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...
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Posted 08/29/08 at 10:52am
ZippyDSMlee: feeman:DS is saying goverment would exspand more if the duims get in, he's probly right.
ZippyDSMlee: feeman:DS is saying goverment would exspand more if the duims get in, he's probly right.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:51am
thefremen: LOL, yes, the government has not expanded at all in the last 8 years, especially not for the benefit of corporate entities.
thefremen: LOL, yes, the government has not expanded at all in the last 8 years, especially not for the benefit of corporate entities.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:51am
thefremen: LOL, yes, the government has not expanded at all in the last 8 years, especially not for the benefit of corporate entities.
thefremen: LOL, yes, the government has not expanded at all in the last 8 years, especially not for the benefit of corporate entities.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:43am
ZippyDSMlee: DS- http://forums.theeca.com/showthread.php?p=84679#post84679 In OT BTW
ZippyDSMlee: DS- http://forums.theeca.com/showthread.php?p=84679#post84679 In OT BTW
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:32am
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: Sure ^^
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: Sure ^^
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:29am
Dark Sovereign: @zip: Make the thread. I'm just not active there.
Dark Sovereign: @zip: Make the thread. I'm just not active there.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:28am
SimonBob: Heh, I was just playing with the semantics for my own amusement, not trying to shoehorn my way into the argument.
SimonBob: Heh, I was just playing with the semantics for my own amusement, not trying to shoehorn my way into the argument.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:28am
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: Iwish you would join the forums so we can have a full conversation these shouts are stifling!
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: Iwish you would join the forums so we can have a full conversation these shouts are stifling!
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:27am
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign:force them into the wilderness to die off...this is the reality of not taking into account what to do with the lower classes.
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign:force them into the wilderness to die off...this is the reality of not taking into account what to do with the lower classes.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:26am
Dark Sovereign: @zip: What are you talking about? Less government means less taxes. Less taxes means more money in average Joe's pockets.
Dark Sovereign: @zip: What are you talking about? Less government means less taxes. Less taxes means more money in average Joe's pockets.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:26am
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: you DO realize there were roving shanty towns and poor hosues before social secuty was started? they were hives for poverty and disease,hell with todays "cleanliness" in housing code you can not have them anymore and states will just forc
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: you DO realize there were roving shanty towns and poor hosues before social secuty was started? they were hives for poverty and disease,hell with todays "cleanliness" in housing code you can not have them anymore and states will just forc
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:22am
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: noobies and their silly definition ^_~, but I ahve to ask how do you keep millions off the streets, taking twice as much money from states without social security and health care?
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: noobies and their silly definition ^_~, but I ahve to ask how do you keep millions off the streets, taking twice as much money from states without social security and health care?
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:22am
Dark Sovereign: You ASSUME that not giving tons of handouts to people will make them poor. America itself shows you are wrong.
Dark Sovereign: You ASSUME that not giving tons of handouts to people will make them poor. America itself shows you are wrong.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:17am
Dark Sovereign: Fascism involves ever-expanding government. I just argued the exact opposite.
Dark Sovereign: Fascism involves ever-expanding government. I just argued the exact opposite.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:17am
Dark Sovereign: Do either of you have any idea what "fascism" or totalitarianism IS? You aren't showing it.
Dark Sovereign: Do either of you have any idea what "fascism" or totalitarianism IS? You aren't showing it.
Posted 08/29/08 at 10:08am
SimonBob: "Fascism" is such a dirty word. Call it "totalitarianism" and at least it sounds vaguely reasonable, in a Heinlein-esque way.
SimonBob: "Fascism" is such a dirty word. Call it "totalitarianism" and at least it sounds vaguely reasonable, in a Heinlein-esque way.
Posted 08/29/08 at 09:50am
thefremen: @Dark Soveriegn: You're advocating the values of fascism, you know that right? If we call it conservatism does it smell as sweet
thefremen: @Dark Soveriegn: You're advocating the values of fascism, you know that right? If we call it conservatism does it smell as sweet
Posted 08/29/08 at 08:36am
gamepolitics: When I'm on the West Coast I miss my three-hour head start... wah...
gamepolitics: When I'm on the West Coast I miss my three-hour head start... wah...
Posted 08/28/08 at 10:03pm
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: right? ack sorry for the long windedness ><
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign: right? ack sorry for the long windedness ><
Posted 08/28/08 at 10:02pm
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign:infrastructure, let the states deal with the millions on disability or SSI let states run shanty towns for the great unwashed masses and all the death and disease that will ensue, as long as the middle and rich pay less taxes who cares righ
ZippyDSMlee: Dark Sovereign:infrastructure, let the states deal with the millions on disability or SSI let states run shanty towns for the great unwashed masses and all the death and disease that will ensue, as long as the middle and rich pay less taxes who cares righ
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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
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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...
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