My dad saw on the news about GTA games cuaseing a kid to shoot cops. I don't have many details or any websites to back up his story.

He does not understand that games don't cuase violence. Consider that only one kid out of millions of GTA fans actualy shot cops. It is not GTA that is at fualt, IT IS THE USER.

Ss crazy dog said, anyone who confuses games with real life has to be pretty messed up to begin with.

With the popularity of the GTA games, if it's true that they makes kids want to shoot cops then there would be a lot less cops.

If you wanted to brainwash someone -indoctrinate them- you'd make sure that they are presented with the same sets of images and ideas over, and over, and over, and over, and over, ... for hundreds of hours.

Surely kids don't play GTA more than a few minutes.

Originally posted by SkinWalker
If you wanted to brainwash someone -indoctrinate them- you'd make sure that they are presented with the same sets of images and ideas over, and over, and over, and over, and over, ... for hundreds of hours.

Surely kids don't play GTA more than a few minutes.

I agree that is what it takes to brainwash people.

but kids spend hours on games, however not enough to brainwash them like you discribed. sound like the kid is trying to get it easier by blaming the game.

I think there are some limits even with games. GTA is a game that I wouldn't play for myself, nor would I ever allow my kid to play it. There are just some limits to the kinds of violence I'm willing to accept as fun.

But that's where *I* draw the line... I recognize that others might not and that's their prerogatives.

But I wonder where do we draw the line? The JFK Assassination game is interesting... I don't have a problem with it, but how about a game where you're a white supremicist and you get points for lynching negro men or raping their daughters? It could use the GTA engine, but instead of cabs and cop cars, you jump in pickups and you can run into homes and tie a rope to a black man's ankle, the other end of which is tied to the truck's hitch.

You get extra points if you ignite the cross on the lawn....

I agree there should be a line. But the thing is Skin, what you described could actually be at blame, seeing as the people that would buy that game are people with a prejudice against blacks already, and are more than likely already violent against blacks. Not to mention it'd most definitely be used as a recruiting tool for racist organizations to get more members to commit violent crimes.

And there is where we should draw the line(IMO). When the intent is to get people to commit a crime.

You'll ask how will we know what the intent is? Look at their market projection. If their intended target is a group that is known for violent behaviour, chances are they're trying to get something started. But the GTA games are made for pure fun and ability to escape reality and do something you could never find yourself doing in real life. Not to say you don't get homicidal maniacs that buy these games, but that's a very small percentage of the games market, and you're just as likely to get homicidal maniacs that watch classic cartoons like tom and jerry, or looney toons, or even non-violent shows.

To what extent can we just say, "It's just a game"?

GTA has taken center stage in this debate. The gamers, developers vs the soccer moms and senators. The GTA games were damn fun---worth every penny. Number 3 set the standards on what a game should be. Of course, all this happened not without controversy. I played the games for fun. But what "fun" is, differs by every gamer. For me, "fun" is just cruising around in a car, and yes, I did kill, but it wasn't for joy. I don't bask in the glory of cop killing; I run away from them ;). But others consider the killing to be fun. I think that there's a general concensus by the socccer moms that all gamers consider "fun" to be the game's sexual themes, violence, and drugs. But is anyone who's ever played these games influenced?

I seriously hope not.

I have a high sense of morality when playing. GTA, to me, is just a virtual life where you can do things in that world whereas you obviously can't do them in the real world. It is a person's responsibility to realize the virtual world from the real world. And it is also a parent's duty to know what their kids play.

It just makes me angry when I see or read it on the news when a person blames the violence in video games(GTA in particular) for their crimes. It's their own fault. :mad:

Hey. I've played GTA for countless hours. I've run over countless pedestrians. I've shot cop's heads off. I've shot hicks and stolen their bikes. I've stomped dead bodies repeatedly. I've made a stakeout on top of a hospital and killed dozens of SWAT team members until the FBI has finally gunned me down.

I think I'll go steal a cab and evade cops now. Be back around 10, because that's my curfew.

:p

GTA is like your own personal sandbox. Its up to you what you do with it.

"What's in there?"
"Only what you take with you."

For most missions where time is of the essence you are actually penalised for randomly running over civilians as you will end up with the police on your tail and getting in the way of you completing your mission.

---------------

But with the millions that have played it, if only one person who has played it has killed anyone than that has to be a better than average death rate.

I still remember an interview just after Natural Born Killers came out (the press had deciided to go after that for that month). It was with the friend of a guy who watched it 18 times and then went out and killed someone.
HE said something like "I watched it with him, it was ok. But then he went and watched it another 17 times! That kind of shows that there was something wrong with him to start with doesn't it?"

He said it better. But it is still a valid point. I (and a lot of other people) watched it, thought it was a bit pants and then moved on. This guy watched the exact same movie and then went nuts. To me that suggests there was something wrong beforehand.

(if i ever get inspired to go psycho i hope it is by a decent movie)

So, the odds of someone watching NBK or playing GTA and going postal are probably about the same as getting killed by your toaster (and far less than getting hurt by your kettle). Yet we allow toasters and kettles because they bring benefits to many that outweight the drawbacks to a few.
GTA doesn't even have a proven drawback, and if someone is likely to get tipped over the edge by GTA then they could just as easily be tipped over the edge by a frustrating game of golf.

I'm not willing to subject the whole world to bland and innoffensive culture and entertainment simply to avoid upsetting a few unstable beings who would probably end up getting upset over SOMETHING anyway.

Originally posted by SkinWalker

But I wonder where do we draw the line? The JFK Assassination game is interesting... I don't have a problem with it, but how about a game where you're a white supremicist and you get points for lynching negro men or raping their daughters? It could use the GTA engine, but instead of cabs and cop cars, you jump in pickups and you can run into homes and tie a rope to a black man's ankle, the other end of which is tied to the truck's hitch.

You get extra points if you ignite the cross on the lawn....

To tell you the truth, A game where you play as the KKK would be loads of fun! GENIUS! I say the more violent and sensless the better! After all it is just a game. I like the idea of extreme brutal gang beatings, starting fires, and other mindless violence.

if you think video game violence is as bad as real violence there is somthing wrong with your BRAIN!

Originally posted by kipperthefrog
if you think video game violence is as bad as real violence there is somthing wrong with your BRAIN! He's not saying it's as bad. But there should be limits to where people can take things.

Personaly i got fed up with GTA 3 quite quickly, i got to the second Island and lost interest, It was just more of the same.

Anyway...

People have killed other people since the dawn of time, i don't think you can blame video games for those deaths can you. These kids that kill a cop after playing GTA would have probably killed anyway, true they might not have killed a cop but they would have killed someone. The game just gave them the method "Shoot Cop" they already had "kill someone" in their head.

Violent video games don't turn people nuts, they give nuts people ideas.

What amazes me is the fundementalists that scream "Ban The Games! It is an assualt on our kids!" turn a blind eye to Child POVERTY. They think controling kids entertainment is more important than feeding them.

the thing to remember about GTA is it was so popular because it was a great game (great style, great music, great actors, great freedom and above all great fun to drive).

It wasn't huge because it was controversial or allowed you to shoot people (though that didn't hurt it getting noticed). Games like postal allowed you to do just as many bad things, but they weren't good fun to play underneath... so no-one did play them.