GTA IV is making waves

Wired…article

NYT…

“To the actors it is a simple issue of equity: equal pay for equal work, regardless of the medium.”

“Grand Theft Auto IV is such a simultaneously adoring and insightful take on modern America that it almost had to come from somewhere else. The game’s main production studio is in Edinburgh, and Rockstar’s leaders, the brothers Dan and Sam Houser, are British expatriates who moved to New York to indulge their fascination with urban American culture. Their success places them firmly among the distinguished cast of Britons from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards through Tina Brown who have flourished by identifying key elements of American culture, repackaging them for mass consumption and selling them back at a markup.”>”Grand Theft Auto IV is such a simultaneously adoring and insightful take on modern America that it almost had to come from somewhere else. The game’s main production studio is in Edinburgh, and Rockstar’s leaders, the brothers Dan and Sam Houser, are British expatriates who moved to New York to indulge their fascination with urban American culture. Their success places them firmly among the distinguished cast of Britons from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards through Tina Brown who have flourished by identifying key elements of American culture, repackaging them for mass consumption and selling them back at a markup.”

Responses for April 22

Check out this article on transmedia storytelling & the “geek elite.” How do you see Jenkins’s ideas playing out in the contemporary media landscape? Does convergence culture serve as the “new normal” or is it still a fringe phenomenon for specialized audiences? How do you see such practices transforming the future of media production & consumption?