Critics slam 'GTA IV' without test drive
Many critics started complaining about the violence and sexual content in Rockstar Games' 'Grand Theft Auto IV' before even seeing the game.
(Credit: Rockstar Games)To many in the video game industry, the two words "Jack" and "Thompson" engender horror and disgust.
Thompson, a self-appointed uber-critic of the industry, has spent the last few years railing away at games he deems too full of sex or violence. Never was he out in more force than during 2005's so-called "Hot Coffee" scandal, in which the monster hit Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was discovered to have hidden, but easily uncoverable, animations that mimicked sexual activity.
In the lead-up to the midnight Tuesday release of Rockstar Games' follow-up game, Grand Theft Auto IV, Thompson was at it again. (See GameSpot's review here: Grand Theft Auto IV (PlayStation 3).)
According to online technology news site Softpedia, Thompson wrote an e-mail to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick's mother (Take-Two is Rockstar's parent company).
"Your son last week was reported to have said the following about Grand Theft Auto IV," the letter allegedly began. "'We've already received numerous reviews, and to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn't write better reviews...' Taking your son's thought, I would encourage you either to play this game or have an adroit video gamer play it for you. Some of the latter gamers are on death row, so try to find one out in the civilian population who hasn't killed someone yet."
In an e-mail to CNET News.com Monday, Thompson confirmed that he wrote the letter, but said he sent it to Strauss' attorney and not to his mother.
"I sent it to Strauss' attorney to make the point that if you drag your mother into your porn business pimping," Thompson told me by e-mail, "you had better be prepared for blowback."
There can be little doubt that the release of GTA IV will be one of the biggest events of the year in video games, both from a business and entertainment standpoint--and from the perspective of politicians, organizations, and individuals like Thompson seeking to derail the game due to what they expect to be an overabundance of violence and sex.
For example, California state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), recently put out a press release in which he exhorted parents not to buy GTA IV for their kids.
"Unfortunately, the makers of Grand Theft Auto have a history of deceiving the ratings board and the public on the true content of their games," Yee said in the statement.
Indeed, Take-Two and Rockstar got into pretty serious trouble over the "Hot Coffee" scandal because Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was originally rated "M," meaning 17-year-olds could buy it. After the scandal broke, the publishers were forced to re-rate the game as "AO" for adults only. And in June 2006, Take-Two reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission promising to accurately depict the contents of its games.
Last week, the Parents Television Council issued a release demanding that retailers not sell GTA IV or, at least, not make it available to children.
Some say that even the violence in 'GTA IV' comes with an accompanying message: commit the crime, do the time.
(Credit: Rockstar Games)But after sifting through all these press releases, e-mails, statements, and demands that the world's retailers and parents run screaming from GTA IV, it's striking that none of the people behind these missives has seen the game, and thus couldn't possibly know its full contents.
Part of the problem, said Aaron Muszalski, a visual effects artist formerly with Industrial Light & Magic who teaches at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, is that critics of games like those in the GTA series pass judgment on a very small sample of the whole game.
"When it was reported that, in earlier GTA games, it was possible to have sex with prostitutes and then beat them to death," Muszalski said, "people who lacked a grasp of 'sandbox' gameplay were likely to have interpreted that news to have meant that to 'win' at GTA, one had to perform such tasks, perhaps even that they were a recurring stage in the gameplay.
"Of course, such a perception is grossly flawed, as anyone who has actually played GTA...will quickly tell you," Muszalski continued. "Many of the aspects of GTA that were most covered in the press were things that, in the actual course of gameplay, many people would never need nor choose to do."
Of course, no one denies that there is sexually suggestive or violent content in GTA and other games. And Rockstar Games didn't help its cause in its slow response to the "Hot Coffee" scandal, nor does it now with its reaction to critics who accuse it of serving up games that are harmful to children.
"We don't have any comment on that," Rockstar spokesman Steve Hahnel told me Monday.
