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Ecko Wins Right To Hold Getting Up Game Party

Fashion designer and game co-brander Marc Ecko has announced his apparent victory in a lawsuit the Company filed against New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Cit...

Simon Carless, Blogger

August 22, 2005

2 Min Read
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Fashion designer and game co-brander Marc Ecko has announced his apparent victory in a lawsuit the Company filed against New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City of New York, following a previous decision by the City to block a street party based around the forthcoming The Collective-developed, Atari-published video game Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, a title which some are claiming glorifies the 'antisocial' hobby of graffiti. Though Ecko had secured the necessary permits to hold a "Getting Up Block Party" in celebration of the game, the mayor's office withdrew its approval late last week. "The city isn't obligated to permit an event on a public street that encourages the vandalism of subway cars in the name of selling T-shirts and video games," said mayoral spokesman Ed Skyler. The exhibition had planned to feature graffiti artists in the act of creation using replica subway cars as a canvas. Mayor Michael Bloomberg himself added at the time that "We have talked to them and asked them to not have a subway car motif to write graffiti. This is not really art or expression. This is - let's be honest about what it is - it's trying to encourage people to do something that's not in anybody's interest." However, commenting on the court's new decision, Ecko stated: "Today is further affirmation that graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history. This event was conceived as a tribute to the roots of graffiti culture, a time in New York City's history that I chose to believe was worth fighting to preserve... Graffiti does not, as some in city hall have claimed, have to be a gateway to crime. It can also be a gateway to opportunity and success when channeled properly, and I hope that the Mayor accepts my offer to join me on Wednesday as we channel our creative energies together." Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is due out for release on the PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 in the near future.

About the Author

Simon Carless

Blogger

Simon Carless is the founder of the GameDiscoverCo agency and creator of the popular GameDiscoverCo game discoverability newsletter. He consults with a number of PC/console publishers and developers, and was previously most known for his role helping to shape the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Conference for many years.

He is also an investor and advisor to UK indie game publisher No More Robots (Descenders, Hypnospace Outlaw), a previous publisher and editor-in-chief at both Gamasutra and Game Developer magazine, and sits on the board of the Video Game History Foundation.

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