[Cerek]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca Hey Cerek, Thanks. I am concerned when you write stuff like: How? What is it about the story or structure of the game that causes this "instinct feeding? How do you know this if you have not played the game? I hear your concerns on the damage to young pysche, and I think Nature provides us with parents and an ever-growing potential for good judgment to alleviate such concerns. But you stretch the truth of what the game really is and leave out it's many diverse compenents. You refer to it as a crime simulator, it is not. It is rather like a roleplaying game set in a simulated cityscape. You may commit crimes, but the cops are smart and lethal. "Bangin aint ez"! Being a criminal certainly isn't glorified. Nearly every criminal in the games gets killed or jailed. Getting away from cops can be over-simplistic and easy, but it is obviously a freaking game after all. GTA 4 is mainly the story of Nico Bellic. Yes, he is a killer, but do you know why? What about the vast setting; it's characters and beauty- complex, hilarious, tragic. Simply Amazing! Refering to it as a "crime simulator" is a lie at worst and extreme hyperbole at best and is most Def an insult to the people who love and know the game. As such, I would expect strong reactions and skeptical inquiry in response. Later!

I think most of us would agree that young adults (college age) have a natural desire to challenge the established authority/establishment/what have you. It's part of the process of establishing your own individual identity. Whether it is speaking out against political figures or challenging practices of a professor we feel are unfair, it is an almost instinctive behavior to be not only willing, but eager, to "take on the world". It's all part of the learning process we go through as we grow up. Now, this "challenging authority" is done in different ways and taken to different levels, depending on the individual, but I think each of us can identify a time when we felt it was necessary to "speak our mind" or speak out in protest against something, even when our own friends and/or family may have told us it was a bad idea.

When you add a game that also challenges the rules of society (such as GTA4) to this mix, it can reinforce the feelings a young adult may already be experiencing. The case in question is a pretty good example. The youth didn't set out to kill the taxi driver, he just wanted to see if stealing a taxi in real life was as easy as the game made it appear. It created a curiosity in him and apparantly offered reinforcement of some ideas he may have already considered (stealing a car to see if he could get away with it). I don't think he set out to kill the taxi driver, that was just a tragic turn of events that happened after he found out the game doesn't simulate r/l the way he thought it would. It's like the issues I mentioned to Bung earlier. How many minor incidents (such as accidents caused by running stops signs or red lights) occur because someone was "amped up" from playing GTA or a similar game. How many fights happen for the same reason that never get reported? Just because they don't result in the worst case scenario doesn't lessen the impact the game may have on the players r/l behavior.

As for the game itself, there isn't any way for me to play GTA4, because I have a regular X-Box and a PS2. Even if it is made for these platforms, the local media store doesn't have a PS2 copy available for rental. However, I have played games with a similar theme, specifically Hitman and Mafia. I could make the same points about Hitman that you make about GTA4. He is a guy just doing a job and most of his targets are other criminals, so what's the harm? I played through about the first 3 missions before I began to really feel uncomfortable with what I was doing. Even though it was a game, I just didn't like the fact that I was RPing a character that was a professional killer. Same thing with Mafia. The "training" portion included beating a guy with a baseball bat. While some of the actual "missions" just involved driving the car and trying to avoid the police, the overall goal of the game was to succeed at criminal activity - and the more I played, the less comfortable I felt about that.

So I can draw on my experiences from those games and apply them to GTA4, since it has similar plots and storylines.