A Different Perspective of GTA IV

This might be considered a little late to post, but I'm going to post it anyway. Hope you guys enjoy.

With the launch of the brand new game in the series, I thought I would discuss my thoughts on the so-called controversy of Grand Theft Auto IV, ponder the validity of these skeptics’ claims, determine whether they are sound, and delve deeper into the effects that it may or may not cause. Many of these skeptics claim that violence is a rising trend with more and more youths committing violent crimes, abusing drugs and the like. It is apparent that many parents and social activists use Grand Theft Auto IV and many other video games as a scapegoat for their own shortcomings as parents, just as many people used Marilyn Manson as a scapegoat for the shootings at Columbine high school. However, to blame parents solely as the cause for their children’s poor choices is a flawed claim because there are so many more factors to be accounted for. So far the basic argument that is used against Grand Theft Auto is: children are becoming more violent, Grand Theft Auto is violent, and therefore Grand Theft Auto is making children more violent.

This argument appears to be valid and sound upon the first inspection, but upon closer review, it is a broad assumption in the conclusion. To claim that Grand Theft Auto is the cause for maladaptive behavior oversimplifies the situation and ignores other variables. That Grand Theft Auto IV does indeed cause youths to act more aggressively is an impossible claim to prove as a causal relationship. However, many people assume that violent video games increase the amount of violence within youths, although studies have shown that the amount of violence has gone down over the years. Nevertheless, it has been proven that aggressiveness within youths (such as bullying) has increased in youngsters that play video games as opposed to those that do not play video games concluding that these video games may act as a catharsis. Now this creates new problems, which is why do youths act more aggressively, and if violence is going down, why is there so much controversy? Perhaps the modern day Bourgeoisie are using reverse psychology or maybe it’s just a coincidence, either way, one thing is certain, sales of Grand Theft Auto IV are through the roof.

Many people assume that violent video games are the cause without considering other possibilities. What if it is not the video games that influence youths, but instead the youths influence video games? That is to say, violence is an accepted form of behavior in society and that corporations are adjusting to meet the needs of the time. After all, corporations exist to satisfy the demands of the people or market. Now some might disagree with this, but ask your-self if it is plausible? Marx believed that society is teleological. With this in mind, it creates the question of the current condition of society, the morality of society, the direction society is headed in, and the future implications on the youth, which time will tell.

For those that are interested in where I received my information, here’s a link to an online podcast:
http://www.radiotpr.com/podcasts/Podcast85.mp3

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Anonymity, on 5/16/2008 6:43:05 AM
Total Posts: 8, Joined: 4/8/2008

@ Arsenal

I know what you're saying, but for this editorial I put corporations in a basic category because if I had accounted for the different types of corporations (manufacturing, etc) it would only further complicate the relationship. Just as I discounted media, government, social class, race/ethnicity, gender, age, and whatever else there is. I'm sure all these things play an important role.

Gothguy, I'm glad you pointed that out. The youth are influenced by the things you mentioned. What I was trying to say in my ed was that since those factors influence the youth in a certain way, they may act in a certain way that may or may not reflect their lifestyle and that corporations are just exploiting it. This is probably a broad assumption, but my main goal with this editorial was to provoke thought.

I forget who but someone mentioned that their should be an in-depth study on this topic. This would be a very arduous task, if not impossible because there are just too many confounding variables.

Lastly, I would just like to point out one more criticism that no one mentioned (I think). According to the logic of my ed, if youth are truly influencing video games, then that means they may also be influencing other types of video games (e.g. war games like COD, CS, etc.) and it appears that it works, but what if a company made a game opposite of that (like a hello kitty game or some kiddie shit like that) and released it at the same time? This just shows that either my theory is wrong or needs more work. But again, I could care less about the theory, the main objective of the ed was to create a collaboration of ideas.

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icemanbbyt, on 5/16/2008 3:33:25 PM
Total Posts: 5, Joined: 7/27/2007

this is all based on the argument that violent games cause increased agression, violence etc.

what if it is in fact the case, that violent people are more attracted to violent games, in the same sense that there is a demographic for everygame. nintendogs probably doesnt make people nicer, its just that nicer people are attracted to play the game.

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