Posted on 11/18/2004 9:40:03 AM PST by red_is_beautiful
This time, the blood spills in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," which looks, feels and sounds a lot like its predecessors. That means you pull off drive-bys and other hard-core criminal goals, while killing cops, prostitutes and hundreds of innocent victims on the side. Some people complain that the game could desensitize children to murderous images. But it's rated M for Mature. Kids aren't supposed to have access to it, even though we know that many will. [...] There's sex in "San Andreas," as there was in "Grand Theft Auto III." For a small amount of money, you can pick up hookers and drive them behind a bush. The car rocks. Talk is exchanged. [...] The game is smart like that, but the characters aren't. The one thing I can't make happen is intellectual reflection. Characters point guns. Characters kill one another other. Not one stops to think.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
Also. GTA is fiction, much like movies. I didn't surf on cars because of "Teen Wolf". I didn't lay down in the middle of the steet because of "The Program". I didn't imitate WWF.
I can't repeat this enough: Take care of your own kids and none of this will be a problem. Don't expect society to do it for you.
Actually, a lot of parents just let their kids play games like these. My parents set limits as to what I was supposed to be exposed to while I was growing up. They didn't let me have a TV in my room until I was in high school, and they never would have let me buy a game like this.
My friend, on the other hand, had a TV in his room since he was young, and would watch Real Sex on HBO while still in gradeschool.
Nobody said that parenting was supposed to be easy.
I have heard of it, funny book, the guy was 100% full of crap. 250 years later there's still plenty of thrift (in fact thrift is what WalMart has built its empire on), deferred gratification (people still save up to buy big stuff), and hard work (my whole department got two days off in October, plenty of hard work here). We have managed to get rid of no frills Scottish Presbyterianism, and thank God for it, we only get so many trips around the sun might as well enjoy one or two of them.
The messages and images of the mass marketer were created by very capable people seeking one thing and one thing only: YOUR MONEY. They chase the dollar, they fill market niches, any profitable market niche they don't care. You're right that they don't care what it does to society, but you're wrong to say they're trying to harm society, they just want the money, societal ramifications aren't in their equation, only the dollars.
I have played all of the Grand Theft Auto games and haven't killed a cop in real life yet.
I'm not fond of these games and have no desire to play them. I once asked my twenty year old what was so fun about these games. He said it's a great de-stresser. A way to cause destuction and mayhem without actually doing any harm. Sounds okay to me! And my son is a sweetheart,btw!
The only effect these games have on children is the effect their parents allow. I wouldn't let a kid play most of the games I play, they aren't for kids. Kids aren't the target demographic (as somebody already said the average age of a gamer is 28, well beyond kid), they aren't intended for kids, and there's no logical reason to force adults to live as children.
so you think it's all about the relation of offer and demand? that cultural values then are an outcome of this equation and are not worth to discuss?
I'm on the right(Anti-tax, pro-2a, pro-life, pro-tort reform). I'm active in my party. I didn't see ANYONE in my party push for censorship. Most I know are against it and are fighting the few vocal big government statists pushing for this crap who give our party a bad name.
People who voted against the party of Hollywood, against the party of license voted for George Bush.
No one called to censor Hollywood. They just didn't want them in the White House.
American corporate media power using the most sophisticated tools available, spewing poisonous cultural messages
That sounds like a leftist talking point....CORPORATE this and that.
Parents know that they must fight back collectively to protect their families and culture
I agree. PARENTS. Not a bunch of jackbooted mid level bureaucrats.
The fact that so many people buy video games like this shows that they ARE culturally acceptable in our society.
The clearest way to see a people's values is to look at what they buy. It seems that the American people have voted that GTA is okay with them.
Payne's gonna pay..in spades!!!!!
