I’ll admit it. I’m a fan of graffiti.
I’m not a fan of messing with other people’s property. Hence, my dilemma.
So I get interested when I see things like the Graffiti Research Lab’s work with LED Throwies and their work with projecting graffiti art on to buildings:
In that same vein then I took notice over at Engadget the other day when they posted:
Video: WiiSpray lets virtual taggers spray without fear of the man.
Check out the WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs .
I’d embed it… but WordPress apparently doesn’t let me use object and embed tags. >_>
Wow, very cool. I find my own views of graffiti to be fairly similar.
My first reaction was to wonder about the connection between players of this game and tagging in real life. As in, will there be one? Is this a gateway to tagging? I ask specifically because I could see people thinking there is one, and whether they are right or wrong, I could see them coming to the conclusion that an application like this should be banned. They are already trying to do it with violent games. I wonder if it will go the way of under the radar or easy target.
And eating is the durned gateway to the OBESITY EPIDEMIC.
Ban spoons. And ice cream.
I get what you’re saying though. While it certainly is possible and I bet certain “parent” or “morality” groups might label this as such… quite frankly I don’t care. As you may recall I’m a rabid fan of Jet Set Radio, another game with “tagging” in it. While not too terribly mainstream it did survive with little to no criticism that I’m aware of. Hopefully, it will be the same with the WiiSpray.
Price point will probably be a major factor here. If this is going to be an elitist urban art movement thing that prices itself out of the range of the average gamer, then I doubt it will garner much attention. If it ends up being something that your random 15 year old can afford. Then it might just get some attention.
The tag bombing aspect of this usually involves some kind of projector to be able to project the graffiti on the side of a building. Those are growing cheaper and smaller, but may still be out of range of the average person on the street as I wouldn’t go projection tagging without an understanding that all my gear might get confiscated.
Banning things seem to have a way of just heightening their popularity today. Banning a game, a book or a movie seems to be a sure way to ensure it is ensconced in the hive mind permanently and encourages further transmission to a wider audience.
Well, I’m the first to say that a lifetime of violent video games has probably had the opposite effect on me. Weapons of any kind scare the living crap out of me. It’s difficult for me to even be in the same room as a gun.
But on the other hand, I would probably admit that much of my favorability to graffiti comes from playing or watching Jet Set Radio. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Being pro private property and pro graffiti can be difficult to reconcile. Ultimately I think I would say I am anti- bad graffiti.
If you want to do stupid graffiti, do it on your own property. If you want to do beautiful/amazing graffiti, then just don’t get caught. Or buy this game for the Wii. 
Sounds like a lack of familiarity with firearms to me. Which is NOT an criticism. I just see little similarity between what I’ve learned in firearms training and what I’ve played in games.
I’ve spent a lot of time playing games that involve swords and I feel neither a fear, nor a improvement in skill, nor really any correlation between what I’ve seen of swords in games and the swords I am handling and cutting with in the battoujutsu classes I take.
However, yes… I like this game because I’d like to try my hand at graffiti and on a daily basis the oppourtunities of doing so without negative consequences are rare.