not a trait that likes to see itself in others.
Admitedly, in this case Arnie was only act
When Videogames Publishers Go 'Street' (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean come on... Does anyone really think that all the little "nigga" wannabe's are anything other than mass marketed MTV drones?
If everyone that 'talks the talk" also 'walked the walk', than 2/3 of the population would be in prison, or dead. It's a bunch of huff and puff 99% of the time, and it pisses of parents who grew up with Motley Crue and Poison doing the talking for them, so it's inherently the "in" thing.
The only real problem with it is the number of kids it introduces to the concept of "money is for buying bitches, and guns is for talkin" (there, I paraphrased the entire genre for you! Happy? 8).
So while I understand why game manufacturers are going for this target demographic, I don't know if it's neccesarily something I feel is a good thing.
You have to remember that until this generation of parents decide to start being parents, this is the kinda drek which is raising their kids while they're out trying to relive their childhoods themselves.
Personally, I'd rather role play Leisure Suit Larry [vintage-sierra.com] type characters than Snoop Dogg [eurweb.com] anyday. There's just something more fun about playing a smarmy cartoon character, and letting my imagination fill in some of the blanks, than playing a life like copy of a real life black pimp.
One's role-playing, and the other's just envy over an impossibility.
YAWN!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:YAWN!!! (Score:2)
Well of course it is, but it sure makes good Slashdot copy doesn't it?
He can say it, but it ain't true (Score:4, Insightful)
Really? Really? I've been reading that the gamer demographic keeps getting older. I've even read a little bit of that on Slashdot (although when I searched for it, all I got was a link to an article about women over 40 being a big, growing gamer market -- not quite the article I recall reading). We now have the gamer dad web site, and I'm sure a gamer mom web site either exists or will soon. I'm 33, and over the last 3 years, my income has finally been good enough to allow me to buy a Dreamcast, a PS2, and about $1,000 worth of games. I don't think I'm the only 30-something gamer in existence. I wonder if this guy just doesn't understand the market anymore. It's bigger than he imagines.
As someone 34 years old... (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's my point:
Older games LOOK like games. Suspension of disbelief was not necessary or even possible when dealing with flat-shaded 2D characters. I think back then gameplay testing was more important.. because there wasn't anything else to sweat over! There were no cameras, polygons, or anything just simple fun.
A lot of the games I see today are over-engineered.
Look at this way. Animation technology has come a LONG way, but does the anime industry rely exclusively on 3D computer generated images? Nope. Sure, 2D shaders are applied to some 3D objects then blended in with the 2D animation. And most 2D animation is done on a computer now. BUT it still *feels* like what came before it.
I don't really want a computer simulation of the outside world. I'd rather be out, in it.
Re:As someone 34 years old... (Score:2)
Would you consider Shrek or the Pixar films to be "over-engineered," because they rely on 3D computer-generated animation? Sure, we all know that pretty graphics don't make a game "goo
Re:As someone 34 years old... (Score:2)
The Urbz...HA! (Score:2, Interesting)
Right... (Score:2)
I'm a City Boy, I know what it's about. If you all want to play that game, joy joy for you.
I miss a lot of things about The City, but so much of it I can do without. Most of it has to do with the fact that people are not neighbors anymore. In The City, you don't know who lives next to you and don't care. If someone breaks into your pad and steals everything, the "neighbors" say "well, I heard so
Anyone seen the ESPYs? (Score:2)
Poochie from The Simpsons (Score:2, Insightful)
Tick Tock...Tick Tock... (Score:2)
Let's just hope (Score:3, Funny)
That could get real ugly...
Street cred of programmers and game players? (Score:4, Interesting)
Game programmers ain't much better. As someone said this is as real as Vanilla Ice.
As for how effective it is. Well the posts comments on how the 35 yr olds are just a small segment. Perhaps. But so are the 25-35 and 35+ segments. So are all the 0-25 who just don't like rap/hip-hop/streetcred. By focussing on one group that seems to be "in" at the moment you risk alienating all the rest. Just ask MTV.
I used to give this example and while it isn't entirely true anymore it still works. Look at the top ten most successfull films of all time and count the number with "classical" music and those with music that was current at the time.
Each generation needs their own kind of music to be able to rebel against those who came before. Nothing new there and nothing to worry about except that possibly one day we are going to run out of new music but then we can just start again. One day youths on the streetcorner will be grooving to beethoven and old folks passing by will say "shame in our day we listened to real music and what are these kids of today wearing, suit? Tie, a HAT? and look at his pants, they are not even down to the knees!".
Anyway I think that any game that attempts streetcred by including the current "hip" music and street talk is as pretend as a hollywood movie doing the same. You know that is just marketing by some 40yr old in a suit and the only ones stupid enough to think that playing these games gives you real street cred are exactly the people the 40yr old wants to reach. Middle-class white boys who want to show they are hard but still live at home with mommy and get daddy to pay their bills.
Funny how kids always think they are rebbelling by doing exactly what all the other kids are doing. Wouldn't it be a real rebbelion for a kid not to rebel? (I am as anti-social as they come and so the herding instinct is extremely low in me. I don't conform. Ever. Not even by not conforming. Doesn't make me better but it does give me some laughs when I see poor little rich kid gangsta's.)
"Hip Hop" Influence (Score:2, Interesting)
Unless things have changed the description of Gangsta Rap and Thug Life would be "hardcore" rap...not hip hop. Let me differentiate.
