ne of the dominating themes at this year's E3 was what many dubbed the "thugging" of the games industry. Alongside the expected and the predictable, the sequels and the remakes, an inordinate amount of emphasis had been placed on urban and hip-hop themes in games. 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.
"It seems to me that hip-hop is just where the culture is these days," says Marc Ecko, whose Ecko brand name is one of the biggest success stories in urban culture. His fast-growing empire includes everything from shirts, pants, watches, footwear, formalwear, and babywear to his lifestyle magazine Complex, and now, through an agreement with Atari, videogames. "I've been seeing the opportunity for a game that taps into this stuff for the past five years," he tells us. "But I'm an outsider. What business does a guy who makes sweatshirts have making a videogame?"
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas -- The franchise that started it all Did Grand Theft Auto kick off the whole urban-lifestyle thing in videogames? It's possible. GTA3 was certainly one of the first games to embrace thug culture and exploit it for delicious gameplay purposes. San Andreas is taking the whole concept much, much further. You've no doubt already devoured every scrap of information Rockstar has revealed so far, so let's try to give you something new. The three cities in the game, Los Santos (based on Los Angeles), San Fierro (based on San Francisco), and Las Venturas (based on Las Vegas) are all joined by areas that are, for want of a better word, the "suburbs" of San Andreas. Each of these areas, we're told, is the same size as a gameplay area in GTA3. It seems we can expect Thelma & Louise-style car chases and Dukes of Hazzard-esque shenanigans as we terrorize the sleepy backwaters of the state. So that's three cities, each the size of Vice City, plus other areas the size of GTA3's. That's a damn big game. Publisher: Rockstar | Developer: Rockstar North | Release: October
Much more savvy about gaming than he initially lets on, Ecko has some pertinent observations for his new peers in the gaming business. "You can think of this urban trend very much like what happened with all the skate games a few years ago," he explains. "There were a lot of failing properties, and ultimately it was the Neversoft guys who won with Tony Hawk. It wasn't just that the game was good or because of Tony; it was because they lived the skate culture, too. They understood what it was that they were doing in the broader sense."
"People want stuff that's aspirational," Eidos President Rob Dyer tells us. His company is definitely aiming to live a thug life in 2004, and many of its upcoming titles are specifically focused on urban themes. "If you look at the games that are successful, they're the ones that tap into something from real life. Hip-hop is an extension of the aspirational lifestyle, and there's definitely a groundswell of games right now that all tap into this culture."
Def Jam Fight for NY -- Rappers hitting each other with furniture When Def Jam President Kevin Liles declared "gaming and hip-hop go hand in hand," we'd wager that a few of you dismissed it as just another brand guy wanting a piece of our action. Boy, were you wrong. Def Jam Vendetta helped push EA's Big brand in the direction it so desperately needed to go and proved that hip-hop stars punching the bejesus out of each other was what gamers wanted. Fight takes the concept further and blends a variety of fighting styles into a story-driven brawler that sees you encountering 35 well-known hip-hop artists, from Flava Flav to Ludacris. The development team listened to Vendetta criticisms and has addressed just about all of them; it's not just a wrestling game, you can now use weapons such as bottles, bats, or pieces of furniture, and
I'm 18, I was playing the old games,I remember pacman on my first console, I remember mario and I remember Sonic.
I'am the key market and I can't stand this "ghetto" crap. Give me greenhill Zone music over some crappy new rapper who acts like he grew up in Iraq rather then got mass produced by a record company.
Games are becomingtoo mainstream so they are dumbing them down and aiming them at people who may as well just buy a CD player and stop butchering something us real gamers adore.
YAY! Finally! We can take it to some random guy in some random company and revive it, where it will be used to battle other common animals and have a type advantage:D
Why is it only now "games can have stories?". I remember games having stories before it became some popular PSX fad.
I'm sure alot of people remember old Amiga RPGs and such. Stories in games isn't new, it's just the major companies have finally caught on that they can make money from more then explosions and sex.
Nice to see a hobby I've enjoyed for 15 years be degraded to "OMG THE MATRIX COULD BE USED AS A STORY!".
If you notice what it is replied to the post was "It shows AI as evil". So I pointed out how everything is "evil" unless it supports America in this brave new post 9/11 world.
Most people who use pot wouldn't be smart enough not to drive after they have used it. Hence it's just as dangerous as any of the other "take my mind off life" style addictive substances.
Arn't most games involving this sort of thing 18s any way? O.o
I've played violent games since as long as I can remember and now I'm almost a complete pacafist, nice to know that society made me this way and not that I learnt that violence was a pointless expression which words can express much better.
Sure some days I feel like kicking someones face in and I'm greatful that we have Street fighter and similar games so I can vent my destructive urges before they end up getting me in court with this new "look at me funny and I sue you" world we live in.
