New Video Game Considered Training Video for Taggers

Rob Wallace, Vice President, Communications
Keep America Beautiful

Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure was released by Atari last month, and the description on the company's website, www.gettingup.com, makes it sound like a training video game for graffiti taggers.

Among the claims made for the game is that it is “a groundbreaking graffiti play system, designed to sharpen your skills as you tag with aerosol, rollers, markers, wheat paste, stickers, and stencils.” The list of features also includes a “Unique ‘Intuition' system, allowing you to find ideal places to tag” and “authentic tags from more than 50 real-life graffiti artists, six of whom appear in-game as mentors.” The company also claims that the game will demonstrate abilities to “create tags in pressure situation, using multiple skills and styles and find the best spots to tag, to infiltrate areas and avoid capture.”

While this is not the first video game to feature graffiti vandalism, Keep America Beautiful believes that featuring real-world tutorials on tagging and trespassing crosses a line that other games previously had not. Atari defends the game by saying that the main character does not carry weapons. The promotional video for the game, however, shows him attacking enemies, including the police, with crowbars and flamethrowers improvised from his aerosol cans.

Getting Up was produced by Marc Ecko, a well-known hip-hop fashion figure, who has a large following among teens. This is likely to be the target audience for a product that seeks to make dangerous and criminal acts attractive to minors.

It is reasonable to assume that communities may see an upswing in tagger graffiti with the release of this game. There is precedent for concern. Independent studies have consistently proven that any event or media that legitimizes graffiti “art” results in a 12 to 22 percent increase in vandalism. In 2004, five Pennsylvania boys ages 12 to 14 were arrested for a property damage spree, and they cited an earlier video game, Grand Theft Auto, as the inspiration.

For resources and information that can help prevent graffiti, visit Keep America Beautiful's graffiti prevention-focused website.