Hip hop can be negative, but in that vein it usually is meant to motivate you to get by the tough times. Most of it is just for partying or being silly. This might have changed but real hip hop back in the day would be Slick Rick, Erik B and Rakim; etc. Gangsta Rap would be NWA, Public Enemy; et
we're still the market (Score:4, Insightful)
I just turned 30 and I spend more on games now than I ever did as a kid. I was part of the first mainstream videogame generation and most of us have a lot more disposable income these days. And we still play games, even though some of us are married and/or have families.
It's incredibly stupid to dismiss us like that, but it's something I see over and over again. Games aren't maturing as my generation does, and although I spend a lot on games, I find the number of games that truly excite me anymore to be slim. My feeling is that a lot of this is due to the immaturity of many game developers, who think it's more important to have big-breasted polygons than a good storyline or gameplay. The other problem is arrogant and uninformed attitudes like this guy at Midway, which is very prevalent at the superpublishers which control the industry. I don't believe that the traditional business philosophy that the 12-18 market spends the most translates to the games market. From just personal experience I haven't seen the usual dropoff. What is needed is more independent studios again who have the creative integrity to concentrate on quality, which is what the 25-35 segment is begging for and not getting often.
Oh, and by the way Midway guy, 95% of the games your company has put out are trash.
Re:we're still the market (Score:2, Funny)
"95%"?
What, are you on Midway's payroll or something?.....
One for you, nineteen for me ~~ maybe for the taxman, but Midway's penchant for execrable games is far more proportionally dominant than that.
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/o,100/j,74/ [mobygames.com]
(Note that I am not referring to the legacy of masterful arcade games from the original Midway: Defender, Robotron: 2084 (!), SpyHunter, and Marble Madness are timel
Re:we're still the market (Score:2, Funny)
Up until recently, parents have been clueless about the games their kids are playing. But that's about to change, because more and more new parents are old-school gamers.
I'm 25 now. Parenthood isn't far off in my plans. If my kid wants a game, it'll have to get past me first, and "Grand Theft Hovercar XXIV: Bitch Smacka" is not gonna pass that test.
Hopefully, at that point, we'll have already had "the talk", and my child will value gameplay instead of sex, drugs, and violence. If so, then I
More Blacks own Consoles than PCs (Score:3, Insightful)
While the PC has certainly bloomed into a mainstream gaming platform, the number of console gamers are still larger. The industry has been quite aware of a single fact. More Black Americans own gaming consoles than PCs. A large segment of the console gaming market, are the black audiences who usually buy more sports titles than others. Thats why you have games like NBA Street, NFL Street.
Also i know of several developers that have been approached by very successful rappers/producers, and so forth looking to get into the game industry. They'll fund games, lend talent, music and marketing power.
There is a movement towards black culture in gaming because there is a huge market for it among whites, and even more among blacks.
Games are just like hollywood these days. They go for markets.
Frankly i wish they would make PC games like they used to, New ideas, new concepts. Interplay's Castles 2 etc. Something other than a freaking 3d FPS.
Oh no (Score:3, Interesting)
Where:
$1 is in (music, movies, games, websites, theater,
$2 is in (violent, sexual, political, heretical,
$3 is in (ban it, regulate it, age restrict it, burn them at the stake, make him drink hemlock,
Re:I blame it on... (Score:2)
Now, It's on!
Like Donkey Kong, beeeeeyatch!
Re:There is no such thing as "Street". (Score:2, Interesting)
So here's my own musing and karma risk
Street Culture...
Brings to mind asian-descended mallrats looking for expensive toys to tack on to their hondas. Carlos Santana (not black) making Rob Thomas (also not black) cooler. Playing Loud Ludacris and Eminem. Luda is black, but Eminem? Although at first glance he is a whitey doing "black" music, He certainly has is own sound, also influenced by classic anglo p
Re:There is no such thing as "Street". (Score:5, Interesting)
To look at older hip hop, you will find surprising similarities between Eminem's style and 's style. In 8 Mile they pay a homage to Rakim by pointing out that he was the first successful rapper to use complex rhyme schemes. To this day, no other rapper has been able to match him in the complexity of his or her rhymes. Rakim is an upright muslim, no excessive bling bling, no big booty bitches in his videos and possibly as a result of that no mainstream appeal. [mp3.com]
LK
Re:There is no such thing as "Street". (Score:2)
I guess Rakim got as booty as he does on that Truth Hurts cut. But I think his problem now is that he' been tied to Dr Dre who seems to have little interest in putting out the R's album. Its fine when Dre shelves his own products (re: Detox) but when it comes to other artists (Eve's first album is somewhere in his vault as well
Street? Road. Pass da Wolf Crik. (Score:3, Interesting)
Street music? Streets are just roads, right?
Re:HEY! 35!? FUCK OFF! (Score:2)
If you break into a cold sweat when someone says 'roll for initiative' then you are old school.
If you have dice that have more or less than six sides on them, you are old school.
If someone could make you cry by tearing your character sheet in half
If your game manuals weigh more than your Xbox, you are old school.
If your dragon looked like a duck, you are probably old school.
If you played MULE, Oregon Trail, Jumpman, Choplifter, or anything you had to type in yourself, you are o
Re:Rap music... no instrumental talent? (Score:2)
There is plenty of good hip hop out there (and even some that play instruments), you just have to look for it.
And just moving the dial will not (usually) find it.
Re:Rap music... no instrumental talent? (Score:3, Insightful)
False. You claim that a lack of instrumental skill is required to be a Hip-Hop artist. In fact, while instrumental skill may not be required to be an effective lyricist, most Hip-Hop artists possess musical talent in general, and instrumental talent in particular. It's required to create the music, the beat, the background. The array of musical instruments can be mind-boggling, and I submit the accompli