Haha, I bet you sweated bullets on that one Rob. :)
Overall, I think you raise some good points about the chapter. You can ask Bill in case you don't believe me, but there was a great deal of discussion (some might say ruckus) about which chapters to include and so on. We ended up omitting some games that I would have loved to write about, simply because we had already discussed much of the same elements for other games, and it didn't make sense to make a new chapter. For instance, we could have written a chapter on Secret of Monkey Island, but felt that the King's Quest chapter pretty much covered that territory.
I'm a man with little to zero interest in sports, yet clearly those types of games are important and influential. Many of my personal friends would buy whole systems just to play a certain wrestling or Madden game, for instance. I met one family whose life seemed to revolve around NASCAR and, of course, the latest and greatest NASCAR videogames (complete with steering wheels and foot pedals). I'm not an opponent of sports or anything, far from it--just not something I'm personally invested in. From what I hear, a lot of it depends on your dad. If your dad loves football, say, chances are you will, too. It's that father/son bond thing. My dad was huge into computers and videogames, so viola.
I've never played any of the Tony Hawk games myself, but did play Jet Grind Radio a bit on the Dreamcast and a motocross/dirtbike thing for the PC. I liked them both, though not really my thing, I guess. I really thought the dirtbike game was neat because it handled so well and moved so realistically, so I can appreciate this type of game (though admittedly not something I'd spend more than a few hours messing with).
The age is important with this kind of thing, too. I was really into skateboards when I was...hm. Maybe 10 or 12? I didn't have any good place to ride one (no sidewalks in the rural south), but did ride it a lot in our driveway. That and a little thing called a Roller Racer that should definitely have a game made out of it. SO MUCH FUN!!! Of course, I also had a BMX-style bike that I rode all the time, preferably on big hills or especially when people moved in and had those big piles of dirt in their yard. W00t!
Overall, though, I think the Hawk chapter turned out decent, and it might be suffering simply because the other chapters are better. I do agree that it would probably have been more fun to focus on the pre-hawk stuff than stuff that came later (I'm with you on that one).
To do the subject justice, Bill and I would've needed to immerse ourselves in skater culture, get familiar with the lingo and values, etc. Hopefully, someone will be inspired enough by our work to go out and write a full-length article (or book?) on the subject to really make it shine.
Haha, I bet you sweated bullets on that one Rob. :)
Overall, I think you raise some good points about the chapter. You can ask Bill in case you don't believe me, but there was a great deal of discussion (some might say ruckus) about which chapters to include and so on. We ended up omitting some games that I would have loved to write about, simply because we had already discussed much of the same elements for other games, and it didn't make sense to make a new chapter. For instance, we could have written a chapter on Secret of Monkey Island, but felt that the King's Quest chapter pretty much covered that territory.
I'm a man with little to zero interest in sports, yet clearly those types of games are important and influential. Many of my personal friends would buy whole systems just to play a certain wrestling or Madden game, for instance. I met one family whose life seemed to revolve around NASCAR and, of course, the latest and greatest NASCAR videogames (complete with steering wheels and foot pedals). I'm not an opponent of sports or anything, far from it--just not something I'm personally invested in. From what I hear, a lot of it depends on your dad. If your dad loves football, say, chances are you will, too. It's that father/son bond thing. My dad was huge into computers and videogames, so viola.
I've never played any of the Tony Hawk games myself, but did play Jet Grind Radio a bit on the Dreamcast and a motocross/dirtbike thing for the PC. I liked them both, though not really my thing, I guess. I really thought the dirtbike game was neat because it handled so well and moved so realistically, so I can appreciate this type of game (though admittedly not something I'd spend more than a few hours messing with).
The age is important with this kind of thing, too. I was really into skateboards when I was...hm. Maybe 10 or 12? I didn't have any good place to ride one (no sidewalks in the rural south), but did ride it a lot in our driveway. That and a little thing called a Roller Racer that should definitely have a game made out of it. SO MUCH FUN!!! Of course, I also had a BMX-style bike that I rode all the time, preferably on big hills or especially when people moved in and had those big piles of dirt in their yard. W00t!
Overall, though, I think the Hawk chapter turned out decent, and it might be suffering simply because the other chapters are better. I do agree that it would probably have been more fun to focus on the pre-hawk stuff than stuff that came later (I'm with you on that one).
To do the subject justice, Bill and I would've needed to immerse ourselves in skater culture, get familiar with the lingo and values, etc. Hopefully, someone will be inspired enough by our work to go out and write a full-length article (or book?) on the subject to really make it shine.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com