Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

If David Kushner's other book ( Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture ) is about success and business souring a friendship, then "Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto" is about the cold business world destroying wild dreams and ambitions. Sam Housar is a man who came to America with such wild dreams. The president and co-founder of Rockstar Games wanted to create video games that reminded him of the movies he enjoyed in his youth. Not only that, he wanted to make games immersive and sophisticated - an art form that older generations could no longer stereotype as 'children's toys.' But after the multimillion dollar success of the Playstation 2's "Grand Theft Auto" trilogy, Sam and his rebel crew at Rockstar found themselves caught in the crosshairs of an American culture war fueled by puritanical politicians and parents. Pressure only worsened as Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, was struck by fraud investigations. Suddenly, making envelope-pushing video games was no longer a dream job... collided with cold reality, it was hell on earth. The Hot Coffee scandal in particular really drove the boys to the brink. "Jacked" does a good job of showing the immense amounts of tension and soul-crushing strife in the aftermath that forced many to leave the company and others to view their stressful work environment as a place that wasn't quite so fun anymore. Meanwhile, behind enemy lines and spearheading the attack on Rockstar (or at least trying to make a name for himself as a crusader for justice) was an embittered Miami lawyer. Having already had moderate success against Two-Live Crew and Howard Stern, Jack Thompson trained his litigating guns on a new scourge that was not only threatening the youth of America in his eyes, but putting his young son in danger on a daily basis: violent video games. And Rockstar made just the type of product that got Thompson's infamous press releases rolling. "Jacked" fascinated me. I followed the entire controversy and free-for-all between Thompson, politicians and Rockstar Games during my college years, and this book recounts those warring days in perfect detail. I remember the blowup over "Kill All the Haitians," Hot Coffee, the numerous proposed bills, and Thompson's persistent trolling of GamePolitics.com. I was there for it all - and "Jacked" was a wonderful trip back in time as well as a fulfilling journey behind the scenes. Speaking of Jack Thompson, the book's portrayal of him is surprisingly sympathetic. For gamers, he has come to represent a kind of mustache-twirling supervillain, a destroyer of fun wherever it may be. In stark contrast, the man presented here is a concerned father who only wants to make the world a safer, cleaner place for his son. Of course, if one were to dig up Thompson's lengthy, rambling, bile-filled press releases (which "Jacked" doesn't quite reproduce) they might see a different side of the disbarred lawyer... perhaps a man driven mad by a crusade that has consumed him. Each chapter is headed by an illustration or quote that makes the story feel like it's straight out of a "Grand Theft Auto" playthrough. As Rockstar gets in larger amounts of trouble, the chapters are illustrated with increasing 'Wanted Level' stars. I loved this little element - it made the book even more of a fun ride. Perhaps the book could have gone into more detail about some things. For example, Kushner left out any mention of Volition Inc. and how Sam Housar might have felt about the GTA clone "Saints Row" series - especially "Saints Row 2," which some gamers jumped onto as a response to GTA IV's focus on heavy realism and man-dates. The Sam in "Jacked" doesn't strike me as the type of person who would be too happy about that. All in all, this was not only a great book, but a captivating page turner. I was sad to see it end so quickly. Like "Masters of Doom," "Jacked" has all the right elements for a fantastic movie: drama, humor and heartbreak. If you're like me and you've spent hundreds of hours between "GTAIII," "Vice City" and "San Andreas," you'd be doing yourself a huge favor by reading this book.

Good book; heavy on facts, a lot of quotes from actual Rockstar/DMA employees. Content is well-organized, and while it does mostly center on the Houser brothers, there's quite a bit on R* and DMA in general. The only issue that I have with this book is the editing. There are sentences that make no sense, and there is an unusually high number of typos. Sometimes the context is enough to understand what the author means - sometimes not. But if there is one thing that is absolutely infuriating it's the misspelling of "pixelated". Kushner is absolutely hellbent on using this word (as many as three times in one chapter), and each time he spells it as "pixilated" - which, while an actual word, means something completely unrelated. And while this may seem like a petty thing to bring up, the frequency of this is what makes it.. annoying. Overall though, great book, definitely worth a read.

