Rockstar's Sam Houser: Powerful People Out to Get Us
Rockstar's Sam Houser: Powerful People Out to Get Us
July 11, 2008
In a rare interview, Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser told MCVUK that unnamed political forces have tried to bring the Grand Theft Auto publisher down:
[My biggest challenge has been] surviving in an environment in which powerful people want to put you out of business for their own political or economic capital.
Houser addresses several more topics in the interview. It's definitely worth a read.
GP: We wish Houser would have named names. Jack Thompson, of course, has boasted many times that he is out to destroy Rockstar. But we're not sure we'd classify him as "powerful".
The list of elected officials who have criticized GTA is far too numerous to mention and contains some folks with some legitimate juice such as Hillary Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But we can't recall any of them wanting to lay waste to Rockstar...
A PUBLICATION OF THE ECA
SUBSCRIBE
LOGIN / REGISTER
Crispy Gamer
GamePolitics ShoutBox
Posted 03/21/10 at 03:29pm
Valdearg: Hrm.. Sounds to me like Dem leaders cut a deal with Bart Stupak, a big blue dog, for his vote on healthcare.
Valdearg: Hrm.. Sounds to me like Dem leaders cut a deal with Bart Stupak, a big blue dog, for his vote on healthcare.
Posted 03/21/10 at 02:13pm
hayabusa75: Who's Keefer?
hayabusa75: Who's Keefer?
Posted 03/21/10 at 01:58pm
ZippyDSMlee: Wow JD is on a tear he's almost filled the shout box up :P
ZippyDSMlee: Wow JD is on a tear he's almost filled the shout box up :P
Posted 03/21/10 at 12:12pm
JDKJ: DarkSaber: Keefer says he's sorry he put that merciless ass-whupping on you and hopes you'll return to assume your responsibilities as Resident GamePolitics Troll.
JDKJ: DarkSaber: Keefer says he's sorry he put that merciless ass-whupping on you and hopes you'll return to assume your responsibilities as Resident GamePolitics Troll.
Posted 03/21/10 at 09:10am
JDKJ: BREAKING: Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, to meet with House Democrat Caucus in effort to win over undecided votes for health care reform bill.
JDKJ: BREAKING: Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, to meet with House Democrat Caucus in effort to win over undecided votes for health care reform bill.
Posted 03/21/10 at 09:02am
JDKJ: BREAKING: Angry mobs of duckbill platypus march on Sydney in opposition to appointment of Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.
JDKJ: BREAKING: Angry mobs of duckbill platypus march on Sydney in opposition to appointment of Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.
Posted 03/21/10 at 08:56am
JDKJ: Of 437 koala bears surveyed, 420 preferred women with big tits.
JDKJ: Of 437 koala bears surveyed, 420 preferred women with big tits.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:32pm
Aliasalpha: Ding dong the witch is dead eh? Maybe we'll finally be treated as adults here and women can have small tits again!
Aliasalpha: Ding dong the witch is dead eh? Maybe we'll finally be treated as adults here and women can have small tits again!
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:28pm
JDKJ: Survey says no opinion either way. But approval is high among wombats.
JDKJ: Survey says no opinion either way. But approval is high among wombats.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:25pm
BearDogg-X: JDKJ: What does the wallabies and crocodiles think of Skippy?
BearDogg-X: JDKJ: What does the wallabies and crocodiles think of Skippy?
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:24pm
Andrew Eisen: Beardogg-X - Not staunchly, no. However, only one AG has gone on record as supporting an R18+ rating. The rest either stated no position or declined to comment.
Andrew Eisen: Beardogg-X - Not staunchly, no. However, only one AG has gone on record as supporting an R18+ rating. The rest either stated no position or declined to comment.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:23pm
JDKJ: Of 437 koala bears surveyed, 420 disagree with choice of Skippy for interim AG.
JDKJ: Of 437 koala bears surveyed, 420 disagree with choice of Skippy for interim AG.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:21pm
BearDogg-X: With Atkinson stepping down, the question now becomes was there any other AG besides him that was against R18+? His stepping down does make R18+ more likely to be approved.
BearDogg-X: With Atkinson stepping down, the question now becomes was there any other AG besides him that was against R18+? His stepping down does make R18+ more likely to be approved.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:18pm
Andrew Eisen: Well, Adelaide readers seem pleased with Atkinson's decision. 420 out of 437.
