[extrabastardformula]

Why is this never gotten right? I'm playing Mark Ecko's Getting Up which is so bad it's hilarious, but if Ecko is on board I expect some sort of decent graf systems in place. Instead is an "inspiration" view which tells you where you need to tag. It just feels so lifeless, and the actual writing feels like stencils (which it is) and rewards stupid shit like writting on a given door eight times or being solely about going over other writers' stuff.

My other experience with grafitti based video gaming is the Jet Set Radio franchise. And while it's loads of fun in both instalments (yes I actually do like Future, even despite its glaring faults) a lot of it seems really wrong.

So the questions are how to get it right and does anyone get it right?
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[Sushi D]

[Leau]

The only way to get it "right" would be to build an entire game around it I suppose. It's primarily used in action games, and "real" grafitti takes hours to make which would kill the pacing in a game like the Warriors or JSR where you need to lay down some paint and then zip off to the next spot.

Even if the process was accelerated in some way, I imagine that a lot of gamers just aren't all that inclined to doodle unless there's some kind of online and/or multiplayer compenent for sharing it. It's a form of public expression I'm told.
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[Sly Buccelli]

In Rockstar's The Warriors you could buy spray bottles and then go to a spot where you could get a graffitti done. In order to do it, you had to use the analog to guide a cursor through an irregular line whose form was different from one graffitti to another. This system was frustrating because, as you paint, you run out of spray and it lasts very little time. Not only that, also if you get out of the line three times, your bottle automaticaly disappears, forcing you to use others you have in stock. This happens also when you finish the graffitti which means that if you use a entire spray bottle and the graffitti is almost done and you finish it using just a little quantity of spray from your new bottle, it will disappear just as if you had consumed the entire bottle when you used just a small quantity.

They used the same system in Bully but without having to use several bottles. You just buy one and it only disappears once you have finished a graffitti and you have several lines for each graffitti. It's less frustrating and way more comfortable but still it's not a satisfying system.
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[shrugtheironteacup]

[extrabastardformula]

[dmauro]

I'm pretty sure getting grafitti right depends on the game. Unless you are referring to making a grafitti sim, it's going to stay as a play mechanic that serves it's purpose by being as little like the actual act as possible. The only game with grafitti I've played is JSR, but it seemed to work just fine in that one. It's like a collection quest, finding rival tags, but you also have to stay still for a bit so there's the threat of getting nabbed by cops.
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[luvcraft]

since I've always thought that taggers are the scum of the earth, I'm not really qualified to say anything here except that I've always thought that taggers are the scum of the earth.

Graffiti artists on the other hand, who actually "pretty up" things with impromptu murals and stuff rather than just write "DIK" on everything with a sharpie, those guys deserve some respect. I'd think that a graffiti art videogame (rather than just one with tagging) would basically be exactly the same as that Bob Ross videogame that's coming out for the Wii, but maybe with a time limit.

[kiken]

I thought this going to be a thread discussing the aspects of using graffiti in backgrounds of various videogames (mostly those in urban settings... like the Shinobi series).

Needless to say, I'm disappointed...

I motion for a thread highjack.

[kthorjensen]

[Cossix]

I thought it got cancelled and then uncancelled.

[luvcraft]

[Gironika]

[firenze]

[another coma]

NEVAR FORGET

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[Gin]

What exactly do you want from this?

Grafitti art is actual art you know. Not many people are talented enough to make any good graffiti. The point of a graffiti game would have to be that you would be able to do it without having the actual talent to do so. Either that or you would do it to avoid getting arrested.

But either case is kinda weird. What's the point of making grafitti art if all you're doing is tagging, or making programmed images you wouldn't have the skill to make on your own? There's no creative expression there.

If you're doing it to avoid getting arrested, but you do have the skill, then well that's pretty lame. I mean, the chance of getting caught is one of the appeals isn't it? And it's hard to be proud of making art in a videogame. Digital graffiti is a bit pointless. Even then, if you don't have the skill, you'll just be making a mess on a digital wall here.


It'd have to become an abstraction, which is what they've done, and it becomes distanced from the actual activity.

Videogame football isn't fun because it's so similar to playing football.

In fact playing football is way more fun the videogame football, so I don't really get that either.




I don't get how a graffiti sim could possibly work, if it's an accurate high quality sim, then anyone who had the skills to play it might as well make real graffiti, and if it becomes too abstract, it's just gimmicky. The problem really is that when it's abstracted, they're just not making it fun.

What we're really talking about is just bad game design, and graffiti being a good example of that.


I suppose a really good graffiti sim would only be good as a training sim.

The real problem is that there aren't any black game devs.

[extrabastardformula]

[shrugtheironteacup]

[luvcraft]

[extrabastardformula]

Sorry there, it was firenze who was all about the King getting plastered on something getting people all messed about the influences. My bad. Ain't no reason to have mentioned you there.
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[tacotaskforce]

From my experience grafitti artists are one of the whiniest gaming contigents on the internet. They rank among Fallout fans and those people that claim to have no enjoyed a single game released after 1991.

Do skateboarders whine that Tony Hawk doesn't properly emulate the experience of their favorite activity because it simplifies tricks to four buttons? No, they sit down and enjoy a good game.

You want a game that allows you to digitally create images and then show to other people? They made that a few years ago. It's called Photoshop.

The reason that JSR, Getting Up, and The Warriors aren't accurate portrails of the act of creating graphitti is because the designers all understood that no one would want to sit down and spend hours in a creative venture only to finish and have no physical representation of their time.
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[luvcraft]