Team Talk: Rockstar Status: DENIED

TeamXbox’s recent multiplayer hands-on preview of Grand Theft Auto IV is a thorough, in-depth look at what our readers can expect when Rockstar’s hotly-anticipated title hits the shelves at the end of April. In this rare instance, however, one of these aforementioned “readers”– hanging on every one of Andy Eddy’s words– is me.

Yes, a game journalist with that sought after “inside track” is scanning the forums, checking the official site for updates and reading the previews, just like any non-connected, GTA mega-fan would. Why? “Rockstar” status, at least for GTA games (table tennis is another matter), isn’t thrown around like circa-2004 E3 entrance badges.

Only a select few will get their eyes, ears and hands on anything “insider” in regards to Grand Theft Auto IV, and this time around (I was fortunate to get the Rockstar treatment when I reviewed and previewed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Xbox), I’m on the outside looking in. Yes, an outsider in my own industry.

A little background into the editorial process of the gaming industry may help you better understand why Rockstar’s way of doing all things GTA-related is the bane of journalists not involved directly in the preview/review process.

Essentially, my job is the picnic that you all think it is. Along with the latest and greatest gear from Microsoft, I receive burned copies of code from games that aren’t even in EB Games’ database yet. If the code isn’t available for play at the office, hands-on sessions are available during office visits by the developers/publishers, or at major trade shows such as GDC, E3 and TGS. Basically, if I want to check out a game that isn’t on the market yet, I can with relative ease.

There are exceptions to this of course. The one that many of you may know about deals with Bungie and the Halo franchise.

To give you an idea how serious Bungie was about early access to its work , the offices staffed security guards around the clock before Halo 3 went gold. I know this because I happened to be taking a nap in a car situated in the Bungie parking lot, while a Microsoft employee that was accompanying me ran into the compound to talk to a staff member. They would not let me in, even if merely to pass the time, so I caught some bucket-seat Z’s instead. A guard woke me out of my slumber with the heavy rap of a Mag-Lite on window glass, and pretty much interrogated me until the MS brass returned to explain that I wasn’t a spy posing as Rip Van Winkle.

Although there are supposedly stricter developers out there (Eddy has told me tales of the early Nintendo days where code would be swiped from guarded machines during pee brakes), Rockstar works with a Bungie-level of secrecy. The current word is that Grand Theft Auto IV code will be available to the reviewers before launch, but not as a take-home disc. Rather, reviewers will be forced to play on machines and on code set up at a single, remote location of Rockstar’s choosing. And, of course, there are no plans for review copies to be released to the editors with a garage-band equivalent of rank in regards to Grand Theft Auto IV. Long story short: The first time that I’ll be playing GTA IV is the same day that you’ll first be playing it– April 29th.

Yes, I’m whining. Yes, more often than not, I’m a part of gaming’s inner circle. But keep this in mind: Third-person action is pretty much tied with racing for my favorite genre. Also understand that, in my opinion, Grand Theft Auto is still the franchise de resistance in the third-person genre. Throw in the fact that I have a sincere urge to play GTA IV NOW because of Rockstar’s clever velvet rope-style marketing (as in, the clubs with the red ropes are more exclusive, and therefore more intriguing, or, for those Ren & Stimpy fans…DON’T TOUCH THE SHINY, RED BUTTON!!) and you can understand the reasoning behind my pre-April 29th melancholy.

Fans of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts will surely be familiar with Snoopy Come Home– the animated short which depicts Charlie Brown’s lovable pup as an outsider for the majority of the episode. To understand my dejection, pay particular attention to the parts of Snoopy Come Home in which the voiceover booms: “NO DOGS ALLOWED.” Access: DENIED is no fun; whether beagle or bimbo-slappin’ gamer.


A more modern summation of my feelings toward not wanting to wait until the 29th to play perfection can be found deep within that Nickelback song that is still, somehow, in heavy radio rotation [three years after the album’s release]:

Cause we all just wanna’ be big rockstars, and blow up hilltop houses, jackin’ fifteen cars…

Ok, it may not go exactly like that, but hey…heyyyy I wanna’ be a rockstar!

What’s that Take-Two? GTA IV VIP access will not be granted?

I’m glad I preordered it.

Source [TeamXbox]