Gaming Controversy #3 — GTA: Violence in Video Games

Grand Theft Auto has been under attack ever since its first creation in 1997. The controversy surrounding this title can be summed up in its name alone. While this seems to have only increased the game’s popularity, the issue is still discussed in today’s gaming community.

Despite how highly rated GTA was, IGN’s score being 10/10, it can be said that the game has some issues when it comes to breaking the law. The plot of this game is simple; do as many crimes as possible to get the most money available. To some this may sound like harmless fun, but to others it is not. Many news networks had something to say about this title, ABC New’s story being one of the more popular reviews of it.

While GTA is known to be brought up in the controversy of video game violence, is it the game itself, or how people are treating it? Can society say that people who play games like Grand Theft Auto are going out on a killing spree? Despite many psychological reports against this theory, the idea of it still prevails to this day. One such report states that people have certain traits that may increase their violent nature, but video games are not a large factor.

There was such an uproar about this title that it was banned in countries upon release. There were also many instances of the game pulled from the shelf. Only after a altered version was released that it went back on some markets. Rockstar, the creator of Grand Theft Auto, stated:

“.. A special version of the game was produced to follow the Australian classification system. Features censored in the Australian versions include: the inability to select a “service” when hiring a prostitute, and the restriction of animation and camera angles; the lack of blood pools and bloody footprints; the replacement of bullet wounds and blood patches with “slight discoloration”. “

But despite this small statement by the game publisher, an unaltered copy was soon released shortly after.

This brings into question if gaming companies like Rockstar care about the content they release, or if they are just trying to make a quick buck. There was even a political response to the game when it came to distribution to minors. Take-Two, the publisher of GTA released a statement about the controversy surrounding the game.

“It’s one thing for someone to not want to buy a piece of content, which is completely understandable. And that’s really the solution. If you don’t like it and it’s offensive to you, then you don’t buy it.

“But for a person or a group of people to try to make that decision for millions of people… We have 34 million people who bought Grand Theft Auto, and if these folks had their way, none of those people would be able to buy Grand Theft Auto. And that really just flies in the face of everything that free society is based on. It’s the freedom of expression, and to try to squelch that is a dangerous and slippery slope to go down.

“So it’s really more disappointing for us in that regard than it is in the context of our business. Our business is going to be completely unaffected by this; it doesn’t make a difference to us. At the end of the day though, it’s not something you want because it’s a poor leadership decision.”

It seems as though publishers like Take-Two do not care about the issue surrounding their games. The intention was to create a game that sold millions, and that is what they did. Despite the uproar with games like this, there will always be instances that it gets out of hand. But it could also be said that this is the world we now live in and we must learn to accept things we cannot control.

Does this bode well for our future, knowing that games like this exist? It can only be seen in the coming years how we adapt to the violence now available to us and our children.