Andrew Eisen: Well, Adelaide readers seem pleased with Atkinson's decision. 420 out of 437.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:15pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: Vacant Aussie AG post to be filled by Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.
JDKJ: BREAKING: Vacant Aussie AG post to be filled by Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:12pm
Andrew Eisen: Flamespeak - Gamecube and Xbox came out in late 2001 with contollers pretty similar to the Dual Shock. You never know thoug. This Fall may be when the standard controller changes from the Dual Shock to a motion wand. *shudder*
Andrew Eisen: Flamespeak - Gamecube and Xbox came out in late 2001 with contollers pretty similar to the Dual Shock. You never know thoug. This Fall may be when the standard controller changes from the Dual Shock to a motion wand. *shudder*
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:09pm
Flamespeak: at a quicker rate these days.
Flamespeak: at a quicker rate these days.
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:09pm
Flamespeak: I believe that was launched in the first part of 1998. 2 years seems kind of fast too, but then again the world seems to move
Flamespeak: I believe that was launched in the first part of 1998. 2 years seems kind of fast too, but then again the world seems to move
Posted 03/20/10 at 10:05pm
Andrew Eisen: Flamespeak - Not when you consider Sony's been using the same controller since the PS1.
Andrew Eisen: Flamespeak - Not when you consider Sony's been using the same controller since the PS1.
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
You can't name this without thinking about the jerks in the UK (ie the prime minister for starters) who charge that anything that is wrong over there is due to games.
@GP: It is perfectly understandable why he isn't naming people, all that would do is give them more ammunition to attack Rockstar with.
Without solid evidence saying a person is out to destroy you and your company is nothing more than libel and/or slander. If they're really out to get Rockstar, they will sue over something like that.
Especially if they're influential politicians or other powerful individuals.
He may just be paranoid.
Not saying paranoia is bad when y oru in his position and there are so many whack jobs out there like our favorite Ex-Attourney-to-be.
Say their names, cause a backlash from anyone who owns a console. Write these politicians. Give them the glaring evidence of all the reports from the last 4 years "Proving" the opposition wrong on all fronts. Mass mail all media outlets. Make them all choke on the truth. This isn't comics. This isn't Rock n' Roll. This is a medium that puts all those to shame in the mature catagory. Some games are for kids, Some are for an older audience. That is why there is a rating system in place.
Sorry for the rant.
Bane XXIII
Minneapolis, Mn
He may be talking in general. There are quite a number of influental people who use Rockstar games as the whipping boy of their platforms.
I do wonder if these influential people would really want to destroy Rockstar though. If you successfully destroy your enemy, how are you supposed to rally your followers after that.
E. Zachary Knight
www.editorialgames.com
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/okceca
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1325674091
By claiming you were succesful in destroying one of your enemies ofcourse.
And very quickly looking for a new scapegoat to fill the void left by the previous one.
Well, apart from JT, who thinks everyone is out to corrupt society if they disagree with him, I think most of the criticism is coming from people who think that since RockStar has been able to make games that are both "controversial" and successful, they should be out of business. What they don't understand is that the games, although not for kids, are really no worse than most mob movies that are out there such as "The Godfather." It's just that RockStar has a bit of a sense of humor about it.
I wouldn't name names, either, if I was him. Make your enemies wonder who you are talking about.
I would really like to be able to respect the guys are rockstar, I really would. But seriously they've done some very "asshattery" level things along their way. The hot coffee thing for instance, while it is a 'mod' to open it up, the amount of code and data that you'd need to remove to make that be totaly unaccessable and unusable is miniscule and it feels like ether A) lazy programing or B)they left it in JUST to cause a scandal.
I can apprecate pushing the envelop to an extent but these guys do it in a way that seems to be willfuly antagonistic.
what probably happened with hot coffee is that the development leads probably didn't know about it until after everything in the gta development folder was downloaded to the disk. it ocasionally happenes in other games, like all of the glitch pokemon in blue red ( back when i played that shit)
I suppose it's 'possible' but it still feels like a fairly sizable chunk of data to simply 'forget' about. And the Project leads might have been unaware it was still there but the couldn't have been unaware of it having ever exsisted. Trust me on that one. My point is it still feels somewhat like lazy programing.
