November 2000
Note: The following
editorial does not necessarily express the views held by
GIGnews.com, Inc. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. We
ain't saying. We're just being all legal disclaimery.
Taking The Crime Out of
the Byte?
by "Poor Al" Barasch
Sega of America came
under attack again last month from the city of San
Francisco for sponsoring a graffiti art mural contest in
the city to promote the release of its Jet Grind
Radio
game for the Dreamcast. The city feared that allowing
the contest would give the nation the wrong idea about
San Francisco tolerating graffiti. The Bay Area based
electronic-games maker was previously attacked by
politician Willie Brown’s office for allowing the game
to be published at all, because part of the game’s
focus is to successfully spray graffiti art.
San Francisco’s Mayor
Willie Brown has intensified the city’s attack on
vandalism in recent months by appointing a citywide
graffiti crimes coordinator, and staging a
"graffiti summit" in which graffiti art was
dubbed "Public Enemy #1". The graffiti art
contest that took place on October 21st at
the Justin Herman Plaza was an embarrassment for the
administration because The Recreation and Park
Department issued the permit to Sega to stage the public
contest. Brown’s office attempted to convince Sega to
move the contest out of the city, but to no avail. P.J.
Johnston, Brown’s press secretary, was quoted in the
San Francisco Chronicle as saying "We think Sega
would like to be a responsible corporate citizen and
that this is just a mistake on their part."
Sega defended it’s
position, and points out that the game is set in "a
fantasy world of the future in which government has
passed very strict laws to stop kids from expressing
themselves." The player in the game takes on the
role of a graffiti artist, who roller-blades, and gets
chased by helicopters and tanks. Contrary to the view of
San Francisco’s city officials, the "real"
world of graffiti isn’t filled with roller-blading
delinquents running from tanks (in some cities they
employ helicopters but no tanks). So maybe the issue is
really the city’s perception of itself as the
aggressor against graffiti art, and how real their
mind-state appears in the video game. Maybe the tanks would
be real if only the city had the budget.
It’s difficult for the
current lawmakers to relate with the younger
"20-somethings" who’ve grown up on
"hip-hop" and graffiti as part of their daily
urban lives. These same "20-somethings" are
working as artists, designers, producers at video game
companies, and they in-turn take their salaries and buy
video games, which in turn influences the hoards of
teens who also grew up on hip-hop and graffiti. Sega’s
workforce is largely made up of members of this
generation attracted to San Francisco by its liberal
leanings and youth friendly laws. From a business
standpoint, Sega targeted its demographic with Jet Grind
Radio. From a political standpoint, Willie Brown’s
office isn’t as concerned with pleasing the same
demographic that made "The City" so
economically strong.
The entertainment
industry depicts crime regularly, and video games are no
exception. Movies depict characters regularly who are
"outlaws", but end up being our
"heroes". Clint Eastwood made his career
playing those roles. As creators of entertainment we
assume that people know the difference between reality
and fantasy. That they no sooner will go and spray paint
on a truck because they played a video game, than they
would go out and become a greedy roaming desert bandido
from watching The Good The Bad and The Ugly.
Video games contain all
sorts of depictions of crime. Grand Theft Auto and its
sequel depict a virtual smorgasbord of unlawful acts.
Street racing games depict high-speed illegal racing far
above the limits. Carmageddon dishes out bonus points
for smashing into pedestrians. Mortal Kombat depicts
fighters ripping spines out of opponent’s backs. Good
parenting and good decision making are the only
effective regulations of all this content, as the video
game industry should be allowed the same creative
freedom as other mediums.
Graffiti decorations are
present in tons of video games. They’re used in skate
boarding games, first-person shooter urban sprawl, and
even in the logos of many games. Up until now it’s
been ok to decorate your video game with graffiti, not
just actually do it in the game. (With the exception of
Half-Life that had a spray-painting feature for you to
leave your mark on the multiplayer map walls.)
Maybe the teens and
"20-somethings" didn’t realize expressive
freedom was so heinous a crime. More heinous than
murder, grand-theft-auto, reckless driving, etc… Maybe
the hyper-stylistic world of Jet Grind Radio isn’t as
fantastic as it may seem at first glance. Maybe the City
of San Francisco is so worried about expressive freedom
that they can’t allow even the mind-state of the
graffiti art form to be seen. Not illegally on the
streets, legally at a city permitted gathering, and not
legally performed in a video game fantasy world of
roller-blades and tanks. The issue then becomes not one
of legality (as illegal acts are allowed to go unchecked
in video games regularly) but a battle a generation’s
artistic vision in a city eager ‘to pass strict laws
restricting kid’s expressive freedoms’.
(Afterword: The author
has his avant-garde video game design available for
production in which "20-somethings" attempt to
pour down to the voting booths on scooters, dodge
politicians in armored cars and fighter planes, and
demand political representation of their generation.)
Bio
"Poor Al" Barasch worked in the industry at a
publisher for five years, starting as a tester and
working his way up to being a Producer. Realizing that
he was spending too much time talking about contracts
and yapping on his cell-phone, and not playing enough
games, he quit and has been freelance writing since
February of 2000. Now he’s back to spending most of
the time playing games so he can tell other people how
to play them, in manuals, on-line strategy guides, and
strategy books, and as a design consultant.
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