Prepare to take a beating. Yesterday and today, independent New York developer Gamelab has been heading Gangs of GDC, an in-conference game running on various floors of the expo center. The idea is to join a video-game gang (choices include sects like the M.M.O.F.O's) and then fight rival gang members for control of on-screen territory. Players use their cell phones to call in for gang assignments, then they stand by a Gang TV to get paired off with another knife-wielding thug. Why do all that? Because it gives us a chance to play while we learn about playing. Also because what the Game Developers Conference needed was a little, old-fashioned gang violence.