Welcome to the George Bush world. If it's not identical to the average American then it's evil and some how linked to 9/11
I'm still waiting for Bush to some how link the plane makers to terrorism and want to put spyware in everything related to planes (oh like Computers, TVs and the like)
Now it's Slashdot doubling up? Did they combind what appears to be two stories so they could start a flame war or just thought it wasn't going so well so they'd combind two stories to change the topic incase one didn't catch on.
There was an article a while ago about using Google to search for "hidden" files and such on servers. There was an interview with a guy who did it and everything. If Google can already do this and Gmail can search your e-mails (some of us lucky ones of course), why do we need a crappy thing to "enhance it"?
When will the senators etc. relise EVERYONE hates the RIAA and similar groups. If they support something then everyone else should be anti it. It's like Microsoft or the bogey man. All really evil but no one who can do anything about them ever sees them.
Sounds like a strip kiddy tried to write a virus, got lucky and is now making alot of trouble. Maybe this is the virus of the future... write it totally backwards or in a different language and then watch the anti-vir companies squirm.
The idea was that some ideals don't work.. the baby wasn't relatedto open source at all. The baby was relating to an ideal(don't have sex you're a priest for example). Ideals work in 1 place and 1 place only, it's when people start to push them on to other areas (Open source on TV) that problems start
Last time I checked it was rather difficult to enhance something already recorded... This seems like a gimmick to get onto the open source band wagon, it's just something which won't work outside of software IMO.
Open source is an ideal, it works with people who agree with it (us geeks), but when you try to apply an ideal to something else it won't work (hey lets never have sex so we can make a baby! for example).
So you can now tag school kids like your pet dogs? Does that mean you now "own" your kids? I'm sorry but I see a generation of people growing up feeling violated and wanting conpensation for their suffering.
We already know the zealots bitching about Gmail scanning your e-mail for related adverts. Having real people watching you and where you do is just going to push them off the edge with screams of 1984 (think that's it) being thrown around left and right.
I guess it's time to invest in tin foil if you live in Osaka.
Slashdot Mirror
Only it's the jobs of the Microsoft people who can't code software which doesn't require a reboot before you're allowed to save.
ne of the dominating themes at this year's E3 was what many dubbed the "thugging" of the games industry. Alongside the expected and the predictable, the sequels and the remakes, an inordinate amount of emphasis had been placed on urban and hip-hop themes in games. 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.
"It seems to me that hip-hop is just where the culture is these days," says Marc Ecko, whose Ecko brand name is one of the biggest success stories in urban culture. His fast-growing empire includes everything from shirts, pants, watches, footwear, formalwear, and babywear to his lifestyle magazine Complex, and now, through an agreement with Atari, videogames. "I've been seeing the opportunity for a game that taps into this stuff for the past five years," he tells us. "But I'm an outsider. What business does a guy who makes sweatshirts have making a videogame?"
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas -- The franchise that started it all
Did Grand Theft Auto kick off the whole urban-lifestyle thing in videogames? It's possible. GTA3 was certainly one of the first games to embrace thug culture and exploit it for delicious gameplay purposes. San Andreas is taking the whole concept much, much further. You've no doubt already devoured every scrap of information Rockstar has revealed so far, so let's try to give you something new. The three cities in the game, Los Santos (based on Los Angeles), San Fierro (based on San Francisco), and Las Venturas (based on Las Vegas) are all joined by areas that are, for want of a better word, the "suburbs" of San Andreas. Each of these areas, we're told, is the same size as a gameplay area in GTA3. It seems we can expect Thelma & Louise-style car chases and Dukes of Hazzard-esque shenanigans as we terrorize the sleepy backwaters of the state. So that's three cities, each the size of Vice City, plus other areas the size of GTA3's. That's a damn big game.
Publisher: Rockstar | Developer: Rockstar North | Release: October
Much more savvy about gaming than he initially lets on, Ecko has some pertinent observations for his new peers in the gaming business. "You can think of this urban trend very much like what happened with all the skate games a few years ago," he explains. "There were a lot of failing properties, and ultimately it was the Neversoft guys who won with Tony Hawk. It wasn't just that the game was good or because of Tony; it was because they lived the skate culture, too. They understood what it was that they were doing in the broader sense."
"People want stuff that's aspirational," Eidos President Rob Dyer tells us. His company is definitely aiming to live a thug life in 2004, and many of its upcoming titles are specifically focused on urban themes. "If you look at the games that are successful, they're the ones that tap into something from real life. Hip-hop is an extension of the aspirational lifestyle, and there's definitely a groundswell of games right now that all tap into this culture."
