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Kanye Zone

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Kanye Zone
The golden text "Kanye Zone", above the tagline "An interactive web experience"
Developer(s)Otter Spice Productions
Designer(s)Michael Frederickson
Stephen Barlow
Platform(s)Web browser
ReleaseMarch 9, 2012
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single-player

Kanye Zone is a browser game developed by Otter Spice Productions. It was released on March 9, 2012, and involves the player controlling a bumper in order to prevent an image of American musician Kanye West's head from entering a circle of increasing size, referred to as his "zone". The game incorporates sound clips from West's song "Niggas in Paris", and its premise is a parody of the song's lyrics.

Created by roommates Michael Frederickson and Stephen Barlow and inspired by 1980s video games, Kanye Zone received considerable media attention: Frederickson was interviewed by MTV, and several other news outlets reported on the game, some praising its simplicity and addictiveness. In May 2013, a follow-up game, titled Pitbull Party and based on the rapper Pitbull, was released.

Gameplay

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A gray square with a purple circle at the center: a smaller blue circle is below it on the left, and a small image of Kanye West's head is at its top right.
Kanye's head about to enter the zone, with the bumper opposite

The player's left and right arrow keys and space bar[1] control a bumper that moves around a purple circle.[2] Kanye West, represented by his head, attempts to enter the circle while repeatedly rapping "Don't let me into my zone", and the player must hit him with the bumper[2]—this causes him to disappear in a burst of dollar signs, and the player is rewarded with cash, added to a total displayed on the webpage.[3] A silhouette of Kanye's head shows where he will next spawn, and an arrow inside it indicates what direction he will travel in.[4] Play continues this way, with Kanye getting faster and the zone getting bigger,[5] until the player fails to prevent Kanye from entering the zone, when they are presented with a message declaring they have lost;[1] an image of rapper Jay-Z's head joins that of West, and the lyric "I'm definitely in my zone" is heard.[2] If the player's cash score is high enough, it is added to a leaderboard on the right of the page.[1]

Development

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The game was created by roommates[6] Michael Frederickson—a technical director at Pixar[5]—and Stephen Barlow using HTML5.[7] The two heard Kanye West's song "Niggas in Paris" and became "obsessed" with the lyric "Don't let me into my zone" (which is probably a reference to West's "artistic zone"[3]), and what it would mean to do so.[6] It was inspired by 1980s games such as Pac-Man, as well as the 1972 game Pong. They noted that although they tried to make the rest of the game "flashy", the zone had to be "this unremarkable geometric form" so as not to be distracting.[2]

There were a lot of questions like that we had to grapple with while creating this game. I feel like honestly Kanye West has asked them of us as a society and it's kind of our duty to answer them now. This game is an environment to help people do that.

—the game's co-creator Michael Frederickson[2]

Frederickson mused that the nature of Kanye's zone is "the whole question of the game", and agreed that it was "almost a philosophical question". Frederickson called West, the inspiration for the game, an "arrogant man who purports to know everything", and said that in the game he "[admits] some ignorance" as he "doesn't know exactly what'll happen if he gets in the zone." The fact that the player begins the game with $50,000 is a reference to the "Niggas in Paris" lyric "What's 50 grand to a mothafucka like me, can you please remind me"—the amount represents nothing.[2]

Release

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Kanye West in a jacket and a T-shirt with sunglasses hooked onto it
The game features and parodies the American hip hop artist Kanye West.

Kanye Zone was released on March 9, 2012[8] by Otter Spice Productions,[5] and Michael Frederickson promoted it at the Game Developers Conference.[9] Following its release, Kanye Zone reached the front page of the social news website Reddit, causing its creators to lose approximately US$700 after much traffic was driven to the website, and necessitating the compression of its contents; the next day, advertisements were added to the page.[6] Although two million games had been played in under a month, the game was not very profitable, as the creators made only eight dollars off the game.[2] The developers have since created a store selling various items adorned with a picture of the "zone", which Frederickson describes as "purple circles on everything".[6]

