Libbies go crazy over "Grand Theft Auto" [Archive]

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S-T

07-29-2005, 08:58 PM

My hand hurts. (http://tibbs1973.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_tibbs1973_archive.html#1122638101490347 67)

While walking under a brick ceiling the other day, I jumped up and punched it as hard as I could, hoping that the bricks would shatter to reveal a huge gold coin. I wound up breaking my hand instead. I think I am going to sue Nintendo for making me think that is possible through all the times I have played Super Mario Brothers. I deserve compensation for my medical bills, pain and suffering, as well as punitive damages. The above story is fiction, but I hope it illustrates the absurdity of a cop-killer (http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=24969) who is arguing that he was influenced to murder police officers by playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. (GTA: SA is the fifth game in the GTA series, after the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto III spun off Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and San Andreas.)

I have not played any of the GTA series, but this is how I understand it works. As you commit crimes in the course of the missions you are asked to complete, you become higher on the "most wanted" list. If you choose to commit especially heinous crimes (like killing police officers) your level goes up and the game becomes more difficult. In short, you are punished for taking things too far because you become a high priority target for arrest or death. Those who are saying that players are rewarded for killing cops are either lying or uninformed.

This, of course, is not new. A decade ago, video game critics claimed that the goal of the Sega CD game Night Trap was to kill the young women in an old house. This was not true. The player's goal was to save the women. If the women died, the player either intentionally failed or was not good enough to stop the monsters. Critics of Night Trap were either uninformed or lying.

But there is more to the controversy surrounding GTA: SA. An 85-year-old woman named Florence Cohen is suing the makers of GTA: SA (http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/fun.games/07/27/game.lawsuit.ap/index.html) because of recent revelations that players can access more graphic sexual content through an Internet download. She bought the game for her 14-year-old grandson.

There are two problems with Cohen's complaint. First, GTA: SA is rated "M", meaning that no one under 17 should be playing the game. "M" is the equivalent of an "R" rating for a movie. (Not that an "R" rating means anything anyway; I observed pre-teens walking out after a showing of the horror flick Freddy vs. Jason.) Second, GTA: SA already had warnings for the sexual content of the game, before the most recent controversy erupted.

Cohen' lawsuit should be dismissed by the judge and her attorney should be disbarred for abusing the legal system.

Trevelyan

07-29-2005, 09:07 PM

I believe the people who try to blame video games and so on for their crimes should have their punishment automatically doubled for having the audacity to even try to play that card.

<O:p</O:p
I really wish the politicians or anyone else complaining about the recent "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" "Hot Coffee" incident would just shut up already. <O:p</O:p

I'm just waiting for the day when movies, cable television, and video games are forced to only produce kid or family friendly entertainment. <O:p</O:p

okkervil

07-29-2005, 09:37 PM

I wonder when people will start taking personal responsibilty for what they do instead of blaming it on video games, music, tv, ect.

Melz

07-29-2005, 09:40 PM

MSGT

07-30-2005, 02:33 AM

I wonder when people will start taking personal responsibilty for what they do instead of blaming it on video games, music, tv, ect.

or saying they were born that way:thumb:

Republican_Legion

07-30-2005, 02:41 AM

ROFL quoting a person who is banned priceless lol
lol he wont be able to reply

medved

07-30-2005, 03:09 AM

In my view, anybody who owns a copy of GTA and has played it more than once has significant psychiatric problems and should seek help.

CzechPrince

07-30-2005, 04:05 AM

In my view, anybody who owns a copy of GTA and has played it more than once has significant psychiatric problems and should seek help.

And your reasoning is becasue......?

MSGT

07-30-2005, 04:06 AM

ROFL quoting a person who is banned priceless lol
lol he wont be able to reply

others will, I have added to my sig for them

edit: I took it out

CzechPrince

07-30-2005, 04:06 AM

While walking under a brick ceiling the other day, I jumped up and punched it as hard as I could, hoping that the bricks would shatter to reveal a huge gold coin. I wound up breaking my hand instead. I think I am going to sue Nintendo for making me think that is possible through all the times I have played Super Mario Brothers

:claps: Awesome article.

S-T

07-30-2005, 12:05 PM

I believe the people who try to blame video games and so on for their crimes should have their punishment automatically doubled for having the audacity to even try to play that card. I like that idea. ROFL quoting a person who is banned priceless lol
lol he wont be able to replyDid she respond before or after he was banned?[/i]

:claps: Awesome article.Thanks. This inanity has gone on too long. Ten years ago, it was Joe Lieberman. Now it's Hillary Clinton.

Tumblehome

07-30-2005, 01:58 PM

In my view, anybody who owns a copy of GTA and has played it more than once has significant psychiatric problems and should seek help.

Well ok, so now I must admit what so many here would like to hear me say. If what you post is true then I am stark raving mad. :libride:

I love the GTA games. They are a lot of fun. Try them. The radio stations are absolutely hillarious. Especially in GTA3

Trevelyan

07-30-2005, 02:22 PM

Well ok, so now I must admit what so many here would like to hear me say. If what you post is true then I am stark raving mad. :libride:

I love the GTA games. They are a lot of fun. Try them. The radio stations are absolutely hillarious. Especially in GTA3

Indeed.

Beowulf

07-31-2005, 02:32 PM

Hey Libs, don't like GTA? Then don't play it! I say that of ANY video game. Blaming games for how children or even adults act is about as dumb as blaming rock music for someone committing suicide or taking dope.

