I can't wait for them to come out with GTA for girls. Where we can like have sex with a bunch of young men and then castrate them, steal their money, and shove their balls in their face. Cool! Makes me feel powerful and smart!

Why do you need a game for that? You can pretty much get away with anything you want in real life (unless you're a fat chick).

You go girl!

kBomb:

GTA is already for girls too. Please try playing the game before you go getting all offended about what you incorrectly think the game is about. You can kill all the men you want in GTA if that is your thing. And there is nothing in the game that tries to promote killing prositutes. The fact that the game doesn't prevent you from doing it is not the same at all as promoting it.

In GTA, if you jump into an ambulance or fire truck, you can win money by driving around the city ferrying the injured to hospital and putting out fires.

Strangely, alarmist reporters tend to ignore this. They prefer to use the freedom GTA affords to construct the most deranged scenario possible, and then pretend that this scenario actually a structured part of the game. It's a bit like drawing a moustache on Barbie and then claiming she promotes transvestitism.

"The fact that the game doesn't prevent you from doing it is not the same at all as promoting it."

They went through the trouble of thinking of it and putting it to the game, how is that not promoting a player to do it. What do you think they were thinking "oh hey lets put this in to the game" "no, people won't want to do that" "I know, lets just put it in for no reason at all" I don't think so.

No, you're wrong.

They didn't "think it and put it i the game." In the game you can kill anyone you want, as in real life (though with milder cosequences). If you want to kill hookers, you can kill hookers. You can also kill mailmen or hot dog vendors if that's your preference. That's why it's an open-ended game.

kidsister:

They went through the trouble of thinking of it and putting it to the game, how is that not promoting a player to do it. What do you think they were thinking "oh hey lets put this in to the game" "no, people won't want to do that" "I know, lets just put it in for no reason at all" I don't think so.

You're logic is kind of flawed kidsister. This game is a completely open environment. In this game I can climb to the top of the empire state building and jump off. Does this game promote suicide?

I can go to my in game apartment and shoot my in game tv rendering it useless. Does this game promote destroying electronics?

In this game I can run around the city streets punching random strangers until I find one who will fight back. Does this game promote random punching sprees?

GTA is a totally open environment where almost any action is possible. Also, every action has consequences.

This does not promote any of these actions it simply gives the player an open environment.

s34738:

Why do you need a game for that? You can pretty much get away with anything you want in real life (unless you're a fat chick).

You go girl!

yeah, at the expense of playing to a stereotype that makes you seem weak and helpless. good going. analyze it a little harder.

maverjoe:

kidsister:

They went through the trouble of thinking of it and putting it to the game, how is that not promoting a player to do it. What do you think they were thinking "oh hey lets put this in to the game" "no, people won't want to do that" "I know, lets just put it in for no reason at all" I don't think so.

You're logic is kind of flawed kidsister. This game is a completely open environment. In this game I can climb to the top of the empire state building and jump off. Does this game promote suicide?

I can go to my in game apartment and shoot my in game tv rendering it useless. Does this game promote destroying electronics?

In this game I can run around the city streets punching random strangers until I find one who will fight back. Does this game promote random punching sprees?

GTA is a totally open environment where almost any action is possible. Also, every action has consequences.

This does not promote any of these actions it simply gives the player an open environment.

this is a ridiculously self same argument to "if your friends jumped off a cliff would you too?". just because you can attain the logical hyperbole capacity of a high school health instructor does not mean you have any sort of insight or intelligence.

my advice to you is to put your love of the game on the hook for a second, and actually evaluate concerns about the mindset of the game, and the worry over the popularity of that mindset. yeah i know, just because you play counterstrike doesn't mean you actually want to shoot people. that isn't what the debate is about, and either side is wrong if they invoke that kind of language. yeah that's right the side that says it is just a game is wrong, and the side that says that it is the equivalent of wanting to shoot people is wrong.

maroci:

No, you're wrong.

They didn't "think it and put it i the game." In the game you can kill anyone you want, as in real life (though with milder cosequences). If you want to kill hookers, you can kill hookers. You can also kill mailmen or hot dog vendors if that's your preference. That's why it's an open-ended game.

can i just point something out? why can you say the sentence "in the game you kill anyone you want (with milder consequences)." it's like saying, in the game you can kill the king, without having your skin ripped off your body and being boiled in hot water. why is it fun to do anything you want. i imagine if the npcs in gta were a little more human, and not like mindless walking programs, you would think about it a little before you shot them, even if it is, famous as it is to say it, just a game.

