Jacked: The Outlaw Story Of Grand Theft Auto (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
sehr interessanter einblick in die spieleindustrie, mit betonung auf INDUSTRIE.einerseits ist es faszinierend, wie die personen hinter den spielen an diese herangehen, andererseits entzaubert es das ganze ein wenig, wenn man detailliert sieht, wie sehr das alles in marketingmaschinen und industrielle vorgänge eingebunden ist.da das aber jegliche form von kultur betrifft, leistet dieses buch einen wichtigen beitrag zur verortung von videospielen im kulturellen kontext.fakt ist aber auch, dass abseits von gta und seinen ablegern wenige videospiele derart ausholen und was storytiefe und detailverliebtheit betrifft, so neue maßstäbe setzen.sehr spannend zu lesen, teilweise ein wenig vorhersehbar - aber das ist die wirklichkeit ja meistens... If you followed gaming, Jack Thompson, or censorship in the 90's, this book isn't going to give you any revelations. It covers the rise of R* Games on the wave of popularity from the Grand Theft Auto Series with "inside" information about the corporate culture (wild partying frat boys forced to grow up) and a parallel history of Jack Thompson's crusade to censor video games. Of course, the climax (no pun intended) is the Hot Coffee fiasco and an emotional downer of breakup of the founders of the company. However, this is done in a very pro-R* tone throughout, giving enormous credit where only average credit was due and being more about the author's love of the company rather than the facts. In fact, the only new tidbit in this book was that R* was planning to release a patch for the sex scenes in San Andreas on their own, had the modding community not done it for them.As a result, this book services only one audience well: the individual (likely founder) who provided the backstage information. It is full of hyperbole regarding the culture of R*, an almost reverential treatment of the CEO Sam Houser (until the bitter ending), and information gleaned from the Federal hearings into the Hot Coffee Scandal. As a fan of the GTA series, I've been under the impression for years that the Hot Coffee mod was vastly over-covered and sensationalistic, and this book is trying to rekindle that same fire for one more go at sales. Shame on Mr. Kushner for that.Even during its re-coverage of the Hot Coffee mod, the book lacks that critical thinking element that would have made it a good book. R* apparently told the world that the sex scenes were left in the game because it was too time consuming to rip them out at the end of the development cycle. This is accepted as near-Gospel truth by the author without even noticing that just a few chapters earlier he had described how the World Trade Center and other famous New York landmarks were ripped out of GTA:III in the wake 9/11. Rumour has long had it that there were missions also ripped out of that game (though if you're hoping to find some sort of answer to that question, do not bother with this book as it's not even hinted at), and the changes were made after the game had been finalized. Yet for some reason, R* claims that the sex mini-game in San Andreas could afford to be "wrapped" but not deleted before GTA:SA was even finalized, as it would have had other game-related repercussions. Even a decent critical review of the same tired old story would have probed this even more.Overall this book is there. It exists, and probably could have been published by R* to create new controversy. But it's not what this GTA Gamer wanted to see and is a wild disappointment if you're looking for something beyond what is found in game-website archives across the internet.
What do You think about Jacked: The Outlaw Story Of Grand Theft Auto (2012)?
Entertaining read. Makes me like Sam Houser more. This was an ode to freedom of speech.
—numan_ahm
interesting, but some factual inaccuracies made me question the stuff I didn't know.
—rodriisa000
Interesting story about the rise of the GTA series.
—djownsu1