Def Jam Fight for NY -- Rappers hitting each other with furniture
When Def Jam President Kevin Liles declared "gaming and hip-hop go hand in hand," we'd wager that a few of you dismissed it as just another brand guy wanting a piece of our action. Boy, were you wrong. Def Jam Vendetta helped push EA's Big brand in the direction it so desperately needed to go and proved that hip-hop stars punching the bejesus out of each other was what gamers wanted. Fight takes the concept further and blends a variety of fighting styles into a story-driven brawler that sees you encountering 35 well-known hip-hop artists, from Flava Flav to Ludacris. The development team listened to Vendetta criticisms and has addressed just about all of them; it's not just a wrestling game, you can now use weapons such as bottles, bats, or pieces of furniture, and
I'm 18, I was playing the old games,I remember pacman on my first console, I remember mario and I remember Sonic.
I'am the key market and I can't stand this "ghetto" crap. Give me greenhill Zone music over some crappy new rapper who acts like he grew up in Iraq rather then got mass produced by a record company.
Games are becomingtoo mainstream so they are dumbing them down and aiming them at people who may as well just buy a CD player and stop butchering something us real gamers adore.
YAY! Finally! We can take it to some random guy in some random company and revive it, where it will be used to battle other common animals and have a type advantage :D
Looking at the apple page I think PC users won that flame war..
Why is it only now "games can have stories?". I remember games having stories before it became some popular PSX fad.
I'm sure alot of people remember old Amiga RPGs and such. Stories in games isn't new, it's just the major companies have finally caught on that they can make money from more then explosions and sex.
Nice to see a hobby I've enjoyed for 15 years be degraded to "OMG THE MATRIX COULD BE USED AS A STORY!".
Thank you money, remind me to thank you one day..
If you notice what it is replied to the post was "It shows AI as evil". So I pointed out how everything is "evil" unless it supports America in this brave new post 9/11 world.
So we sent a dog... now a mole... whats next? A swallow?
Pot kills just like drinking does.
Most people who use pot wouldn't be smart enough not to drive after they have used it. Hence it's just as dangerous as any of the other "take my mind off life" style addictive substances.
Arn't most games involving this sort of thing 18s any way? O.o
I've played violent games since as long as I can remember and now I'm almost a complete pacafist, nice to know that society made me this way and not that I learnt that violence was a pointless expression which words can express much better.
Sure some days I feel like kicking someones face in and I'm greatful that we have Street fighter and similar games so I can vent my destructive urges before they end up getting me in court with this new "look at me funny and I sue you" world we live in.
Wheres the mention of the most infamous mistake ever?
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"
should of been
"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"
Anakin is a robot now?
"Master, that is unsafe, you should not be using your mind trick to star in more then one Star wars movie"
Welcome to the George Bush world. If it's not identical to the average American then it's evil and some how linked to 9/11
I'm still waiting for Bush to some how link the plane makers to terrorism and want to put spyware in everything related to planes (oh like Computers, TVs and the like)
Now it's Slashdot doubling up? Did they combind what appears to be two stories so they could start a flame war or just thought it wasn't going so well so they'd combind two stories to change the topic incase one didn't catch on.
1 million people, accounts, IPs logged or what?
Theres so many different ways to measure this.
There was an article a while ago about using Google to search for "hidden" files and such on servers. There was an interview with a guy who did it and everything. If Google can already do this and Gmail can search your e-mails (some of us lucky ones of course), why do we need a crappy thing to "enhance it"?
popularity gets you back in, money comes faster to those liked then hated :P
When will the senators etc. relise EVERYONE hates the RIAA and similar groups. If they support something then everyone else should be anti it. It's like Microsoft or the bogey man. All really evil but no one who can do anything about them ever sees them.
Isn't it time for spin off movies now?
Mozilla VS Explora!
Death match of the titans, who will survive!?
Sounds like a strip kiddy tried to write a virus, got lucky and is now making alot of trouble. Maybe this is the virus of the future... write it totally backwards or in a different language and then watch the anti-vir companies squirm.
Oh yea.. I can edit that pro America speech Bush gave and edit it to say America sucks.
With TV opinions pull in fanboys, fanboys make money. If you may your TV show open source some gimp will edit it so they get support and not you.
The idea was that some ideals don't work.. the baby wasn't relatedto open source at all. The baby was relating to an ideal(don't have sex you're a priest for example). Ideals work in 1 place and 1 place only, it's when people start to push them on to other areas (Open source on TV) that problems start
Last time I checked it was rather difficult to enhance something already recorded... This seems like a gimmick to get onto the open source band wagon, it's just something which won't work outside of software IMO.
Open source is an ideal, it works with people who agree with it (us geeks), but when you try to apply an ideal to something else it won't work (hey lets never have sex so we can make a baby! for example).
Guns put enough distance between people to make this impossible to track if you wanted it to be like that.
So you can now tag school kids like your pet dogs? Does that mean you now "own" your kids? I'm sorry but I see a generation of people growing up feeling violated and wanting conpensation for their suffering.
We already know the zealots bitching about Gmail scanning your e-mail for related adverts. Having real people watching you and where you do is just going to push them off the edge with screams of 1984 (think that's it) being thrown around left and right.
I guess it's time to invest in tin foil if you live in Osaka.