Ever hear of catharsis? Look it up.
It's the critics of video games, not the gamers, who have trouble distinguishing fantasy and reality.
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 ...
And when his young son looks to Dad as a role model -- well, that's the problem, isn't it?
I agree that it is probably not suitable for kids, but I don’t want to live in a country where the government decides which video games I can or cannot buy.
I’m a hardcore gamer who’s never understood the interest in GTA. I’ve always thought it lame.
“I agree that it is probably not suitable for kids, but I don’t want to live in a country where the government decides which video games I can or cannot buy”
Exactly. I am a church going Christian and my take on it is, if someone thinks that this is a horrible game not suited for their kids, then they certainly should not buy it for them.
No one ever says anything like this about R rated movies. It’s just that video games are too new and it’s mostly young men who enjoy as apposed to children now.
Hey, man, M & M Enterprises. If there’s a market, fill it. If there’s no market, create an appetite for useless or depraved crap. Where at the Wharton School of Economics do you take a class that finds this to be a bad idea?
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The product is the biggest selling entertainment title of all time. Bigger than any DVD release, than any other game before it. So, there is a market for it. The game, in the UK at least, is some £40. Add to that the console at £160 and you have a price tag thats into £200 ($380ish).
Not many teenagers are going to be able to buy that game, and if the parents are so dumb as to get it for their 14 year old, more fool them. A parent wouldn’t buy a mature film for thir kids, such as Kalifornia or 8mm would they? No, so just dont do the same here.
Also, most gamers today are professionals in their mid to late 20’s. You must be stupid beyond belief if you think that cos we can blow up 50 coppers in GTA, that we’re going to do it in real life.
Crazy people are crazy because of what they are, be it an imbalance in brain chemistry or whatever. Its certainly not because of an entertainment medium.
Was my impression correct?
Wow man, never heard ‘avid gamer’ and ‘never understood the interest in GTA’ in the same sentence before. Honestly, give it a go. There is a definite moral compass in the game, and essentially you’re rewarded for making sure you dont go too over the top.
“I killed people. Smuggled people. Sold people. Maybe here will be different,” says the main character, a superbly animated and deep Serbian ex-army bloke who fell into bad times. If you pay attention to the plot development and storytelling, you will learn alot, about the game, about the plot and about the duality of man.
PS: Sorry for the review, but I played it solid for 3 days, took work off and everything. Hehehe. Just dont tell my boss what I was doing...
wikipedia has a lot of detail on the plot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV
Ever hear of catharsis? Look it up.
It's the critics of video games, not the gamers, who have trouble distinguishing fantasy and reality.
GTA games are usually a parody of pop culture. Vice City made fun of the 1980's, Miami Vice, and Scarface. San Andreas was a parody of the gangsta rap culture of the 1990's. GTA 3 was a parody of Scarface in a sense as well, but targeted the NY Mob.
I have the movie Scarface. It is 25 years old. I never shot, chainsawed, killed, or did drugs because of the movie. Go back 10 years before that, and it was the Godfather and Dirty Harry movies. Miami Vice was another one of those evil destroy the world things.
Speaking of video games, this is nothing new. Before GTA, there was the Doom series. Before that, there was Wolfenstein. Before that, it was Mortal Kombat and Lethal Enforcers. Before that, it was Leisure Suit Larry. Before all of it was the movie Untouchables....
GTA is also rated M. That means it is rated R for all intents and purposes. It is not for kids.
If I ever get a PS3, I'll get a copy of this game.
It’s one of the best driving sims out there. The lawless havoc has some fun too but under the covers it’s a really good driving sim, one of the first (and still one of the few) to really get turbo lag and how much airflow it takes for spoilers to accomplish anything.
my generation grew up on the three stooges.
funny those nonpurists are also willing to ban video games.
what’s next for rino’s freespeech
oh, never mind heir mccain already has that issue covered.
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