Doesn't mean they're not worth discussion. But it's a different discussion, a discussion that puts the blame where it belongs (on people who aren't doing a good job of instilling morals in their kids) instead of on some faceless corporation that is doing nothing more than filling an identified market niche in the ongoing question for money. In the entertainment industry detected demand dictates supply, when a movie like Pulp Fiction does well Hollywood attempts to repeat that success by providing more films with lots of violence and foul language, when a movie like Iron Giant does poorly Hollywood attempts to avoid repeating that failure by canceling movies with strong moral values. 2 years from now is going to be very interesting, that's when we'll find out what lessons were learned from Passion of the Christ; of course Hollywood is notoriously dense and incredibly skilled at misinterpretting box office results (notice how poorly the Pulp Fiction clones did, and how well Incredibles is doing).
Maybe you would be more comfortable in the party of big government instead of the party of free markets and limited government.
I'm afraid you're ignorant on this. The video game industry is very much marketing and developing toward adults. I play a lot of video games, and read a lot of media on video games, and it isn't geared toward children. The average gamer nowadays is between 20-30 years old. I personally know a crap load of people that fit this mold, many of which own a copy of San Andreas.
My trouble with Vice City is the miniature helicopter blowing up the union thugs building.
I'm actually not that fond of the GTA series myself. The basic gameplay always stuck me as a bit awkward.
I much more of a Halo 2 guy, with it's high level of polish and great challenge.
You are right. They are marketing towards the generation that grew up playing the original NES. Personally, I would never let my child play San Andreas, but that doesnt mean that I dont enjoy the heck out of it! (Similar to a good cigar.. oh wait, hope the anti-tobacco people dont show up on this thread too :P)
Schumpeter was right on the money. Thrift means putting money in the bank, not WalMart. Americans are among the lowest savers on the planet. And Americans are indebted to an absolutely obscene level (if people could charge their mortgage down payments they would).
The mass marketer is not evil, just destructive. He has an agenda of subordinating the voices of church, family, and culture to his own. And since his bullhorn is the loudest, that makes him destructive. He is destructive of parental authority since it is his goal to turn children into walking bullhorns themselves (do you think the prevalence of smart mouthed teenagers talking back to their parents on sitcoms is accidental ?). Do you have any idea how much marketing Disney and Nickleodeon are saturated with ? How painstakingly marketed Britney Spears and the Olsens were and Hillary Duff and Lindsay Lohan are ? Do you think that the people doing this don't have a specific set of values they want your child to absorb ?
For the realism aspect? Then how about unlimited ammo in the Hunter, or for that matter, the idea that Tommy can carry 500 RPGs, 10000 rounds of MP5 ammo, 10000 rounds of pistol ammo, 5000 rounds of M-16 ammo... and 500 Molotov cocktails?
I believe the thinking with the helo was that the bombs were placed on explosive barrels, thus upping the total explosive poundage.
As for San Andreas, I got the Official Strategy Guide, which makes the game much, much more manageable. It has walk-thrus for all missions, which is ok, but, importantly, it has the locations for all the graffiti tags, lists of all the cars and their sex appeal stats, all oyster/photo/horseshoe locations, as well as tables for clothing attributes (sex appeal/gang respect), tattoo values, basically every little thing in the game.
The full-page maps also help quite a bit.
I feel proud that I was an early GTA adopter, playing the first version when it came out (around the time of Columbine... I have memories of listening to talk radio discuss how video games contribute to juvenile delinquency while I ran down the GTA street with my flamethrower going full-bore.)
GTA III was kind of darkly comic, while Vice City took the comic aspect to new levels, as well as the whole Miami Vice conceit.
San Andreas seems like it's in the middle, with some dark humor, some campy humor, and a much larger playing area.
I spent my first two hours of playing the game riding a BMX bike throughout Los Santos, amazed at how expansive it is.
If only they'd released a PC version (Personal Computer) with the PS2 release... the computer version is going to be so much cleaner.
Good SA tips: shoot drug dealers. They're the ones on streetcorners with their hands folded, and if you approach them, they'll offer you drugs. Popping them can net you up to $2000 in spilled cash.
After the Doberman mission, you'll soon realize that starting turf wars are a good way to stock up on ammo, and armor and health, played correctly (each turf war spawns health and armor powerups in or near the warzone). Plus, zones you've taken over produce cash at an icon outside your Grove St. hideout.
Oh no I meant I get stuck on that particular mission. LOL.
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