Mark Ecko to the videogame industry: "y'all a bunch of bitches"

[Jetman]

Some good points were made in that interview, but they were made moot by the point that "Getting Up" is the focal point of the argument.

I only want to try it to hear Charlie Murphy ingame. That's about it -

[Drewbacca]

He's right though, lets be real, 95% of us completely wrote of Getting Up as soon as we heard the name. Its been getting solid reviews, though, but people will still ignore it in favor of Sonic Riders or whatever bullshit with favored IP is out there. Then in eight months we will whine because every game is a license or a sequel.

It's not like urban culture is a niche in video games either though. Urban themed games in video games has been going strong this entire generation.

[g0zen]

He's right though, lets be real, 95% of us completely wrote of Getting Up as soon as we heard the name. Its been getting solid reviews, though, but people will still ignore it in favor of Sonic Riders or whatever bullshit with favored IP is out there. Then in eight months we will whine because every game is a license or a sequel.

Well, come on now, one could have reason to WAIT before buying it because many urban games have been garbage; 187: Ride or Die, Crime Life, True Crime, NARC, etc. Now, if this game is good, I'll atleast try it sometime down the line. However, Marc Ecko can suck my dick if he thinks I'm going to throw down $50 for his game at launch. He can call me whatever he wants, until I see evidence to the contrary I'm going to assume games that are part of an overall crappy genre are crap.

[AaronChance]

I was interested in it until I saw videos of it in action. It doesn't look like something I want to play. I don't care about the 'culture' behind it and don't even know who the hell Mark Echo is. Nor do I care. I don't even care that the game was by the Collective, who haven't made anything decent since the first Buffy game. I'll stick to stealth killing geishas that use mushrooms as offensive weapons.

[Jeremy]

I haven't written off Getting Up just yet; it certainly looks like a fun game. But this is a packed generation for gaming, and just being "fun" doesn't equal spending $50 for a game at launch.

[MechDeus]

I also do not agree with his point that comparing Getting Up to Prince of Persia is is silly is incorrect -- strip both games of their motifs and they really do share similar mechanics, which does matter at some level (he does address this a bit at the end of the interview).

Normally people that have a hand in non-stellar games appreciate it when they're compared to stellar games. They do share a lot of similarities in their basic gameplay - it's just that one of those does it a whole lot better than the other.

The code is as polished as you can make it on a no-hard-drive console like the PS2. So, there are technical limitations that people just can’t understand.

I've got this lingering feeling that wasn't supposed to be ironic.

So besides graffiti, how different really is your game?

Well, that’s a pretty big besides. I mean, that’s a big besides if you know about game development. When you’re building a new engine, that’s a pretty big besides. So, I think that’s what defines the innovation.

Soooo... it's just the graffiti?

It’s funny, people will say, “He moves around like ‘Prince of Persia.’” No, he moves around like a graffiti artist, you know what I mean? It’s comical to me.

I know a few graffiti artists and I've never seen one leap fifteen feet with a four foot high clearance while walking down the street. Maybe he should be alerted to what "comical" means.

There are consumers out there that are looking for story and that are looking for innovation. You want something that is entertaining yet unique and fun. That’s the person I made this game for.

I agree, Jet Grind Radio was awesome.

In any case, his game is good. Not stellar and the constant product placement being shoved into every concievable aspect makes it a little painful to stomach at times, but there's nothing outstandingly bad about it. A good first effort.

[Jeremy]

The only thing I've read that bugs me is that you can't make your own grafitti design. You could do this in JGR for the DC (and I think even in the GBA version), there's no reason it shouldn't be here as well. Even 25 to Life lets you make your own tags.

[Finch]

I don't want to buy his game. Why is that a problem? I don't think it's a bad game, it's just something i don't care about. Talk to me again when it's called "Taizo-chan's Ippai Oppai".

[Bacon McShig]

The gaming community has a natural tendency to take anything cool and make it a brooding, "edgy" angstfest that may as well have been ripped out of a high school goth's notebook doodles.

Ker-fixed.

The other stuff I tend to agree on. The gaming community was ga-ga for graffiti when it was in a wacky jappy wonderland, but put it in a more realistic context and it's omg another lame thug simulator lolz. Nevermind that most of the best graf artists (many of whom Ecko put in the game) tend to be very down-to-earth, intelligent, and not thuggish at all. Also, many are white.

It certainly doesn't deserve to be correlated with the likes of 25 to Life or Crime Wars.

[Yoshi]

urban culture gets slammed for no apparant reason

I slam it because "urban culture" is an oxymoron.