This is a great book about the history and background of the of the Rockstar Games team and developers, gives a detailed background on the Hauser brothers and how far they've come since GTA: London 1969. Originally saw this book for sale in Edinburgh, Scotland (Birthplace of GTA), it was some 10 pounds+ (about $20). I was very interested in it but waited until I came home to purchase it from Amazon. Seriously a good read if your into Grand Theft Auto, funny and informative, the author did a good job. I would recommend this book. Thank you!

In the introduction to the book, the author describes the extensive research and intervewing conducted as background for the book. I wish the book had some of that depth to it--to me it read like a long magazine article. Not bad, but very little deep thinking. For a better read on video games, go to Tom Bissell's Extra Lives. The last chapter in that that book--on GTA IV--is more thought provoking than anything in this whole book. Unless you absolutely must, wait for a used copy or paperback, or the local library. Don't get me wrong, I read the whole thing quickly, but at the end I had the feeling of eating junk food--fun but not much in the way of nourishment.

This book was so good that I bought the author's other video game related book masters of doom and I'm gone to read it right after this review. As a life long gamer and as a fan and GTA player had to read it as I said I'm a life long gamer but right about now I'm at the stage where I want to know what's going on behind the scenes and how video games are made and the people who may them and their motivation and is not my first video game book about the subject I guess I'm trying to get inside game developer's mind because one hopefully I can make may own game's one day. That could only be half as good as the game and the author (David Kushner) and other video game book author have written about it's a great book and if your a life long fan of games like I am pick it up

As an avid fan of Rockstar this book was a little disappointing. Overall it was well written and informative, but I suppose you can't hope for a happy ending in non fiction I expected a good deal of bias. I figured Sam Houser would be portrayed as likeable, while Jack Thompson would be slandered. However, I felt sympathetic towards both men at the start of the book and sort of hated them both by the end. Additionally, Rockstar's actions throughout the GTA controversies and the working conditions, apparently for all of their games, left me feeling a bit guilty for supporting the company. Overall, I enjoyed the book a great deal, finishing it within a day, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth, despite the fact that Kushner tried to show how they had "grown up" with GTA IV.

sehr interessanter einblick in die spieleindustrie, mit betonung auf INDUSTRIE. einerseits ist es faszinierend, wie die personen hinter den spielen an diese herangehen, andererseits entzaubert es das ganze ein wenig, wenn man detailliert sieht, wie sehr das alles in marketingmaschinen und industrielle vorgänge eingebunden ist. da das aber jegliche form von kultur betrifft, leistet dieses buch einen wichtigen beitrag zur verortung von videospielen im kulturellen kontext. fakt ist aber auch, dass abseits von gta und seinen ablegern wenige videospiele derart ausholen und was storytiefe und detailverliebtheit betrifft, so neue maßstäbe setzen. sehr spannend zu lesen, teilweise ein wenig vorhersehbar - aber das ist die wirklichkeit ja meistens...

It's standard Kushner work: easy to read, well documented and full of anecdotes. The reason of its "unauthorizedness" is certainly because lots of insiders stories covered here go against the official and corrected version we all know of. In fact, it goes beyond mere differences in opinions. Especially, of course, the hot coffee affair, richly documented. It's hard to tell where the truth is, and where it's just people bitching at each others for personnal reasons. This aside, Kushner's book remains a relevant work about a well-known, but at the same time not so well-known, game franchise. It explains a lot. About why GTA has been envisionned, why they chose to promote it that way, and why it eventually backslashed at them. Kushner also gives a voice to people we gamers hardly listen, like the ESRB people, trying to make a better world for games while being laught at by the very people they serve. A book to read, if you want to understand a virtual phenomenon, and one decade of video games (1996-2006).

Good narrative about my childhood nostalgia and the efforts put in to make it a nostalgia for me and many..

Para quem leu e gostou de Masters of Doom, esse é obrigatório, ou pra qualquer um que se interesse pela história da criação de jogos.

Indispensable para entender un fenómeno de masas como GTA y con una cronología que daría para una serie a la altura de "Halt and catch fire". Si te gusta leer (en inglés) y la historia de los videojuegos, este es tu libro!