Posted on 05/04/2008 9:39:13 AM PDT by rhema
Grand Theft Auto IV hit the stores last week like a tsunami, and is expected to become one of the biggest sellers in video game history. Commentators agree that the game, with its sophisticated graphics, sets a new standard for realistic violence and sex.
News reports and game-related websites give the flavor of what avid gamers are getting for their 60 bucks. GTA IV opens with an S&M sex scene. Players can gun down ordinary citizens, beat up prostitutes, murder cops and enjoy lap dances from strippers. This mayhem is accompanied by what the Associated Press called a "nearly constant stream of filthy language."
"[T]eenage boys of America," wrote one reviewer, "... you can still kill and maim and plunder and screw until your heart is full," but now "the violence is no longer cartoonish." Thanks to GTA IV's new realism, when G-stringed strippers grind the main character's lap, the player's controller vibrates in response.
The launch of a game like GTA IV -- labeled "M" for sale only to buyers 17 and over -- always seems to provoke the same debate. Critics charge that the game harms children, who can easily get their hands on it.
Research confirms that violent media increase young people's aggressive thoughts and behavior and decrease their self-control and the inclination to help others. Adolescents who play violent video games tend to be more hostile, to argue more with teachers, to get into more physical fights, and to do more poorly in school, one national study reports.
Video game representatives make two arguments when faced with such data. First, they insist that parents are the gatekeepers for their children's play.
Sounds good, but ask any 15-year-old male if it's really true.
Second, industry spokespeople downplay the youth problem's relevance,
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Coke, Pepsi, Arby’s...
All of which I haven’t eaten at or drunk in over 10 years. Yeah, their advertising is very effective...
And none of you little people can stand a chance against the might of GODZILLA!
Roar, ROAR, crush, stomp!
(light up the night with radioactive fire breath)
:-P
But what’s “an affect”? Every video game I play as “an affect” on me, they entertain me. The desensitization line has been shown over and over and over to be 100% BS. For one thing it’s not even REAL violence it’s pixel, it’s obviously pixels, there’s nothing to be desensitized to.
Reality is as the age of the first person shooter has come upon us the violent crime rate has dropped, solidly and consistently. If violent video games could do 1/100 of what the people Wood and Dobson claim that wouldn’t happen. The reality is it’s JUST a game, I’ve played first person shooters since the first Wolfenstein, I also like horror movies so my “desensitizing” should be pretty advanced, and yet real world violence still really bothers me. This is because I’m a sane person, sane people are ALWAYS bothered by violence, and there never has been nor will there ever be a video game that changes that. And insane people are insane, video games aren’t changing them either.
$500M in a week, folks. Call me an elitist, but our society has some serious growing up to do when a computer game featuring exploding cars outsells every Hollywood movie.
I have to wonder how GTA IV might do in Baghdad ... Aren't they building a Disney theme park over there?
Um, you're REALLY out of date. The first two were from a top-down perspective. GTAIII moved to a third-person 'adventure-style' world that revolutionized the game industry (as claimed by multiple reviewers; GTAIII was the catalyst for the series' success).
I think my most favorite FPS game is paintball in the woods with friends.
Its a lot more realistic than any computer game and its a lot better for you than sitting in front of a computer pushing buttons, thats for sure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.