GTA V: Freed or Censorced?
The main storyline in GTA V plays out more like a grand choose-your-own-adventure film than ever before with emotionally rich, action-packed missions that benefit from the bonus of being able to play the entire narrative through the eyes of three separate (but inexorably linked) characters. (Neumyer, 2013).
The Grand Theft Auto series has been basically giving the player the freedom and ability to do just about anything they want inside the game world.
In the game, the gamer is in total control of the character given. At the beginning, he has the right to choose his character’s physical appearance. Then, the game starts to give him the instructions to achieve the missions given. Throughout the missions, the gamer is exposed to some certain things that are considered unethical in the outside world, such as: bad language, stealing, killing, etc…
Violent actions are considered as the most exciting part when it comes to playing GTA V. Without it, the game would be dull and boring. Violence is represented by killing people for money, and worse, for fun. Moreover, stealing cars and banks can also be considered as violence. Also, violation of rules is considered as something cool, such as passing the speed limits while driving supercars, which people rarely can afford in real life. In GTA V, some other things are being normalized, by showing it to the player as something that is very acceptable to do in his everyday lifestyle. The characters in the game are given the image of the undefeated men, who fear nothing, and are capable to do anything, anytime, anywhere. The series is known especially for its violence and sexist gender portrayal, as the main characters are always men who perform criminal activities while women appear only rarely and usually as sexualized characters (e.g. Hoggins 2013b). Additionally, women have been underrepresented and sexualized in video games throughout the years (e.g. Dietz 1998; Lynch, Tompkins, van Driel, and Fritz 2016). For example, one of the most common ways to describe the portrayal of women in the game series is that they are prostitutes with whom the playable male character can have sex and take their money back afterwards by killing the prostitute (e.g. Hoggins 2013a, Parker 2011).
The question here is: Is this game actually helping or harming the player? Well, GTA V is known for its addictive impact on the gamer. In fact, according to Neumyer, GTA V is, easily, the most expansive, addictive, and downright amazing game to ever grace a modern console gaming system. (2013). People are mostly addicted to the dark side of this game, especially the violent part, as mentioned above. On the other hand, others find this game offensive, violent, and a waste of time. Also, there are many countries that contributed to the banning of this game. According to News Desk, countries from Australia to Saudi Arabia have banned this game for its violent content and glorification of criminal lifestyles. (2010).
GTA V is certainly causing ethical dilemmas because of the dehumanization in the matter of racism, objectification of women, and violence. It is allowing the player to feel that these things are okay to happen in life, but in fact, it is not. Women for example, are shown in an extremely negative image. Characters can regain health by paying to have sex with a prostitute, and can kill the prostitute afterwards to get their money. These issues are that games can be ensured by the freedom of speech. However, some visuals and activities are blocking this freedom since they are the motivation behind why games, for example, GTA V, are being controlled in a few nations. People are rethinking about the boundaries of the game especially concerning the harm that they are free to do whenever they want.
“Games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through familiar literary devices (character, plot, dialogue, music) and through features distinctive to the medium (player interaction with a virtual world).” (Packard, 2013).
Game and entertainment producers face a lot of pressure regarding the outcome that will be exposed internationally. Producers of violent video games can be blamed similarly as horror/action film producers. According to Kennedy, as video games have always appeared to have been influenced by movies, video games are now influencing movies themselves as more and more parallels can be drawn between the two. (2017). In this situation, it is clear that these producers are trying to create whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people, even if that involves actions that are in themselves unethical. This consequence based theory, as known as Utilitarianism, is related to this case. Racism, sexism, violence and dehumanizing seem to be attractive to the audience, especially the teens. Although this video game is strictly made for 18+ players, some restrictions are not being imposed in that matter. Online and local shops should be blamed for selling the game for those who are below the given age. Also, parents are blamed for letting their children be exposed to such violence at an early age. Many of them have no idea what this game is about and how serious is its effect on them. “Violent video games increase aggressive thoughts and angry feelings and lead to higher heart rate and blood pressure and more aggressive behavior. Violent games also decrease helping behavior and feelings of empathy and compassion for others.” (Bushman, 2013, para.4).
