There was a time I might have used the word “hip” without using the words “too big” in the same sentence. Back when cars had running boards my grandmother might have said “hep” to mean the same thing.  But whether you say, hep, hip or “da bomb” (the newest phrase to go out of date) a friend of mine tells me that by the time I pick up a phrase she knows it is out of style.  So it might not be surprising that I have never heard of something called “Urban Golf”.  

Anyone who has ever swung a golf club will be able to tell you that it takes some of the “long green” to be able to “hit the green.”  For me the prospect of such would be somewhat akin to having champagne tastes on an imported beer budget (fortunately I am more a coffee sort of woman).  Occasionally, however, I have engaged in a round or two of virtual golf.  Still, a stroll down a virtual golf course epitomizes the description Mark Twain once gave golf…a waste of a good walk.

Then in the course of preparing for the interview next week with Illfonic Studios I discovered Urban Golf.  As we discussed yesterday, one of the products that Illfonic was in the process of developing was something called “Ghetto Golf” (come show 61 we will all find out if it still is being developed). Here is a description of the game by Illfonic – you can find the entire article here:

 IllFonic currently has two games in development. Ghetto Golf, announced at GDC in 2009, is a multiplatform release. Ghetto Golf is a rapid mixture of third person combat, sports gameplay and comedy, dedicated to those players that have always wanted to wield an Uzi with their 9 iron. – Illfonic

I don’t think I have ever seen the words “golf” and “uzi” used together; the closest I can come is a list of weapons used in Fallout 3. The first surprise was to find that there actually is a Ghetto Golf Association at ghettogolfassociation.org. After a brief perusal of their site, I know about as much about them as I did before.  A bit of a deeper search led me to discover that the concept of golf off the course (and I mean way, WAY of the course) is not unheard of. The first stop was urbangolf.org; on that site I found a short history of the game urban golf.  One read and I was determined to try it myself. Here is an excerpt from the history of urban golf:

After sunset, with the sky was still glowing orange and purple, we went out the front door of A-House and into the middle of San Antonio Street. We decided that the hole would be the side of the Westin hotel, about a mile or so away. We were excited, and Altaf kept on saying, “We’re playing Urban Golf, we’re playing Urban Golf!”

Altaf approaches life in general with a child-like enthusiasm. That’s why we liked him and that’s why he said yes to joining our game. Jon, being an expert in sports, laid down some ground rules. Then we flipped a coin to see who went first.

“Four!” I yelled and smacked the yellow tennis ball, sending it flying down San Antonio Street. I felt exhilarated right off.

“Cuatro!” Altaf yelled for the Spanish-speaking people.

“Fore!” Jon yelled and his ball went the straightest, highest and longest. Right from the start I thought he would win.

Down San Antonio we went. After about 3 shots, Altaf smacked his tennis ball and it lofted high, but it came down and hit the rear window of a brand new Lexus. It bounced, but set off the alarm.

It so happened that the car was parked by this huge window of an Italian restaurant. And it so happened that the car’s owner was sitting at the window to keep an eye on his car. When he saw that his baby got bumped with a tennis ball he leapt to his feet and pounded on the thick glass. We heard the muffled yells of a crazy man saying, “That’s my car! That’s my car!”

To this Altaf pick up his ball threw it over his shoulder like spilled salt, and said, “I’ll take a stroke.” We howled with laughter.

Soon a certain feeling that the cops might show up started to well slowly up in my gut. But, we went on.

The next thing I remember is the El Paso jail. In El Paso, the loved ones of the prisoners (mostly women) would stand across the street from the jail and with hand signals (of whose machinations I know nothing of) communicate to the prisoners through the windows of their jail cells.

As we approached the jail and played through this group of ladies with their arms flapping away, an uneasy pause took over us. We looked at them and they looked at us as if we just came off the Mothership.

Soon after we had passed the jail, the police showed up. They didn’t stop us or anything but they made us a little leery. So, we pick up our balls and put them in our pockets. The Police did circle back and they put their spotlight on us. We just were walking around using the clubs as canes.

I remember the look on the cop’s face in the lead car as he passed by. It was a very perplexed look of “What the hell are 3 guys doing, walking around with canes?” Then they sped off to headquarters around the corner.

By then, Jon was way out ahead, but I had caught up with Altaf. As we were closing in on the hole, traffic was getting busier and we would have to stop to let cars by. We were a block away and were all giving each other shit on who was going to win.

Then I smacked my ball and it rolled straight and looked like it was going to make it across the street in front of the Westin. Just then a car came from nowhere and ran over my ball causing it to squirt into a drainage grate. Lost for sure.

Jon howled with excitement as he was going to win. He went to make his shot, and it too went down a drain. At that Altaf jumped for joy and smacked his ball right into the side of the Westin.

So Altaf was the winner of the fist game of Urban Golf.

 - Brian Jerome Peterson “Bman”, June 12, 2003

At this point the topic “Rules” caught my eye.  After reading about the history of the game my first thought was of the famous scene in the old Humphrey Bogart movie Treasure of Sierra Madre where the bandits utter the now famous lines “Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges.”  You can read the rules here.

I also found this site along the way.   It turns out that there are more videos on the subject over at youtube than you can shake a…well, golf club at.  There is one particular video that led me to believe the concept of the game might not be quite as outrageous as I originally thought. 

Who really started the game? A look around the internet will tell you that more than one person claims to have invented it, and like all good things there will always be a dispute.

UPDATES

We couldn’t leave you without an update on our favorite drama and that is Activision vs. West and Zampella.  Well it turns out, those lessons we wrote about earlier in our article Lessons Not Learned  are about to get some serious reinforcement. Dan Amrich, Activision Social Media Manager, may be confused as he related  in a quote over at Gamasutra : “I’m confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus” It seems, however, that the attorney for former and current employees of Infinity Ward has a very clear picture of the subject :

 ”Activision owes my clients approximately $75 million to $125 million dollars,” attorney Bruce Isaacs told G4. “Activision has withheld most of the money to force many of my people to stay, some against their will, so that they would finish the delivery of Modern Warfare 3. That is not what they wanted to do. Many of them. My clients [are] entitled to their money. Activision has no right to withhold their money—our money.”

It seems that Activision will have to cut that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare profits pie in a lot more pieces than it thought they would – depending of course on the outcome of the many law suits and counter law suits.  At this juncture I can’t help but think of the line from a song in “Hello Dolly”…

 “Cuddle up to your cash register, it’s a little lumpy but it rings”

Closer to Home

A bit closer to home are the layoffs over at the Icarus Studios.  Members of their staff have been guests on the show before.  We actually knew about this one before it hit the internet – but this time we know a person or two who this has affected.  You know who you are. We hope you are back to work very, very soon.

Expand or Die

One of our regular reads is the “We fly spitfires” blog.  If you haven’t ever headed over there it is worth it just to read this latest entry. Here is a quote:

 “So naturally I’m more than a little worried about the future of Warhammer Online. To drop down from over 50 servers to just 5 in 18 months is quite, well, astonishing really and with no expansion in the works (or at least that’s been announced) I have to seriously wonder how long WAR can hold out.” – Gordon, Expand or Die, We Fly Spitfires website.

Obviously don’t expect happy bunny rabbits dancing around, but the retrospective view back on Warhammer caught our eye.  As our long time listeners know, we were once a Warhammer Online podcast before we expanded. In fact a large “stone” slab (not real stone) made for us with the name of our podcast and the Warhammer Online symbol still hangs on the wall of our office.  The most interesting part of the article, however, is the discussion on life cycle of a product – in this case an MMO.