Gamertell

Poynter Online reported Thursday (June 28, 2007) that UC Berkeley journalism students are developing a PC game whose purpose is to depict a section of 7th street as it appeared during the heyday of the 1940’s and 1950’s jazz and blues era. The project is the result of a $60,000 Knight News Challenge grant which was awarded to Paul Grabowicz, a professor of Journalism at the school.

Rumor has it that the game is going to be released as a free download once it’s done. Right now the students are working on re-creating the interiors of famous nightclubs and getting digital recordings of all the music from that era, which means the game is probably in final development stages. The Berkeley website states that users will be able to create an avatar much like in other MUDs.

The gameplay will involve creating a piece of music and then trying to get it played in one of the nighttime hotspots. Later stages of the game will attempt to “re-write” history (ha-ha) by getting the players to prevent the urban renewal and development that eventually wiped out 7th street and all of its historic and cultural treasures.

It’s great that we’re starting to see these kinds of innovative endeavors in expanding the boundaries of what videogames can do, and it’s not surprising that this particular gem comes from an institute of higher education. I definitely wouldn’t have expected the private sector to figure something like this out; it just wouldn’t be lucrative. Three cheers for Grabowicz and his students, who prove that videogames don’t have to be festivals of the body-count. I just hope somebody somewhere decides to start on Saxophone Hero soon.

Read [Poynter Online] Also Read [Remembering 7th Street]