Every artist has the right to use his/her creativity under the “freedom of expression”. But, international artists/producers should keep in mind that the outcome is not only for local users, or societies who think similarly to them, instead they should take into consideration all cultures. Some scenes in the movies, or some characteristics in a video game, can be considered harmful and unethical to one’s culture. For example, the United States has a loose censorship system where they barely censor anything unless it is pornography, while in Lebanon, and other countries similar to it, the censorship is stricter, especially when it comes to religion, politics and pornography.
A study was conducted back in 2013 by Bushmen, showing that GTA V is causing children an increase in aggressive thoughts and angry feelings. Also, it is teaching them to less self-control and more cheating. “In this study, participants competed with an unseen “partner” in a game in which the winner got to blast the other person with a loud noise through headphones. (There was actually no partner.) Teens who played the violent games chose to blast their ostensible partners with significantly louder noises that lasted longer than did teens who played the nonviolent games.” (Bushmen, 2013, para.9).
Violence, racism and sexism took over GTA V. Like many other productions, everything has supporters and opponents. Many gamers have critiqued this game for being violent, racist and sexist. In fact, on a game review website, a gamer commented that the reason why he liked to play this game is that “you can do crimes which you can not do in real world” and “you can kick of the day’s tension if you kill some peds in evening.” (Mishra, 2016). Another person claimed that some racist and sexist scenes should be removed from the game because they are annoying to see. In contrast, there are many who defended the game, and showed that “GTA 5 does a better job of showing the consequences of violence”. He explained his point by pointing out on the benefits of “the intervention of the police if they catch you committing crimes, whether it be murder, shoplifting or accidentally bumping their car.” (Morris, 2013, para. 8).
Violent video games are surely causing harm and giving a negative impact to all societies. Therefore, they should be censored when heading to the extreme of the unethical rights and actions. Number one reason for censorship is to block the option of downloading online or buying the game by cash or credit card to everyone under the age of 18. This way, children won’t be exposed to such violence and extreme scenes that they are not supposed to be seeing at such age. This aggressiveness doesn’t only concern young children, but also immature adults that spend way too many hours playing this game, which eventually will affect their minds. Therefore, the best solution is first to remove some of these horrible and vulgar feature that are available in these games. Second, another version should be made, more innocent for younger children. In that way, children under the age of 18 can be secured from being harmed, and adults can be less exposed to such violent scenes. Eventually, age does not justify the fact that games like that should include such scenes, which in reality they are considered unethical for all societies.
References:
- Bushman, B. (2013, December 13). Dont Buy Your Kid Grand Theft Auto V for Christmas. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-j-bushman/dont-buy-your-kid-grand-theft-auto-v-for-christmas_b_4440477.html
- Dietz, T. L. (1998). An Examination of Violence and Gender Role Portrayal in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior. Sex Roles 38 (5), 425–442.
- Hoggins, T. (2013b). Grand Theft Auto V is designed deliberately to degrade women. [online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10355275/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-isdesigned-deliberately-to-degrade-women.html.(20.3.2017).
- Kennedy, C. (2017). Similarities between the film and video game industries. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/media-ethnography/similarities-between-the-film-and-video-game-industries-3ab6090570e7
- Mishra, K. (2016). Retrieved from: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-people-addicted-to-the-Grand-Theft-Auto-game
- Morris, J. (2013). Anyone claiming Grand Theft Auto 5 is just violence for violence’s sake hasn’t played it. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/31/grand-theft-auto-5-torture-violence-video-games
- Neumyer, S. (2013). Is Grand Theft Auto V the Most Addictive Game Ever? Retrieved from: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a24778/gta-v-review/
- News Desk. (2010). Blacklisted: the world’s banned video games. Retrieved from: https://www.pri.org/stories/2010-12-29/blacklisted-worlds-banned-video-games
- Packard, Ashley (2013) ‘Sex and Violence’ in Digital Media Law, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, NJ, pp. 316–317