that's the question. firstly, why does no one realize that the people in the game do not really resemble real people, that that is in fact the point, that if they weren't desperately lacking simulacra of real people we wouldn't do the things to them we do in the game. secondly, why do people who play the game fail to realize that they're inscribing that worth to the representative people in the game, and why do people that play the game suddenly think that, say, hookers, aren't interesting because THERE IS a sort of voyeurism in grand theft auto. there is a sort of "if i could break the law and the stigmas of society without consequence, this is what i'd be most interested in doing.

the second question is more important. because as gamers we know that we won't be entertained by the simplest forms of gaming anymore. one can't substitute grand theft auto with the original playstation game with a cartoonish overhead camera view of you running around and completing tasks.

both sides fail to accomplish a nuanced and self-reflective perspective on what and why. non-gamers don't understand the premise of what we're doing, and gamers aren't self-critical enough to analyze what they're doing. although i should say that gamers get an excuse, they're toying with entertainment that supposes itself to be empty entertainment. the paradox is that that entertainment beats out other forms of entertainment, and that gamers don't really ever want to ask the question why.

the real question is "why the fetishism with wanting to see a side of reality that you wouldn't even actually take part of irl." the gaming programmers should just cut the crap. make a game about being a serial killer and getting away with it. make a game where you elude the cops and the authorities and kill people in ever gruesome more inventive ways using personal mythologies and symbolisms. this game will inevitably be very popular, but no one will ask why.

GreenwichJ:

In GTA, if you jump into an ambulance or fire truck, you can win money by driving around the city ferrying the injured to hospital and putting out fires.

Strangely, alarmist reporters tend to ignore this. They prefer to use the freedom GTA affords to construct the most deranged scenario possible, and then pretend that this scenario actually a structured part of the game. It's a bit like drawing a moustache on Barbie and then claiming she promotes transvestitism.

omg, the ability to do humanitarian things in the game, though extremely limited (you can jump in a cop car and abuse your power and play vigilante too, same line of thinking), it saves the game of any moral character. good job.

your analogy is bad. it fails. read some books, you'll find analogy and metaphor come much easier when you understand what they are.

the ways in which you can act immorally in the game, are built in purposefully and the most obvious use of the game, a few humanitarian impulses in the game don't make it the sims. you know that. you obviously know that. these things are ulterior to the game, you'd never argue to a friend about how that's what makes the game great. so why do you use them now to save the intention of the game? you do know that you don't need to protect the game yourself, that it will stand on its own with or without any sort of moral merit. why would you argue that with a few exceptions, the game suddenly becomes the complicated, nuanced, game that you seem to be saying it is. the game is about crime. if it weren't it wouldn't sell. that's what we've got to deal with. why is it interesting to break the law, something that, ostensibly, is in place to make humans living in communities work to an advantage.

I don't know the answers, but maybe it's not too strong a sentiment to ask you why you aren't considering them.

FirstInLastOut:

kBomb:

GTA is already for girls too. Please try playing the game before you go getting all offended about what you incorrectly think the game is about. You can kill all the men you want in GTA if that is your thing. And there is nothing in the game that tries to promote killing prositutes. The fact that the game doesn't prevent you from doing it is not the same at all as promoting it.

if you were a woman, what point would you see in playing the game? unless ur a hooker. then you totally win. you idiot. it's already for gilrs too, because they want to be helpless waifs that just have children and when they don't they're just depositories of my sex fluids.

so, question is, are you even human or just a misogynist? just askin.

comportment:

FirstInLastOut:

kBomb:

GTA is already for girls too. Please try playing the game before you go getting all offended about what you incorrectly think the game is about. You can kill all the men you want in GTA if that is your thing. And there is nothing in the game that tries to promote killing prositutes. The fact that the game doesn't prevent you from doing it is not the same at all as promoting it.

if you were a woman, what point would you see in playing the game? unless ur a hooker. then you totally win. you idiot. it's already for gilrs too, because they want to be helpless waifs that just have children and when they don't they're just depositories of my sex fluids.

so, question is, are you even human or just a misogynist? just askin.

answer: they're misogynist, but they're not obligated to think about it, because they eat what they're fed, and what they're fed sells. now let's close the loop why don't we? what they buy sells because it plays to something they learned or absorbed growing up. they didn't know it and they didn't know what horrible behaviors it was provoking, but somehow, it struck a chord they have not ever been in touch with. and here's the kicker, when you open the door and expose what's actually happening, they get offended. a common theme among the privileged. moral obligations have to be taught, because de facto, those are learned/taught/imposed, and that's the key word--imposed. they feel like something is being imposed upon them that they are not responsible for. they treat it like a parking ticket they got for parking on a handicapped spot when nobody handicapped was there to park there, and they miss the point every time.