Get a fricking life, Libs!:flame:

S-T

07-31-2005, 08:37 PM

Blaming games for how children or even adults act is about as dumb as blaming rock music for someone committing suicide or taking dope. But who is going to pay me millions of dollars for breaking my hand? It's Mario's fault, I tell you!

http://www.freeconservatives.com/vb/images/icons/whine.gif

MSGT

07-31-2005, 08:40 PM

But who is going to pay me millions of dollars for breaking my hand? It's Mario's fault, I tell you!

http://www.freeconservatives.com/vb/images/icons/whine.gif

Don't know, Johnny's gone.

S-T

07-31-2005, 08:42 PM

Ah. We have dueling quotes in our signatures. ;)

Tumblehome

07-31-2005, 09:10 PM

I'm a bit confused over this whole videogames-are-evil thing. Is this the liberals or conservatives who are doing this? I thought it was the fundy christian types. But I'm hearing here that its liberals. Is it perhaps not a liberal/conservative issue at all? I duno.

BTW the next game targetted to be branded as "adults only" is none of than The Sims. Can you believe that? The sims is basically an electronic living dollhouse. Its aimed at children and adults both. They are trying to get at this game because a cheat code can disable the blur and allow you too seek naked sims. The sim bodies are like barbie dolls when naked (no genetalia). How is this any different than boys undressing barbie dolls?

Beowulf

08-01-2005, 03:49 AM

Tumble, the Libs are the ones bitching....per usual. You have to understand their thinking if you can possibly sink that low, and thats "if it hurts someone or simulates hurting someone, ban it."
I play video games quite often. I have GTA and both my son and I play it. It's fun BUT my son understands that it's only a game. I also play first person shooters online depicting war violence. To a Lib, that makes me a dangerous person as I might run out into the street and blow up a car loaded with people or play sniper from my apartment deck, neither of which I would ever do BUT that's their thinking.

I referenced music in another post. Back in the 1980's if you remember, it was Al Gore's wife, Tipper, that created the PMRC, or the Parental Music Resource Center. She did this to force putting labels on records containing explicit language or even forced banning graphic album covers. They even took the side of parents suing over kids committing suicide who blamed rock and roll artists for the deaths due to the lyric content of songs they listened to. Ozzie Osbourne was a frequent target. I just loved it the day that Dee Snider of Twisted Sister went before congress and made the PMRC look totally rediculous. He may look strange but he's no dummy!

As I said, they don't like something, they try to ban it. I say, if you don't like it, don't listen to it, don't watch it or don't play it. It's a parental issue, NOT a government issue!

Trevelyan

08-01-2005, 07:37 AM

I play video games quite often.

Hey, then why don't you respond to my thread about video games in "The Library" then? It got one reply. :grin:

Lazarus

08-01-2005, 09:04 AM

Im a rabic PC gamer... I admit I have never played GTA, but with all the noise about it I spose I should give it a try... As for games "making" people behave irrationally, sorry, that's a pop culture cop out...

I will however admit that a couple of years ago when I was romantically involved with Lara Croft ;) I found myself doing something rather odd... Wherever I was, didnt matter where, anythime I looked at a building or some industrila structure, I caught myself anaylizing the outter structure in an attempt to discover the best way to get on top of it... It was a conditional reflex that I had become used to...

"Let's see... How would Lara do it? I could jump up on that A/C unit and then makle successive hops up that ductwork on the right... Then I could shimmy across the window ledge till I couls pull myself up on that place where the bricks are broken... etc...etc...":thumb:

In truth I believe it did cause me to excercise the analytical side of my brain so that I found myself, wherever I was, observing and mentally collating more details around me ... Its kinda like a workout for your mind and it has been beneficial for me, especially in the job Im in now...

Warlady

08-01-2005, 09:10 AM

Trev, that is also where this thread belongs.

Geoffrey20005

08-01-2005, 01:46 PM

I think I will sue the Duck Hunt people... I played that game so much I got a high score, but when I went to a skeet-championship I lost! Its all because of their training!!

Then again, I might sue Nintendo because I don't get cool swords or warp places when I play MY Ocarina...

Bluemoon_Rising

08-01-2005, 02:41 PM

Hollywood Video pulled it from their shelves.

Warlady

08-01-2005, 11:36 PM

Apparently, I moved this thread to the wrong forum. It belongs in our game forum. I'll leave a link to direct you to the new forum. Sorry guys. I aplogize from the bottom of my heart for any inconvience I have caused you.

Jag Wife

08-02-2005, 09:17 AM

Tumblehome

08-04-2005, 10:50 AM

In truth I believe it did cause me to excercise the analytical side of my brain so that I found myself, wherever I was, observing and mentally collating more details around me ... Its kinda like a workout for your mind and it has been beneficial for me, especially in the job Im in now...

Many moons ago I worked as a mover. We would always have to find the best way to fit the customer's furniture into the truck, to maximize the space that we had. I also played Tetris. All the furniture quickly started looking like blocks and I hummed the Tetris theme song in my head as I worked.

Antigone

08-04-2005, 10:57 AM

Actually, there's one thing in all this I haven't heard mentioned.
Nobody really made a fuss about GTA until The Red Queen issued an edict that GTA was evil and a bad influence on "the children." Until then nobody really said much of anything.
How much you want to bet there will be a huge black market for bootleg copies?

That's because they hadn't been told what to think yet. :grin:

It probably never occured to any of those now opposed to it to LOOK at the game and see what it was about or to pay attention to the rating.

Apollo5600

08-05-2005, 12:16 AM

I've always wanted a game with the type of freedom in the GTA series... That is you get the entire city to go around and do stuff in, without having to do actual missions which lead you to do exactly what the game wants you to do.

Though a better game would be like a Bounty Hunter thing.. Hmmmmmm....