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Houser: Lack of respect gives us freedom

Rockstar VP doesn't want gaming to grow up too soon as he fears it'll become codified
Dan Houser, vice president of creative at Rockstar and lead writer on GTA IV, says the game industry's still in its infancy, and he's just fine with that as it means developers can keep making up the rules as they go along.

"I think the medium is still very young, he said. "It's not a baby, but it's still probably an infant. So everything is growing and evolving as we go along and we're still figuring out how to do stuff.

"But I think that's as much as case as it is with design as it is with storytelling, even though some things may be lifted from cinema or books. But we're learning new tricks and getting better as games mature," he told The Telegraph.

Asked whether he thought it'd be long before game writers were given the same respect as movies and TV writers, Houser said: "I hope it's long. It's really fun at the moment because we're not in any Academy and the medium's not codified. There's no accepted way of doing anything so that give us enormous pleasure because we can make it up as we go along.

"Movies and TV and books have become so structured in the way they have to approach things. Not working in that environment gives us enormous freedom. I'd rather keep the freedom and not have the respect."

The Lost and Damned, the first instalment of GTA IV's 360-exclusive downloadable content, is out on February 17. Check out our hands-on preview here.

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// Interactive
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Posted by $$johnman$$
I hear that, just look at holloywood and its lack of creativity as everybody is too scared to make a decent film anymore in case its not deemed acceptable.
I hope gaming nevr grows up if that is to be the case, in fact is there any need for it too?
Posted by DannyR
Well said. I suppose having that kind of freedom gives you the chance to make a good game, rather than some shitty fps thats been done a million times
Posted by StonecoldMC
Do you know what R* get from me? Respect.

I respect what they try to create and whilst it may not be too everyones liking there is no denying they are the Masters of this genre in Gaming.

Movies have been around for well over 100 years in some way shape or form and if you ask me the games we are playing and have played mean that when Gaming has matured away from the Geek/Nerd stigma then we should all be in for one Hell of an experience.

R*, Valve, Bungie, Bioware, Remedy and the rest just continue to do what you do the way you do it and you will continue to please million and million of people for years to come.
Posted by roland82
He's right, you would never get things like Persona's shooting yourself in the head if games were treated like films.
Posted by ricflair
A toddler?
Posted by peteuplink
I don;t think gaming is like an infant, it's been around long enough to have found it's feet and had a few fights with the big boys. It's more like a rebellious teenager
Posted by WHERESMYMONKEY
I'd Say Gamings hit the stage that films got to during the late 70s and 80's we're at the nasties satge. Mainstream press is generally divided as to whether a lot of the more adult games are artistic or filth.

It means we have at least an exciting decade or so of games really pushing the limits untill they finally hit an acceptable groove.

hopefully it won't though.
Posted by Barca Azul
TBH I think the games industry is far more creative than the film industry.

The casual market threatens the status quo of this though!! For me the casual market = Teen movies or Pop Idol
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