In Defense of Grand Theft Auto IV
Posted at 10:10 AM Apr 30, 2008
You'd have to be totally avoiding the media to not have noticed that Grand Theft Auto IV is being released this week - and Rockstar Games is expecting to sell $6 million worth of copies of the game. Certainly they are also expecting to be laughing all the way to the bank.
The holy trinity of sex, violence, and video games -the more politically incorrect the better- is out in full force with this release. Much ado is being made over the game's fantasy world of cruising around in cars with bad intentions, gunning people down, and killing hookers.
When the last Grand Theft Auto was released, the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) made a statement that encouraged boycotting the game, though it was also very careful to make it clear that SWOP does not support censorship. Plenty of organizations made up of concerned parents also encourage boycotts - though because of the general violence, not out of concern for sex workers.
Though certainly I think ratings are a useful thing on movies and video games to alert people to the content, I think the tizzy people are working themselves into over the game is a bit silly. It's entertainment - fantasy. Though I don't love seeing sexualized violence against women in any kind of media, I think encouraging discussion about the topic is a much better (and more realistic) tactic.
To connect this up with my post from yesterday about the extreme porn bill about to become law in the UK - to play Grand Theft Auto is to immerse oneself in a fantasy world. That fantasy world most likely won't shape the real-world actions of a healthy person. Especially if that healthy person can have conversations about what they are seeing and experiencing in that fantasy world with people who aren't freaking out about it.
--Audacia Ray
more: Media Critic
