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."

Comments

Thug Geeks

[Lord_Dweomer]

I think its FAIRLY safe to say that the majority of true "geeks" are not thugs. The lifestyles/cultures just clash too much for that to seem feasible.

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.

Is this article some attempt at racism?

[Adolph_Hitler]

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.

When Videogames Publishers Go 'Street'

[Mr. Cancelled]

My money goes towards other interests than gaming.

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 type characters than Snoop Dogg 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.

Re:Video Games and Teen Thugs

[tsaler]

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.

Re:Sell out

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Rock sold out in the late 60s, early 70s. Definitely before 1975. Alternative sold out in 1991 I think, or was it earlier? Rap sold out, then sold out again, and has reached the magic "100,000 sellouts" number. Snoop Dog was on an AOL commercial, just when you thought it couldn't sell out any more. Country sold out, but no one bought. Is selling out a bad thing? Yes, but then I never much liked those genres anyway, so maybe it's good after all.

35 years old

[rd_syringe]

I resent the 35 year old comment, because I'm 21, and the games I grew up on weren't "streetcore" either. What on earth is the guy talking about? I don't know anyone in the 19-35 year old age range that is hip-hop hardcore. That shit resides in the high schools and malls. I like to refer to it as "mallcore," and it's pushed by Viacom affiliates like MTV controlled by rich executives who laugh at the very culture they propagate onto the kiddies, because it makes them money.

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:There is no such thing as "Street".

[Lord Kano]

Eminem? Although at first glance he is a whitey doing "black" music, He certainly has is own sound, also influenced by classic anglo poetic meter (and few black gentlemen bleach their hair).

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.

LK