Carving Out Culture in Skate

The critical response to the long awaited comeback of the Skate franchise has been mixed. To the vocal online fandom, the game is a cash-grabby micro transaction mess, over reliant on repetitive tasks, that ”forces multiplayer down our throats” (whatever that means). I don’t agree with these claims, to be clear, and I don’t find them particularly interesting to discuss either. It’s a free to play online game. It is what it is.

Much more interesting however, is the reccurring complaint that the game either does not understand skateboarding culture or that it ”has no skateboarding culture”. Often accepted as fact rather than opinion, this has become a catch-all within the community for anything you don’t like about what has become of the franchise. It’s a claim worth investigating. As common as the complaint is, it begs a much bigger question: What is skateboarding culture in 2026? And what of it is missing in Skate?

Let’s begin by reviewing what the Skate Reddit community complain about when they complain about missing skateboarding culture. To get the obvious out of the way, most complaints do not specify what they mean. This is, after all, Reddit we are talking about. One post somehow highlights the counter-cultural roots of skate culture while also complaining about ”forced DEI frameworks”, a statement that doesn’t really warrant a response, other than fuck off. Shoutout to some of the great organizations bringing the joys of skateboarding to communities all around the world, like Skateistan and Skate Like A Girl.

Perhaps because players are so vague in their actual complaints, they are also very rarely challenged. Take a look at this example.

”They don’t even know Skate culture. The art style, voice acting and music prove it.”

Art style, voice acting and music. That is quite the list. The soundtrack, for the record, has included everything from Dinousar Jr.,Sonic Youth and Sunny Day Real Estate to Joey Bada$$, Magdalena Bay and Rico Nasty.

Many of the posts lamenting the death of skateboarding culture alludes to its presence in previous Skate games, as well as skateboarding video games more broadly.

”Those games had teeth and weren’t afraid to let you eat concrete with them”.

As evocative as that sounds, its not clear what it means. Is the new game not gritty enough?

”Skate. is a perfect example of what’s wrong with things nowadays. The game truly feels soulless, distant, corporate — just like the modern world in general. ”

Is the real issue of Skate modernity? To some extent I guess most issues are. Its a valid criticism in that sense, although not necessarily helpful.

”I used to build all the old street league parks in skate 3. Give us a park creator and I’ll happily build the street league parks and do all the work for you. We need skateboarding culture run by skateboarders in this game.”

In this one we are actually moving towards some kind of hint. Street League Skateboarding (SLS) is pretty much the dominant international skateboarding competition, and the model followed by the Olympics in their introduction of skateboarding as a sport. It was founded by Rob Dyrdek, a professional skateboarder who was ironically featured as a playable skater in the second and third installments of Skate. On that note, I guess it is by definition “run by skateboarders”. But are SLS parks — complete with all their sponsors and branding–really examples of skateboarding culture? Is skateboarding culture purpose-made parks, or is it making the most of an empty parking lot?

As hinted at here, brands are another point of contention in the community. To some, including the right brands is important.

“Do I have to be the one to post the skate culture in the new update?” reads a post with a photo of the Vans Curren Staples skateboarding shoes. “Finally feels like our fight for the culture is being heard w the new shop content” reads another, although it is unclear exactly what this is referencing.

Not all brands are created equally however. The inclusion of contemporary brand Sci-Fi Fantasy caused a fair few complaints, with players asking for the “proper” brands. But many of these brands, as one user points out, are dead. “Blind is done. World Industries is done. Fallen is done. Element is hanging on by a thread”. They continue; “It has me wondering if players actually. want to see current skate culture, or if they just want to get their 2000s era nostalgia fix?”

And so, another element is added; the difference between previous and current skateboarding culture. In his review of the much more stripped down skateboarding game Skater XL, in which there are no objectives at all, Cameron Kunzelman makes the observation that the original Skate games came into play as skaters were replacing “MTVish prankery” with “the cool aesthetics of a Thrasher magazine ad”:

“It’s no surprise that Skate released in the same year that Nike’s skateboarding division released its first video, signaling an industrial shift in the skateboarding world that framed it as a growing sport with big-name sponsorship opportunities from brands beyond the skateboarding world.”

Another complaint related to skateboarding culture concerns the lack of real skateboarders. Unlike previous games in the franchise, Skate doesn’t feature any real professional skateboarders, either as NPCs or playable characters. Which I do think is a bit of shame. As a form of expression, skateboarding is undoubtedly tied to those that has championed it throughout the years. The 2020 THPS 1+2 remake acknowledged this by featuring current day versions of the 1999 roster, including the then 52 year old birdman himself.

Hanging out at one of my favorite sparks in San Vansterdam.

What to make of this mess? The answer, I think, is found in one of my favorite posts, a short video titled “Skate culture W”. In the video, one character is lying on the ground while another hits them repeatedly in the crotch with their skateboard. Halfway through the clip, a third person sits down on the face of the person lying down. A fourth person rolls over them. Funny? Yes. But more than that, its people randomly coming together and making something of the mess. Skateboarding culture is what we make of the mess — and some players are making incredible things.

Some of the spots in Skate’s San Vansterdam are hommages to real world architecture made famous by skateboarders. The China Banks, about which there is an excellent Thrasher documentary, can be found in the corporate plazas of Hedgemont for example. But more than that, skateboard culture is exploring and making the most of all the new things that the world of Skate provides. Take a look at Vansta Magazine for example, a true to style, gorgeous skateboarding magazine complete with location spotlights, editorials and a whole lot of wonderful photos.

At this point I have spent hundreds of hours rolling around San Vansterdam. Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. Me and my brother have put together quite a few photos and clips of us finding and testing out new spots. I will stumble upon something, a ledge that I hadn’t noticed before or some banking hidden away in an alley, and I will make a note to bring my brother there the next time we play. Sometimes he will send me photos of things he has found for us to skate. This happens community wide as well. There is a constant stream of photos and videos online of people finding and creating — Skate features a decent array of objects to put down anywhere you want in the world — spots to skate. A well-placed piece of plywood can provide a lot of fun, in Skate and in real life.

Returning to the video of a person getting hit in the crotch, my most meaningful experiences with Skate have been those shared with others who I do not know. I once saw a lone skater rolling around the concrete bowl in the southeastern part of Brickswitch, and decided to sit down and watch him for a bit. After a minute or so, a third skater joined us and sat down next to me. We watched the first skater do some tricks, and then the guy who just joined dropped in as well. To my delight, the first skater then sat down next to me instead and before I know it we were taking turns watching each other skate around — and not a single word had to be spoken. This, to me, is skateboarding culture.

But skateboarding culture is of course not one single thing. It is both Tony Hawk and Tas Pappas. It is an olympic sport and a career, as well as hobby and counter-cultural expression. It happens in arenas as well as in parking lots. Its something we do to relax, and something we do to lock in. Culture is never static, it moves and shifts with the people within it. Skateboarding culture what we do when we get on our boards.

I’d be remiss not to quote one of my favorite posts about “skater eyes”, an oft clowned upon term used in the game to denote finding spots and lines. The post is by user Heavy_Army8243, titled “My thoughts on ‘skater eyes’.”

“What began as the flagship symbol of Skate.’s complete disregard for skate culture I believe is ironically going to become apart of skate culture forever. I know you’ve caught yourself at least once or twice using it unironically. To me, the phrase is a funny reminder that we have a transcendental love for skating, so much so that we take something completely devoid of skate culture and make it our own, and that’s what’s skating’s always been about.”

Skateboarding culture transcends. It isn’t programmed, it’s carved out. As a game, Skate has many issues — but perhaps a lack of skateboarding culture isn’t one of them.