Rockstar can’t seem to move without making waves. With virtually every online eye focused intently on GTA V and its road to release, it looks like this time they’re working on a tsunami. I’m not sure I remember a game that’s been so hotly anticipated, so consistently googled and speculated on, if there ever was one. Suffice it to say, we’re standing on the precipice of yet another huge R* release. And of course, along with that comes yet another controversy sh*tstorm.
R* could perhaps be considered the kings of controversy. After all, they rode a wave of public outcry right to the top of the gaming industry with their original GTA releases, and gained themselves a bad boy notoriety when they unleashed the viscerally upsetting Manhunt onto an unsuspecting world.
The original GTA caused quite a stir, and in those early days its controversy caused it to be condemned in Britain, Germany and France, and even banned outright in Brazil, with its “extreme violence” cited as the reason. Lucky for R* (and for us Brits) that the series was championed by publicist Max Clifford, who planted stories in UK tabloids to help sell the game.
And each time a new GTA is released, R* invite similar levels of damning controversy upon themselves. Why? Well, that’s what I’m here to discuss. GTA V will cause controversy and much of it, of that you could pretty much bet your house on. Here are ten reasons why.
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17 Comments
sweet article man, pretty much agree with every point, keep ‘em coming.
I got gta: San Andreas when i was 9 and have had all of them since. I’m nearly 17 now and not once have i felt the urge to do in real life what i do in the games do the people who protest (and fail) to get the game band not realize that, i cant wait for gts 5 to get released and all the protest groups to start again (and fail).
Yeah, fact is, only people with unhealthy minds (genetics etc) have the aggression to seriously consider transferring video game violence into real life. I have read articles that violent games do enhance aggression somewhat, but if youre a normal individual you would never go so far as to commit murder because of a game, or damn near any other circumstance. To say violent games “train” kids at any age to become killers is ludicrous and just plain ignorant.
I’ve been playing the GTA Franchise since the PS1 – I’m 26 now and love it – can’t wait for it to be released will be taking 1 weeks holiday off work #Standard…
I heard you could do some drugs in GTA V, if that’s true, then you can count on parents saying “This is an evil game, it tells my child to get high. I bought this game for my child who is 10 or whatever, even though it clearly says 17+ on the box, and it’s Rockstar’s fault this happened.”
It blows my mind how people can buy their kids games that kids shouldn’t play, and then blame companies, instead of their own judgement that their kids managed to get a copy past them.
I’ve been playing violent games forever now, since I could remember, and now that I’m 18 I feel no need to reenact anything I have seen or done in a game. Let them waste their money on attempting to boycott a game that they had no success in boycotting from the start. Besides, it’s to late to sensitize our youth when they are exposed to violence in cartoons, movies, and those ridiculous reality shows.
In Australia the game is rated MA 15+
yeah but Australia is a country started by criminals lol
I played every GTA and I’m only 20 which means I was about 5 or 6 when the first one was released, I still remember getting San Andreas for my 12th birthday… ah it was a glorious day, my dad pre-ordered it and on the day picked it up from virgin megastore lol, I was in school all staring at the clock because I knew my dad had it home. Kids are way too sheltered these days.
Oh yeah, I used to work in the first Rockstar (DMA Design) studio which is now a call center… there was a GTA sticker on one of the doors, made me smile :P There was also a lemmings poster if anyone remembers them.
I remember when my mum got me my first PS2 and with it came Grand Theft Auto 3, at first i thought what the hell is this, 10 minutes later, my mum walks in and asks what i’m doing and i reply ‘killing a granny’.
Happy to say i had a good childhood :)
They’ve done drunk driving before GTA IV. There was a mission in Vice City to do with Moonshine or something (if memory serves me well), and you have to drive with the redneck. But the GTA franchines is incredible, I still play GTA2 every now and then on PC!
I would ask this:
Wasn’t there any happiness in the day that you finally became old enough to do something? drive? drink? watch porn? should there be no age limits? Isn’t there a good anticipation when you know that there are things that are too mature for you, that you will have access to when you are older?
when I was younger I couldn’t picture myself thinking differently. But here I am, seeing the world through older eyes, and it looks different.
well if it’s free…then what the heck, i’m waiting for the “GTA makes people less likely to steal cars” controversy …seeing how those damn cops follow you through hell and back for such a (relative) minor offense
All those previous controversies have provided R* management with a wealth of experience dealing with controversy. They’re also not expecting no controversy, they know what kind of game they make.
I was almost through GTA IV before I found out how you could call a prostitute, let alone that you can actually do that. I did not kill the woman, I felt no need.
The argument that it will make people violent is nonsense. Millions of people play those games, if they all became violent, the blue room would be a slaughterhouse. If someone gets violent over a game like that, it was a latent potential that was going to manifest itself one way or another anyway. I have taken out many a stressful day at work on an… assertive stroll along the streets of Liberty City. Some pixels may, or many not, have fallen victim to that. I can’t tell, the in-game police wanted me for an interview and I could not hurry fast enough to accommodate them.
This is not a game for children, and it says so on the box. If parents complain, they should try some parenting for a change. Maybe that would help.
If people really want to get angry, and there are causes aplenty, they should complain about unscrupulous bankers, of which there are many, incompetent politicians, which is almost an oxymoron, and the people who insist on going to war, for no other reason but to further their causes at the expense and to the great cost and detriment of those who get to die in those wars.
I’m looking forward to GTA V, R*’s production quality is a standard in video games production and I can’t wait to hear Iggy Pop’s voice on the rock station again.
False: GTA doesn’t get an 18 rating in the UK every time. Grand Theft Auto (Advance) was rated 16.
GTA Advance wasn’t a Rockstar game. It was a Digital Eclipse game published by Rockstar; hence, it is not a true Grand Theft Auto game.
Reason #4 is exactly proving the point of my article blaming the parents, not the industry.
http://whatculture.com/gaming/gta-v-rockstars-backlash-its-the-parents-not-the-industry.php