[Cerek]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca It's obvious you haven't played the game and that you don't know much about how video games are marketed or sold. Correspondingly, comparing GTA with easy to use, widely available handguns is simply ridiculous. Anything and everything aggresive may or may not influence people to be aggressive, but very little if anything can take away an individual's determination of choosing action. Allowing sociopaths to blame their behavior on a video game( or anything else) and citing this a proof of a societal problem is a great victory for sociopaths everywhere. Take Care!

You're right that I haven't played GTA 3 or 4. I owned GTA 2 at one time. However, I have played Hitman and Mafia (a friend gave me a copy of Mafia). Certainly there was the thrill of breaking laws without suffering any real consequences and there was the challenge of trying to figure out how to complete an assignment without getting caught or attracting attention. That lasted maybe a couple of weeks. Then I became disturbed at the situations I was RPing and got rid of the games.

As for not knowing much about how video games are marketed or sold, let me think. I see GTA4 advertised on TV almost daily. I also run across ads for it on the internet, usually when I'm visiting other gaming sites or looking up info on different games. And there are always posters for the latest games in any store designed primarily for the sale of such games (Gamestop, etc). Kids of all ages can see any number of these ads on any given day.
Video games are sold by retailers and e-merchants across the nation and around the globe. Some of these merchants enforce the rating system regulation, but many do not. Either way, we've pointed out fairly clearly that it is easy enough to get around the ratings system with just a minimum of effort.
So what else am I missing about the marketing and selling of video games?

As for the example of your stand on handguns, you claim that even ONE accidental death of a child is sufficient reason to repeal the 2nd Amendment, to simply erase a fundamental portion of our Constitution. If that's the case, it stands to reason that even ONE death attributable to a video game promoting agressive criminal behavior should be sufficient to halt production of that game.