Video Games Art
At its core, GTA 5 is about three individuals who collaborate and commit crimes. These crimes are often violent and the main characters exhibit sexist, objectifying tendencies. You can go to strip clubs in the game and even go as far as to have sex with a prostitute. Despite how many female prostitutes there are, there are no male prostitutes available which creates an uncomfortable double standard. People lose the GTA series because of the freedom it affords the player. GTA V completely revolutionized the “open world” style of game by creating a virtual world that genuinely felt like it was open. For the first time, you could step outside the bounds of the game’s story to kill civilians or do whatever else you might like. This “open world” was very appealing to some but was rejected by many. The fact that you could kill civilians and abuse characters made people very upset and questions were brought up about what exposing kids to such violence might do to their minds. This in turn brought up other interesting questions like at what point video games should not be covered under the first amendment. Just how much can fantasy influence our real-world actions?
To start things off, it is important to consider what the responsibilities of a game and developer are. It is helpful to think of video games as an art medium in this case because we can start to create some boundaries around what is appropriate and what isn’t. Like movies and paintings, video games create a narrative for the viewer with a number of messages and ideas that are open to interpretation. In the case of GTA 5 and its violence, sexual objectification, and race dynamics, I agree with Reynolds that these themes are “well within the bounds of offence that contemporary society deems to be allowable when taking…free speech into account” (Reynolds, 2002, p. 7).
Quentin Tarantino for example, is famous for his hyper-violent, movies that bring in questionable racial themes. Other famous movies, like Requiem for a Dream show explicit sex scenes of women being objectified for drugs. While the way we interact with those themes is different and more interactive in GTA 5, the themes themselves, and how graphic they are fit well within the boundaries that we allow for movies. If anything, GTA 5’s violence and misogyny could be seen as less impactful because it is a lot less realistic than the blood and nudity that is acceptable in international blockbuster movies.
If video games are art, then I think they should be completely covered by the first amendment because video games are ultimately an experience that one has to volunteer for, just like a movie. It is, however, important that only the right people get to volunteer for the experience. Minors should not be exposed to obscene materials intended for adults but that is not the fault of the game or the developers, as Reynolds puts it “the maker of a gun is not held responsible for all those who may at some point come to control that gun” (Reynolds, 2002, p. 8). It is up to the retailers, distributors and parents to abide by the rating systems we have in place.
If that is done properly, there is no reason why consenting adults should not be able to seek out the experience of GTA 5, unless there was proof that such exposure was bad for the individuals and those around them. Currently, there is not a “large enough sample group to study the connection between playing video games and participating in mass shootings” and of those conducted, there is reason to believe that “none of the studies were adequately conducted” to truly demonstrate something conclusive (Mathews, n.d., p. 1). Since there is nothing conclusive, it is just as likely that violence in video games acts as an outlet for violence rather than as a catalyst.
Overall, I think if there is one issue with a game like GTA 5 is that there is no overarching reflection on the atrocities that one is able to commit within the boundaries of the game. Something that would justify the freedom players get within the world is to have to think about the actions that they took to get what they wanted. It transforms all of the fictional killing into a powerful educational meditation on morality. Every violent game should learn from Metal Gear Solid 3 where “during a trip up a river, the player is reminded of all the needless deaths he has caused” so players who kill more needlessly are also forced to reflect on their actions for longer (Zagal, 2012, p. 15). Should evidence point to games like GTA 5 harming kids and adults, I think the best course of action would be to learn what is causing the harm and to create guidelines for game designers to address the specific issue at hand. Because maybe the problem isn’t the violence itself but the way in which the player carries it out that is harmful.
References
Mathews, R. (n.d.). Ethical responsibility of video game manufacturers. Demand Media.
Reynolds, R. (2002). Playing a “good” game. IGDA.
Zagal, J. P. (2012). The videogame ethics reader. University Readers, Inc.
