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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."
These video games are as much "from the street" as Vanilla Ice was.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
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."
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when NWA or Ice-T was around this would have been interesting but come on now folks, the hip hop scene is dead and has been replaced by the thug-life affected persona that now simply looks and appears absurd.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.
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Pong: Snoop Dogg Edition
Dig Dugg 2: The Electric boogaloo
Defender...of Compton
or heck just play Dopewars.
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.
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.
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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.
The "musical fad" he was talking about is fake gangster rap music, e.g. G-Unit. I don't care how "real" or "hard" they are, real gangsters are on the streets, in jail, or dead, and they're never something to look up to.
True story.