They never denied it. That was marketing that jumped on it to pretend it was never in there. I'll bet when the story broke, the lead programmers went "oh that? I though we disabled that."
Unless you've worked on a very large software project, trust me that it's not lazyness. It's prioritizing. Sometimes marketing wants something RIGHT NOW, and you really don't have the time to go in there and make sure you've cleared out all instances of code for things that were proposed but never finished. Not if it's not affecting your performance or file sizes...
I'm working on a project right now, and the software still compiles code that runs on hardware we haven't supported for over 2 years. Why? Because a savings of 10 minutes of compile time isn't worth the effort to clear it all out, not when I've got more important bugs/features to fix/add. So it sits, mostly disabled.
-- If your wiimote goes snicker-snack, check your wrist-strap...
I think he's referring more to the fact that whenever someone like a politician or lobbying group wants to find a scape goat in Video Games, GTA is inevitably used.
That said, did he expect otherwise? If you want to make a controversial game, expect controversy.
Jack, get off my side please.
Win.
Jack, Judge Tunis has already made her recommendations, and that's all they are, recommendations. Your annoying diatribes on how she's got so much trouble in store for her wouldn't mean a thing even if they were true. Your fate is in the hands of the FSC now, and they can make up their own minds about what to do with you.
I'm going to thoroughly enjoy watching them deliver that redwood-sized enema right through your legal career, you megalomaniacal scumbag.
Actually, I am EXTREMELY powerful in the sense that when the mass media want someone to trash Take-Two, they look around the newsroom and ask, "Who ya gonna call? Jack Thompson!"
And you're laughing all the way to the bank with it. Even AFTER the recent ruling from the courts.
So there's that, whether you like it or not, and secondly, I would say that judging by Dennis McCauley's obsession with only one side of the Dava Tunis story (too bad you lemmings don't know what else is going on down here that is bad news for little Dava) he thinks I'm pretty damned powerful.
No, idiots are just fun to mock. Most of the gaming community considers you just that- a delusional idiot with no real power, but damn, do you give us something to talk about.
But the REAL power that I have stems from the fact that I tapped into the vast angst over "Hollywood" and the rest of the depraved entertainment industry that is right reflected in every poll in which Americans are asked if they are comfortable with the slide of our pop culture into the sewer.
Yeah, and every time you mention their vile products in a negative light, their coffers grow a little bigger from the free publicity you give them. You're their favorite PR person.
I have been at the crest of this tsunami since 1987, and the vast majority of Americans who know what I do praise me, write me, pray for me, and 250,000 people lined the streets in Provo to celebrate what I stand for and have been targeted for.
Praise you? No. Write you? Maybe, but not for the reasons you might imagine. Pray for you? Ohhhh, some of us are praying for you, alright.
But the truly powerful person in the universe who has reserved an especially warm room in Hell for Houser is God Almighty. Either Sammy Boy repents, or he'll be S.O.L. shortly.
I'm pretty sure you're not God. Sorry to break it to you.
Warmly, Jack Thompson
You know, Mr. Thompson, in all honesty, I have nothing but respect for a person with the equipment to write a message ending with the hopes one of your enemies go to hell, then signing off with "warmly". Nice. Reeeeal nice.
I will add, American Idol is a bigger cess pit than videogames
You pose no threat to anyone. You are a joke. You are facing the potential death of your carreer as a lawyer. No one cares about 60 minutes anymore. You are a failure. Piss off you old woman.
-If shit and bricks were candy and tits, we'd all be livin' large. For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007)Grand Theft Childhood, by Harvard Medical School researchers Larry Kutner and Cheryl Olson
Jack, you seem to be angered, cornered and alone.
May I propose you pull a "Fred Durst"?
(Ie, behave like a spoiled brat making everyone in the biz and public think of you as a flailing douchebag with Zero credibility, and openly state your will to skip the country for Europe claiming everyone is nicer over here... Except, in reality, we're not; GTFO Fred Durst!)
@JT
Well according to Dante, hell has a circle for hypocrites...
I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area. If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?
But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself. Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children. Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story. Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age. The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself. Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head. Not gonna happen. Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.
The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status). In a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent. The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me. Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time. It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?
Thanks good job;
Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because these guys have done nothing travesti or little and need to start saving costs. and dizi izle
YES.
Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!
Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?
Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.
But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.