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When Videogames Publishers Go 'Street'
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."
Great
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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
Sunny Dubey
Resident of New York City, lots of mindless hip-hop here
That's not at all true - the genre's been going strong for 20+ years.
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.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
I almost see this as trolling, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
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 you. In short, its a total bastardization of the rap from the 80's or early 90's, and is not in any way directly equal to those subjects. It evokes the same negative connotations in rap fans' heads that Creed would in someone who likes rock.
I would argue that the only two mainstream popular rappers that don't wholly embrace "Thug" are Eminem and Outkast (which is actually two guys, deal with it), and that's a tenuous assertion.
How many of these games deal with the conflicted emotions of loving your child but disliking her mother? What about revealing the state of fear that even a "hardcore" rapper feels when forced to expose his emotions on stage in front of thousands of people who may or may not like him at all? How about the difficulty of growing up in a world of poverty and violence, where cops would just as soon spit on you as look at you?
What's that? None? Oh, you mean they all deal with 24" chrome wheels on an Escalade (Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition), a poseur, disgusting, women as complete and total objects (not Lara Croft here, or even saving the princess, but buying and selling women without the tongue-in-cheek GTA: Vice city attitude) and the "you're tough only if you have a gun" attitude?
Yeah, that's what we call Thug.