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Prostitutes call for ban on GTA
Gamespot ^ | 02/14/2006 | Tim Surette

Posted on 02/16/2006 2:21:37 AM PST by Panerai

Sex workers cry foul, say game "accrues points to players for the depiction of rape and murder of prostitutes."

The Grand Theft Auto franchise is getting attacked from all angles. Joining the ranks of politicians, policemen, and attorneys in their crusade to see the game lifted from shelves are the nation's sex workers. On its Web site, the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA is asking parents to assist them in calling for a ban of Take-Two Interactive's controversial game.

Citing a 2001 document from the National Institute on Media and the Family's David Walsh, SWOP is calling "on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto."

The organization quotes various points from Walsh's paper, including, "Children are more likely to imitate a character with whom they identify with. In violent video games the player is often required to take the point of view of the shooter or perpetrator."

Though the organization admits to being "adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship," as concerned parents themselves, they "wish to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent video games pose to children." Likewise, in the interest of promoting the rights of sex workers, the organization is opposed to the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes.

In the games, players can solicit "services" from prostitutes by driving their cars slowly near them. No sexual acts are in clear visible view, but during the "transaction," the player regains health and loses money. Though the player cannot actively rape prostitutes in the game, a possible rape is alluded to once during the storyline of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The prostitutes, like every other character, are also subject to homicide at the hands of the protagonist.

According to its Web site, SWOP USA is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of sex-industry workers and to the promotion of a safe working environment for the industry.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: gaming; granttheftauto; gta; ps2; psp; rockstar; vgping; videogames
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1 posted on 02/16/2006 2:21:41 AM PST by Panerai
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To: Sofa King

Video game ping


2 posted on 02/16/2006 2:23:00 AM PST by Panerai
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To: Panerai

*THIS* is the biggest problem hookers have? Being killed off in a video game?


3 posted on 02/16/2006 2:32:40 AM PST by Personal Responsibility (Amnesia is a train of thought.)
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To: Personal Responsibility

More problems with the video game Grand Theft Auto? Geesh.


4 posted on 02/16/2006 2:33:44 AM PST by television is just wrong (Our sympathies are misguided with illegal aliens...)
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To: Panerai

Of all protestors... Prostitutes. It's a strange world.


5 posted on 02/16/2006 2:36:54 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: television is just wrong
I would never let my kids (if I had them) play Grand Theft Auto. I hate people who play video games period.

That being said, the Prostis should focus on something else, like legalizing their business, educating themselves about diseases, ripping off Clemen, er, Johns...

6 posted on 02/16/2006 2:44:33 AM PST by Clemenza (I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked...)
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To: Panerai

Prostitutes are forming unions now?


7 posted on 02/16/2006 2:45:25 AM PST by DeuceTraveler (Freedom is a never ending struggle)
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To: Panerai

Good luck getting one of the most popular video games in the world banned. Basically, those who hold video games responsible for criminal behavior lack the capacity for rational thought.


8 posted on 02/16/2006 2:45:52 AM PST by SALChamps03
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To: Panerai
Children are more likely to imitate a character with whom they identify with.

They're not worried about the girls imitating the hookers in the game?

9 posted on 02/16/2006 2:57:38 AM PST by gitmo (From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.)
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To: SALChamps03

http://www.killology.com/


10 posted on 02/16/2006 3:00:24 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: Panerai
Sex workers cry foul

Somewhere around the time that "Bums" were visited by a fairy princess and magically transformed into "homeless" the whores became "sex workers."


11 posted on 02/16/2006 3:12:46 AM PST by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")
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To: Panerai

We mustn't offend the prostitutes! Oh, my, no!


12 posted on 02/16/2006 3:24:23 AM PST by gridlock (eliminate perverse incentives)
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To: Panerai

What were those nuts at Take-Two Interactive thinking? If they'd made a game where you get points for killing off the pro-life protesters they'd have a big hit and praise from the MSM as well.


13 posted on 02/16/2006 3:32:43 AM PST by libertylover (Bush spied. Terrorists died.)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: DeuceTraveler
Prostitutes are forming unions now?
---
Gives a whole new meaning to the old union commercial lyric:
"Look for the union label..."

Also, imagine the types of union grievances filed.
15 posted on 02/16/2006 4:24:46 AM PST by Cheburashka
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To: Personal Responsibility

We have a new klan - the feminist prostitutes concerned about violence against women which they promote by serving as diseased sexual objects. Feminism has reached its height in insanity.


16 posted on 02/16/2006 4:34:05 AM PST by Galveston Grl (Getting angry and abandoning power to the Democrats is not a choice.)
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To: GTH for GOP
Since when do people that break the law on a regular basis openly and make a living of it, not to mention most likely spread VD's to hundreds of "customers," have the right to complain about a video game.
---
This is America, everyone has a right to express their opinion, even if I find the protesters' day-to-day behavior repellent.
But this is ridiculous, complaining about immoral acts being depicted in a game about immoral acts. Shouldn't the pavement princesses be complaining that there is no game that depicts their glamorous lifestyle?
Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have posted this. I may have given away a real money-making idea.
17 posted on 02/16/2006 4:37:45 AM PST by Cheburashka
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To: GTH for GOP
I'm sure Ted Kennedy for one, is going to have a long "conversation" with most of them (after a few drinks of course)
---
Teddy is only doing research into the issues of..., well something or other, before Senate hearings. How dare you attack his integrity!!!
Oh, that's right, he doesn't have any. Never mind.
18 posted on 02/16/2006 4:41:07 AM PST by Cheburashka
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To: Panerai

Think of all the movies and other media out there that have Hookers getting knocked off. They're a little late if you ask me.


19 posted on 02/16/2006 4:48:10 AM PST by wolfcreek
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To: Clemenza

You "hate" people that play video games? What is the source of this rage? If you do have a kid and they happen to play a video game, something horrible like pacman, you will hate them?


20 posted on 02/16/2006 4:54:43 AM PST by ThePoliticalDookie
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