Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

June 26, 2008

There's a fascinating piece on Develop today.

Writer Owain Bennallack speculates whether Rockstar founders and Sam and Dan Houser might someday be knighted.

While the Housers are pariahs to some for the GTA series' edgy content, their cultural and economic impact is undeniable. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that the passing of the years transformed British bad boys into royal honorees.

Here's Bennallack:

They’ve fought the law, Jack Thompson, and the British tabloids. With their comrades at Edinburgh’s Rockstar North they’ve upped the ante with each successive GTA, creating landmark games with ever more wit, élan, action and emotion...

 

...the establishment eventually co-opts any superstar bad boys who haven’t died in their own vomit, overdosed on narcotics, outlived their legends or crashed a light aircraft into some Caribbean outcrop.
I mean the inevitable coming of Sir Sam Houser, or Dan Houser OBE..

 

Grand Theft Auto IV caps a body of work that is culturally and commercially significant enough to warrant official recognition... The playful nature of GTA IV is also why today’s rote moral outrage will eventually be no impediment to the Housers getting their high society dues. It’s hard to appreciate now that rock music once shook society, but it did, and decades later Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney picked up their knighthoods regardless...

 

 

Buzz It

Comments

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

No, they shouldn't. 

 

I don't think they have made as much a contribution as, say the brothers that set up  Codemasters.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

So now JT can add the Queen of England to the list of conspirators against him.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

And then he would truly enter the Realm of LaRouche....

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

No.  Leaving aside any contribution their games have made to entertainment, the horrible way that they treat their employees should forever exclude them from recieving such an honour.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

I'm inclined to agree, but it didn't stop Alan Sugar from getting a knighthood.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

Ahem. You mean Sir Alan Sugar. Don't make him angry, now.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

It would kind of be like being attacked by an enraged Garden Gnome.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

Well if they can give Mugabe a knighthood and take it away from him as well, I don't see why the Houser Brothers can't get one either.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

Yes, they should. Next!

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

I can easily see it happening some years down the line. I cite The Rolling Stones by way of example, they raised plenty of hell and were vilified by the press in their early years but it hasn't stopped them from getting KBEs. R* look saintly in comparison, hell they haven't even broken the law! (At least I'm unaware of any police raids on Sam and Dan's houses.) ;)

[EDIT] The real barrier to recognition is whether R* is deemed to have had a big enough impact, one big franchise may not cut it... although the sales figures might make up for that particular shortcoming.

Gift.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

I would give anything, ANYTHING, to see the look on JT's face when he read's this article :D

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

Yeah Jack, where's your invite to come be Knighted?

Oh that's right, they don't Knight failed almost disbarred attorneys.

Sucks for you I guess...

400 Episodes and counting: http://www.orangeloungeradio.com/

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

ROFL I think you could connect a turbine to his ears and the steam would provide enough power to play GTA IV on a PS3 for a week ;)

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

All I have to say to you is, damn you for the soda through my nose

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

It's inevitable, but don't expect it to happen for another 15 years. Just look how long it took the Codies founders to get theirs! And how about the Stamper brothers - surely they're worth a nod, too?

-- teh moominz --

-- teh moominz --

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

Indeed, if you consider that many of the people who have recieved knighthoods for contributionsa to entertainment were often maligned and attacked by 'morality watchdogs' when they first appeared, it does actually make sense

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

As long as kooks like MP Vaz still are alive, there is NO CHANCE IN HELL.  Could you imagine the utter shitstorm the British media would have if R* people got knighted? 

 

Maybe in 20 years...

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

Vaz is really about the only MP with such strong opinions on this matter. A few politicians have a stated dislike for games (which is fair enough) but even then the attitude is more that kids should be out playing.

The British press has never been able to whip up a lot of hysteria over the subject. It's usually only used as filler when they can't find anything to blame on immigrants.

Although, I don't think they deserve a knighthood. Great though GTA is, the cultural impact isn't that great. People will forget it when the next great game comes along. Tomb Raider had considerably more influence outside of the games industry.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

yes but thats what would make their knighthood all the sweeter lol

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

I think the sweetest piece of fruit from the basket would be watching Sam and Dan get knighted befor Vaz does.

 

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. Edward R. Murrow

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. Edward R. Murrow

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

Vaz has another podium at the moment, what with government employees leaving Top Secret information on trains. So, he's probably not going to touch video games until there is another chance of a Media Slot to promote himself.

Re: Should Rockstar's Sam & Dan Houser be Knighted by the Queen?

yes , if nothing more so than they can force that which cannot be named to address them as "sir"

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