Sen. Clinton takes a bye
But perhaps the more measured approach to the GTA situation evinced even by some of the series' more vocal critics might be a more fair way to go.
For example, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was one of the loudest members of the anti-GTA: San Andreas coalition in 2005, has decided to sit this round out.
"We are not planning to issue a statement at this point," Clinton spokeswoman Sarah Gegenheimer wrote in an e-mail.
And the National Organization for Women, which, according to the International Game Developers Association took GTA III to task for "encourag(ing) violence toward and the degradation of women (and) glorifies violence and degrades women," has also decided to remain calm. For now.
"We would really like to see the actual game before we comment on it," said Mai Shiozaki, NOW's press secretary. "But it's not like we're going to go out and buy it."
To be sure, there's little doubt that the controversy over the release of GTA IV is music to Rockstar Games' ears, no matter how shrill the criticism from the likes of Thompson, Yee, the Parents Television Council, and others.
Promotional screenshots for 'GTA IV' are dominated by scenes of one character or another wielding guns or being near explosions. But is this game any worse than dozens of other titles that go unnoticed by critics?
(Credit: Rockstar Games)After all, as they say, any publicity is good publicity.
"It's their leading franchise, and it's the driver of the vast majority of their profits," said Colin Sebastian, a senior video game analyst at Lazard Capital Partners, "and so the game needs to sell very well, and I think it will. It's one of the few blockbuster franchises you can count on, in terms of sequels and follow-ons."
Sebastian said that because of the game's huge existing fan base, plus solid early reviews and the fact that it's coming out initially on two platforms--Xbox and PlayStation 3--he expects GTA IV to live up to or even exceed the sales numbers of its hit predecessors.
Analysts predict that GTA IV
What GTA means to EA's takeover bid
One major component to the GTA saga is the game's role in the ongoing merger discussions between would-be buyer Electronic Arts and Take-Two.
What's clear in that dynamic, especially now that the game is being released, is that its success could impact the amount that EA is willing to pay for Take-Two.
"The expectations for GTA were already justifiably very high," Sebastian said. "EA understood that when they made their bid....Every day that passes, they're (going to be) losing out on GTA revenues, so they're likely to lower their bid over time....But if GTA massively exceeds their expectations, that could be a scenario where EA might have to raise their bid."
None of this, of course, matters to critics like Yee or the Parents Television Council, both of which cited the oft-reported history of violence in GTA as reason behind their statements.
"We've seen a number of clips of the game," said Yee spokesperson Adam Keigwin. "From the clips alone, and based on GTA and Rockstar's history, (Yee) thought it very appropriate to issue a statement urging parents not to purchase the game for their children."
Similarly, Gavin McKiernan, the national grassroots director for the Parents Television Council, said that despite not having seen the game yet, "You can't necessarily wait until the cat's out of the bag...There's a huge (GTA) marketing and release push, and I'm sure this game will sell lots and lots of copies, so you can't wait."
Plus, McKiernan added, "this is a pretty established, known quantity. If there was going to be a significant change in style and tenor, that would be well known."
To which Muszalski might say, "So what?"
"GTA has always been memorable for the degree to which it succeeds at dramatizing the narrative, and contextually supporting the players actions," he said. "This is not crime for crime's sake, as anyone who has really played the game will tell you, but which, sadly, may not be apparent to anyone who has merely had the game presented to them, mid-gameplay."
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To slam the game without even seeing or playing it, is stupid. Yes, most likely it will have what they fear it will have. But to what extent? They have no idea. It is like saying a movie is a porn just because it has Ron Jeremy in it. Even though he has done many non-adult movies like Detroit Rock City. (I did not say good movies).
GTA III and I no longer see any compelling reason to continue
playing. The originals were fun, but there's only so many car-
jackings and cannonball runs hat you can perform before it just
all starts to feel formulaic.