Although Kanye West has not contacted him,[6] Frederickson was interviewed about the game by MTV's Hive, which said it is "the best video game ever created based on a pop song and/or artist" and compared it to other games based on the song "Margaritaville" and the band Grateful Dead[2]—he described the interview "unthinkably disproportionate to the interest of Kanye Zone"; it even verged into the discussion of a film adaptation.[6] He was also a guest on the British video gaming radio show One Life Left.[6] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku called the game a "perversely addictive thing",[10] and Complex's Jacob Moore said it is "as basic as it can get, but that won't stop you from wasting hours of your day."[11] Metro dubbed Kanye Zone "the dumbest game you will spend 20 minutes playing" and "a hilarious low impact game in the tradition of early Atari".[12]

In March 2012, Frederickson stated that he was not yet working on a sequel to the game;[2] however, on May 31, 2013, Pitbull Party, a follow-up to Kanye Zone, was released.[13] Based on Pitbull's song "Don't Stop the Party" and released by Otter Spice Productions, it involves maneuvering Pitbull's head between scratches on turntable records.[14]

Shutdown and Reopening

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In December 2022, the game was replaced with a message stating:

Hello,

For abundantly obvious reasons, Kanye Zone has been taken down. This site is an elaborate joke that is no longer funny.

We appreciate you dropping by.

The replacement of the game was done in response to Kanye West's public praising of Adolf Hitler and his anti-Semitic remarks.[15] But as early as July 2023,[16] the game was reopened, and the website went back to functioning as it once did.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Weingus, Leigh (March 12, 2012). "Kanye Zone: Game Asks You To Keep Kanye West From Getting In The Zone". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Spitznagel, Eric (March 27, 2012). "Highway to the Kanye Zone". MTV Hive. Viacom. Archived from the original on September 30, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Nelson, Daryl (March 14, 2012). "Kanye West Tries to Get in the 'Zone' in New Game". PopCrush. Townsquare Media. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  4. ^ Margarella, Frank (July 28, 2013). "'Don't Let Kanye into His Zone' Review". Analog Addiction. Archived from the original on August 6, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c Zutter, Natalie (March 13, 2012). "Bizarre Internet Game Of The Day: Kanye Zone". Crushable. Alloy Digital. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Curran, Ste; Byron, Simon; Scantlebury, Ann (presenters) (June 26, 2012). The O(LL) Zone. One Life Left (Podcast). London: Resonance FM. Main discussion starts at 25:30. Archived from the original on October 1, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  7. ^ Nunez, Michael (March 10, 2012). "Kayne West Web Game: Don't Let Him Get In His Zone". International Business Times. IBT Media. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  8. ^ Frederickson, Michael (March 9, 2012). "Twitter / mfrederickson: Announcing the release of my ..." Twitter. Archived from the original on September 3, 2015. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  9. ^ Scantlebury, Ann (March 26, 2013). "One Life Left back at GDC". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Archived from the original on July 7, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  10. ^ Plunkett, Luke (March 14, 2012). "Oh God, a Kanye West Video Game". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on September 2, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  11. ^ Moore, Jacob (March 10, 2012). "Play 'Kanye Zone,' The New Kanye West Computer Game". Complex Music. Complex Media. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  12. ^ Healy, Pat (March 12, 2012). "Welcome to 'Kanye Zone,' the dumbest game you will spend 20 minutes playing". Metro.us. Metro International. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  13. ^ Frederickson, Michael (May 31, 2013). "Twitter / mfrederickson: Excited to announce ..." Twitter. Archived from the original on September 3, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  14. ^ Burns, Ashley (July 9, 2013). "'Pitbull Party' Is The Most Obnoxiously Awesome Game You'll Play Today". Uproxx. Uproxx Media. Archived from the original on August 27, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  15. ^ Silman, Jon (14 December 2022). "Infamous 'Kanye Zone' game taken offline in light of ongoing controversies". We Got This Covered. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  16. ^ "Don't let Kanye into his zone: Kanye Zone". 2023-07-08. Archived from the original on 2023-07-08. Retrieved 2023-09-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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