No, this doesn't belong in A&E.

I am wondering what everybody's thoughts on video game censorship are. I just figure GTA is a great example of a game with plenty of censorable aspects.

First of all, there's the violence. Violent video games have been accused of encouraging young people to participate in violence themselves. The whole GTA series definately could be seen as "glorifying" random and senseless violence if the person playing is too young to understand the real consequences of the actions.

And then, in GTA, there's the intense racial stereotyping, which I feel could actually be quite damaging, culturally. If you haven't played the game, it is a continuation, still first-person, of the prior games, except this time you are black, and you are returning home to the ghetto that you used to cause so much trouble in. You find out that your mother has been killed, and you immediately start participating in robbing people, killing them, drive-by shootings, etc. Is this reality? Sure, this sort of thing probably happens, although this is quite exaggerated. However, to your teenaged suburban white boy who's never seen the ghetto, this could give the impression that being black and crime are inseparably connected.

So, that being said, I feel this type of game, if played by somebody too young to understand violence and racism (probably about 20 years old....), is damaging to our society and is anti-progressive.

They already have the Teen and Mature ratings, but they are not enforced at all. Does anyone have any thoughts on this subject?

Feel free to speak out against it, organize boycotts, persuade the retailers to sell it under certain circumstances, etc.

But under NO circumstances should the government get involved.

As far as what I would personally do with my children, that's wholly dependent on what kind of child they are.

maybe parents should take a little responiblity and know what games their kids are playing............not everything should be child friendly......

I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with samick on something, but he's dead on. As a parent, it's MY AND MY WIFE'S ultimate responsibility what my kids are exposed to and what they do. Granted, my kids are still young, so it's a lot easier now, but what I can do now is help my kids understand that video games are by no means a way to guage your social behavior---they are just games. My six year old already knows this. I figure by the time he's a teenager, and ends up at a friend's house who might have a game like this, he'll at least understand that it's all fantasy. Personally, I think people that are influenced by the media, be it TV, news, video games, music, whatever, probably have some underlying issues of bad parenting to deal with. If you have proper role models, and are taught right and wrong, and are relatively intelligent, then video games and TV won't make your decisions for you.

I don't see it as a necessity that it should be child-friendly. I have no problem with adults playing games like that. The problem I see is children playing it, and this particular game is marketed towards younger people. I'm not saying there should be a ban on games like this. If parents want their kids playing this, fine. I do think they should do what they do with R-rated movies, that is, require parental permission.

Who is "they?" They already have ratings on the games. The games should not be sold to kids, and if someone is selling it to kids, they should face consequences. At the end of the day, however, if kids are playing the game, it's because their parents aren't paying enough attention to what their kids are doing. It's not the responsibility of artists, corporations, or government to control what kids may or may not see. That's a ridiculous argument.

I don't think the game is racist one bit. To say that it degrades black people, you would also need to say that it wrongly degrades/stereotypes Italians, Latinos, hippies, gay people, prostitutes, etc. etc...

The point is, it's a video game. It's not real life.

I dont care if the game is violent, the important to me is the game to be good,violent or not

This reminds me of the flare that the board game Ghettopoly shot into the cultural air.

I haven't played the game so I can't really address the specifics there, but I do know that I do not want to live in a society that constantly caters to children. There should be some pleasures out there that adults can enjoy w/o fear of reprisal.

Leave the monitoring to the parents...

(God bless Bill Maher)...

Do they have restrictions on what age the sell Mature-rated games to? I know some stores don't carry them. My point is, if the parents don't care if the kids play the game, they should have no problem getting the game for them.

Anyhow, if you disagree, fine. I do think these types of games are destructive to youth, though.

if this is the case, then kids should not be allowed to watch tv after 8pm, they see just as much violence on tv as they do in this game. though i guess technically if they saw the double headed dildo, that might not be seen on tv, but even still...

when i was a wee tyke, i played cops and robbers, i listened to iron maiden and judas priest, i watched scary movies that i probably shouldnt have, i screamed and ran from the theater during friday the 13th pt II and i think youd be pretty hard pressed to find someone with a better sense of morals around, even if i do think 95% of the people in the world are assholes

I don't think anything on network TV compares to picking up prostitutes and killing them after the deed, walking outside the house and cutting the neighbor's head off, stealing cars and running people over, and so forth. The game makes violence fun.

Kids should NOT be playing this game........and if their parents let them then they are BAD parents.........

like echos.................tsunami hears

echos
echos
echos.

In other words, agrees

Hear me out on this one:

The game is definitely desensitizing, make no mistake about it.

My example: My cousins were over playing it all day, and they are all 15-16 years old, and it is amazing how desensitized young people are to violence. My aunt who was watching was shocked that you could run down the street with a chainsaw and saw up who ever you wanted.

Of course the young folks in the room all found it amusing, but obviously a game like this is probably dangerous for society, and is only adding to an already degraded cultural perception on violence. Its not real, but the fact that there is humor in the game from killing people is pretty sad. The game doesn't effectively show the actual reprecutions of violent acts, such as depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, possible jail-time, grief, etc. etc. Modern films do this too (or lack it) (thanks no part to morons like Arnold Schwartzennegar and Jean Claude Van Damm). I don't know if the game inspires people to actually go out and shoot up their classmates, or their former co-workers, but the culture as a whole suffers from it, sadly. Violence and war have become so trivialized in America from entertainment. This certainly reflects/effects on not only our country's homicide rate, and wars with other countries, but the whole "culture of fear" idea in general. You look at the thread about the story of the man running over some guy who robbed him and wanted to rape his daughter. Its definitely a sign of our culture that people actually encourage and cheer on this type of a retribution.

There is no real solution, other than for people to be educated on the social effects. If you don't like the game, don't buy it. I find it to be very an excellent game for many reasons other than the violence, however.

that's where parents are supposed to come in, i guess.

and Japan develops most of these violent games and they don't have these violent outbursts among their youth

I agree that there is a lot of damaging and shocking stuff in this game. The thing is, it's fine for people our age, almost a mildly amusing fantasy world where we can let out our aggression and stress and whatever. For kids it's just something they shouldn't be playing. Or seeing. This is squarely on the shoulders of parents, however. I wouldn't let my 15-year-old play it, if I had a 15-year-old.

Basically, it's the parents' job to monitor what their kids are doing. I don't think that the games should be banned at all (I think they're incredibly amusing, in a sick way, but I know it's fake because I have half a brain), however parents should have to purchase them if the kids are too young. I don't think 12 year old kids should be able to easily buy a GTA game, however that's the store's job.
It kind of bothers me how little parents seem to care now. I mean, last year I volunteered with some elementary school kids and there was an 8-year-old boy who talked about how he owned GTA and a bunch of other really violent games. This kid seemed pretty smart, but regardless I really don't think they're appropriate for kids that age. But still, it's the parents' job, and if they don't care then I suppose it's nobody else's business. It's unfortunate that kids can be so violent, though, and then things like this are blamed--if people just took some responsibility, the blame wouldn't be necessary.

id much rather see a kid killing, stealing cars, picking up prostitutes, joining a gang, etc.. on grand theft auto 3 than doing it in real life

video games are fantasy..they allow us to do things we cant do in real life..