The games were definitely revolutionary in their open-ended
nature, scope, and willingness to deal with mature subject
matter, but I personally think it is time for this franchise to shut
down. It mainly performs well still because people (mainly
children that shouldn't be playing the games in the first place)
like the shock value. Just like Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh.
Regardless, that's what ratings are for. Slap an M++ on it and let the buyer beware. As a parent I know it's hard to say no to your kid when "all my friends" have it, but then lots of things about parenting are hard. It's up to us to find better things for them to do.
Parents who don't supervise what their kids play are the problem. Not the game itself.
there are plenty more scary things that happen in real life
Nobody's forcing players to fornicate with hookers and then beat them up. Nobody's forcing players to jump through major hoops to activate Hot Coffee. If there's anything wrong here, it's with the player that he/she chooses to do so.
The problem is the perception that video games are shallow meaningless pursuits for children and that they have no artistic, social or other value. We've been through this before with the Beatles' and Elvis' evil rock music and the scourge of comic books. History never fails to repeat itself.
I am an adult and I will buy and play the game and I'm not a death row inmate.
No, that is part of a WAR CRIME!
If they really want to get rid of violence, we have to start saying that ANY violence done in REAL LIFE for ANY reason is wrong and will not be tolerated.
That means it will not be tolerated by the military, by the police, or by regular civilians.... PERIOD AND DONE WITH.
For some, a game is a diversion: something to do when you're bored or otherwise unoccupied. For others it's a career; they play games because that's what they're paid to do. And then there's people like me.
I grew up with games. Simple games like Pac Man didn't do it for me; I needed to have a reason for my playing the game. Even Pac Man has a backstory to it - minimal though it might be. Yearning for this story is the reason I play primarily RPGs all the time - I like to be immersed in what is essentially an interactive book.
Enter GTA. Since San Andreas is the only GTA I ever finished, I'll use it as the example. It had quite possibly the most involving story of any game at the time, beginning to end. The reason I really enjoyed it was the fact that I could in some parts relate to it - it reminded me of where I grew up and how things were. If you can relate and make yourself a part of the action, you appreciate it that much more.
It's easy to look on the surface and say, "oh he runs around with guns and blows stuff up and has sex with hookers and" whatever else, but that's not the core of what the guy does. It's only a small aspect of a larger experience: that being the character development...who he is, why he's doing what he's doing; the overall plot, why you're in the game and what you're intended to do; the scenery, the city and all of its various features; and of course, the dialogue, the meat and bones of any good story.
As has been said, the reason GTA games can't get a break is simple: the media and the general public believe that video games are and always will be only for kids, despite every effort by the game developers to counter that mentality. As long as we continue to assume games as kids-only stuff, we'll never be able to get past this nonsense.
PS - Why bother with an "AO" rating if Adults can't buy it because the stores won't carry it, and the console bigwigs won't allow it to be made?
- Really?
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by smokified
April 29, 2008 12:59 PM PDT
- First of all, Why do people feel that they are so important that we just need to listen to their opinions even though it is clearly apparent that they really do not know what you are talking about.
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See all 160 Comments >>I wish this comment could be forced down the throats of all of these ignorant simpletons because people that try to impose their opinions on other people based on complete lack of knowledge **** ME THE **** OFF.
The choice is simple. If you do not like it, Don't play it. If you don't want your kids to play it, try being good parents and monitoring what your children are doing. If you are worried about what they are doing with their friends, be good parents and teach them how to be individuals and choose right from wrong.
The bottom line is that I like the kind of people that complain about these kinds of games just as much as those people like these games that they are complaining about. You don't see me goind around trying to rid the planet of these people as they are attempting to do with these games. I seem to remember a certain historical figure that had that kind of mentality.....oh yeah...Hitler was his name.
******* grow up America. For those of you who are sick of hearing this kind of bleeding heart ******** just as I am, keep fighting, I think the day is near where the "poor me's" are going to get what they have coming to them.