Grand Theft Auto
The Associated Press

More sex in your violence?

Featured Topic | Posted 18 weeks 5 days ago

Is "Grand Theft Auto" good fun or big trouble?

From the rocket-propelled grenade that shoots down a police helicopter to the punch in the face delivered to a former friend, the depictions of realistic violence in the newest "Grand Theft Auto" video game are raising fresh concerns. And gamers can’t wait to play.

But the firestorm of controversy surrounding the phenomenally successful game series already has struck. "People think video games equal kids, and that if it’s just a game, it should be fine," said Robin Burke, a game-development professor at DePaul University. "But the idea that a game is made for a mature audience, we (as a society) don’t have our arms around that yet."

Is "Grand Theft Auto" harmless fun for adults, or a corrupting influence on kids?

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Ben likes: Grand theft childhood

Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson/Toronto Star

Video game popularity and real-world youth violence have been moving in opposite directions. Violent juvenile crime in the United States reached a peak in 1993 and has been declining ever since. School violence has also gone down. The U.S. Secret Service intensely studied each of the 37 non-gang and non-drug-related school shootings and stabbings that were considered "targeted attacks" that took place nationally from 1974 through 2000.

The Secret Service found that there was no accurate profile. Only one in eight school shooters showed any interest in violent video games; only one in four liked violent movies.

On the other hand, reports of bullying are up. Our research found that certain patterns of video game play were much more likely to be associated with these types of behavioural problems than with major violent crime such as school shootings.

For many children and adolescents, playing video games is an intensely social activity, not an isolating one.

 

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Joel likes: Prepare for the assault

Farhad Manjoo/The Machinist

When I watched the game, I caught one sequence that would seem sure to prompt outrage -- your character gets falling-down drunk and can, if he wants, steal and then drive a car. The scene is undeniably fun and funny. Admittedly, the humor is low-brow, more in the tradition of "Jackass" than of Oscar Wilde, but it's still fun; like much else in the game, it's the thrill of discovery, the sense of, "Whoa, I can't believe I can do that!"

Of course, that'll be exactly the sentiment of the game's detractors: Can you believe they're letting children do that?! This has to be illegal!

Well, actually, nobody is letting kids play this game. It's rated M, which means it's for sale to people 17 or older. Kids will still get it, of course, just like they also get hold of R-rated movies and all kinds of perversities on the Web.

But nobody -- at least nobody sane -- calls for movie houses to refuse to play R-rated movies just because kids might sneak in. It's hard to see why the policy should be any different with video games.

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Thoughts

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Submitted on August 25th, 2008 by Anonymous

Hola
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Submitted on August 25th, 2008 by Anonymous

Hola
This story really happened to me as a patient at a local HMO hospital. This particular morning I was very sick with some sort of flu-like virus. I called the health plan and they made an appointment for me to see a doctor in the afternoon.

The afternoon came along and I dragged myself to the appointment. I sat there for a while and a nurse practitioner came walking in. Now I have never liked to see nurse practitioners, especially when I'm paying to see a doctor. I've had them misdiagnose problems several times. Besides, why do they give me someone who's practicing? I want someone who is done practicing and knows what they are doing; which is something that I find lacking in every nurse practitioner that I've ever seen.

So she must have been some sort of psychic or something because without much of an examination she made a diagnosis and gave me an antibiotic. The next thing that she said really shocked me. Now before I go on let me give you a physical description of this nurse. She was grossly overweight and sweating in the room, which was fairly cool in temperature. Her weight must have had some effect on her health because she was mouth breathing and fairly loud, and if I remember correctly, she emitted a body odor. Now understand that I'm not a small person either and most would call me husky in stature, but I seem more proportionate to my frame than she was.

So, before she leaves the room, she tells me that I am obese and need to lose some weight. She heard me chuckle and asked me what I thought was so funny. I just sort of pointed at her with both of my hands in the typical and you? manner and she huffed and walked out of the room.
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Give it a rest

Submitted on April 30th, 2008 by Anonymous

This idea that violent video games causes violence in people is absurd. First off, the idea that best way for kids to be kept away from suck things is for parents to keep their children away from such games. Parents neglect is in no way an excuse to force rules on to the other 99% of people who are of legal age and are mature enough to play such games.

Second, the idea that people can "train" on video games is absurd. Sure they say that they have "trained" on video games such as Halo and Counter-Strike but what such "training" really amounts to is looking at a big box and moving your thumbs (or, if you have a wii you get to flail your arms around). If they really wanted "training" they would be better off shooting arisoft guns or paint ball guns. Better yet, why don't most of these train with real guns? Oh wait, they do! we ignore the fact that these people are playing target practice with weapons that they would never actually need and are focusing on pixels on a TV screen acting like it is the cause of the problem.

All this whining amounts to is a certain group of people who are overbearing, paranoid, or are just unable to adjust to todays culture.

Give me the controller, MAN!

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by Anonymous

Chuck,

Funny, damn funny indeed!!

I consider my ability to weld a two-handed axe a must-have-skill in the competitive field of meat butcher. And just as important, but more on a personal level, is my ability to cast "silence" on my talkative girlfriend.

Steve Johnson is a happily adjusted graduate of the NY Computer Networking and Bomb Making School for the Gifted. Please note that any recommendations from the school may not reflect reality.

Live and let live

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by Anonymous

I have always felt that one of the greatest evils in any society is busybodies. These are people who not only "know" what's best for everybody else, but seek to enforce those views.

For a free society to work, you have to allow others to use/read/see/do things that you might find disgusting. If YOU don't like something, then YOU don't have to partake of it.

You don't like GTA? Don't play it. But if you feel you can tell others what they can have in their homes, then give me your address so I can come over and remove everything I find objectionable. After all, I know what's best for you.

No worries!

Submitted on April 28th, 2008 by Chuck_Johnson

Don't the Democrats know that video games are the only meaningful education most of us ever get?

I, for one, would never have learned how to field strip an AK-47 or hotwire a car were it not for video games. These skills have guided me throughout my professional career and make me a much better student.

Chuck Johnson is a student at Claremont McKenna College. Feel free to contact him.