Media watchers debate 'Grand Theft' violence
The game allows players to engage in all manner of criminal behavior.
Comment: What do you think of the game?
Monday, May 12, 2008
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Sales numbers alone may be enough to place the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise in the same video game pantheon as past national crazes like "Pong" and "Pac-Man," but "GTA IV" is hardly "Pac-Man."
The game may represent a leap in game-play innovation, but it's also disturbingly violent.
Extras
Get latest headlines via RSS feedsRated M for mature by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the latest game offers players a chance to engage in all manner of carnage and criminal behavior: one can consort with mobsters, frequent prostitutes, drink and drive, mow down police officers or just run over random pedestrians.
All of which has unnerved some people and horrified others. As was the case with violent comic books in the 1950s and, more recently, with hip hop lyrics, the GTA games have been the object of attacks from parent groups, media critics and various other moral entrepreneurs.
In 2005, lawyer Jack Thompson filed a multimillion dollar civil lawsuit against Take-Two Interactive, claiming that a teenager in Fayette, Ala., who went on a killing rampage was influenced by "GTA." Thompson eventually withdrew from the lawsuit; the teenager was sentenced to death.
"These video games play into these more primal needs of expression," said Matthew J. Smith, who is chair of the communications department at Wittenberg and teaches courses in TV, comics and film.
"Entertainment media have always tapped into things that are relevant within us, though they may have tamed them to make them more palatable," Smith said.
Despite all its controversy, "GTA" does not lack for supporters. Film actors like Ray Liotta and Samuel L. Jackson have lent voice-acting to previous games, and the franchise's latest outing has received nearly universal acclaim from critics who have hailed the open-ended game-play and wealth of detail found in Liberty City, the vast virtual simulacrum of New York that serves as the game's setting.
But exposure to all that violence is not without cost.
"There's certainly research out there that says someone who consumes a lot of violent media tends to have a more aggressive disposition," Smith cautioned.
"It doesn't mean they're going to go out and shoot someone. It means they're more likely to act in an aggressive way if provoked."
What intrigues media researchers, Smith says, is the old chicken-and-the-egg-question: Do violent media cause aggression or do aggressive people gravitate toward violent media?
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0367 or ecavallaro@coxohio.com.
Comments
By Chris
May 13, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
It’s a game. No one makes you play it, and it doesn’t cause people to go out and do violent things. People cause violence, not an animated game.
By michael
May 13, 2008 7:20 AM | Link to this
I agree that the game is a bit on the violent side but thats what sells in today’s market. I bought the game and what I found was that most of thepeople thatplay the game are 7 to 16 year old players and that just shows that the parents trust their kids or are just bad parents.
By al gibs
May 13, 2008 3:50 AM | Link to this
Yes,it,s far to violent.More people today,in particular the youth are angry and aggressive. Why is it so popular? Our current culture creates this.
By John Galt
May 12, 2008 3:14 PM | Link to this
Should we go back to banning dancing as well? GTA 4 is rated M - so it’s not for kids. That’s all you need to know. If you’re stuck with kids of your own - how about doing some parenting, and letting the rest of us enjoy life?
By Sharon
May 12, 2008 1:57 PM | Link to this
yes it is too violent. this entire world is too violent. it’s a known fact that the public loves violence and sex on TV and in video games. In watching TV & playing those games, alot of people then bring it into reality. TV is strictly for entertainment. ENTERTAINMENT. it’s not for reality.
We really do have a choice to turn that channel or not buy those certain video’s if we are prone to act upon what it teaches.
Yes we live in this world but we don’t need to be a part of the violence.
By Heather
May 12, 2008 1:25 PM | Link to this
If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. I’m the parent of a 7 year old, and I screen everything he plays. It takes responsible parents to keep their kids from playing these games. But I see nothing wrong with a mature adult buying and playing it.
By Chris
May 12, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this
This game is way over-the-top. But if you don’t want your kids to be influenced by it, don’t buy it for them and don’t let them play it. Simple as that.