No Grand Theft Auto V for me.
Why I’m not buying this game.
Grand Theft Auto V came out some days ago. Not only the most expensive game in history (USD 200 million), but also the fastest game to reach USD 1 Billion.
I was excited for this game. I've been a gamer for the better part of the last 30 years and I've played, and enjoyed, every Grand Theft Auto game that Rockstar made. I was looking forward to the havoc, mayhem and destruction that this game is famous for. I was looking forward to the great story telling that has made this franchise golden.
Of course, having a 9-year old boy at home, I would have to play late at night. And mostly on weekends. This game, unlike Trix, is not for kids. And I was prepared to sacrifice a couple of hours of sleep, I was prepared to spend the better part of the next months to finish a game that I would normally finish in 2 weeks. I was prepared to do this and more, until a friend of mine, who’d just bought the game, tweeted me this:
Tell @marvinduranr that he will have to wait until 3am to play this game
And he attached this picture (sorry).
My first thought was “yeah… 3am. I am never going to find the time to play this”. And then I consoled myself and thought: “I’ll buy this when they lower the price a bit”. And that was that.
But soon after, Conan O'Brien posted a video of him playing (badly) this game. (Youtube). I like his sense of humor and the non-reviews he does for video games. He drove around (badly), shot some people and finally ended up in one of the strip clubs. “Strip clubs?”, I thought. I had forgotten all about that: the prostitution, the pimps, the drinking. I was cool with that until Conan wen’t for a private lap dance. I was surprised to see that the women are topless. Wow. 3am indeed.
And then I started reading more and more reviews from pro websites, to read their opinion on this and… nothing. Surprisingly, nobody gave a second look to this. I mean, yeah… the clubs are less than 1% of what the game has to offer, but it’s there. And then a question popped into my head: WHY?
Why is this necessary?
What does this bring to the game itself?
How does this make the game more enjoyable?
I had no answers, really. “Maybe this IS the thug life?”, I thought again.
And then my mind went to the little boy we have at home. What kind of message am I sending? What does playing this game say about me? About the way we are trying to educate him? About our values as a Family? And don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we don’t play Halo together. He gets fake bullets and fake blood, but fake lap dances? Fake soft porn? Fake violence towards women? There is nothing fake about that. The whole idea of my girlfriend watching me play and visit a virtual strip club made me feel kinda ashamed. I told her and she got a light laugh about it. She doesn't seem to mind much. But I still find it offensive towards her.
I don’t know. Maybe I am being prude. Maybe. But in the meantime I made my mind about something: I am never playing this game. I like M rated games but GTA V has built a bridge that I am not willing to cross.
I need to apologize for probable typos. English is my second language =)
