Good old Jack. Being up for review by the Florida Bar hasn’t slowed him down a bit. Jack, in a letter copied to Ars Technica, has demanded that Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, Sony, Microsoft, GameStop, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart all be indicted for foisting the pornographic and vile Grand Theft Auto IV upon our nation’s youth.
As Ars Technica points out, though, Jack is using the game industry’s own media against it in this latest effort. Thompson is citing IGN’s compilation of GTA4’s sex and violence (the very, very NSFW Ladies of Liberty City video) as the decisive evidence in his claim that GTA4 is “an Adults-Only game.” Viewed through the lens of this extremely selective video, it’s frighteningly difficult not to agree with Jack.
On the other hand, as mentioned, the video is deliberately selective. I’m sure there are plenty of parts of the game where a drive through Liberty City doesn’t involve firing at pedestrians and getting lap dances. In addition, we have our usual counterarguments — the game’s rating means you’re not supposed to sell it to kids, that our nation’s youth will see way worse in a one-hour episode of The Wire, video games never have and never will breed a generation of psycho killers, etc.
There is one final argument, of course, and that is that all of the depicted activity is entirely optional, but allow me to play devil’s bar-sanctioned advocate for a moment. Is it really that optional? Be completely honest on this one: Are you going to guide Niko through GTA4 as a model citizen, or are you going to plow a car through a crowd of old ladies just to see what happens? Knowing that there are lap dances in the game, are you going to deliberately seek them out just to see the content for yourself? GTA4 is a game designed around misbehaving. You’re not going to get Niko a paper route and ensure his life stays mundane and legal, never once exploring the game’s story. The name of the game has a crime in it. The entire purpose of the game is to overindulge in absurd levels of violence and debauchery, and anyone who tries to argue otherwise is kidding themselves.
We need to own up to that, first of all. From there, we can defend the game rationally, saying, “Yes, there is violence and sex in this game. What’s your point?” Violence and sex were not invented by Rockstar or Take-Two. Glorified? Maybe. But it is not the downfall of Western Civilization. Violent media is par for the course, and in a number of cases, high art. People frequently cite The Godfather as perhaps the greatest film ever made. Remind me again what they do in that movie.
GTA4 is for mature gamers. Let’s not act like kids when we try to defend it.
