An evil way to make money?

Will, I totally agree. Unscrupulous business interests are poisoning our earth, our bodies and the minds of our children. This is a complete spiritual and moral breakdown. When are people going to stand up and say “enough”?
I read a few articles that suggested this game might be a good way for parents to begin discussions with their kids about morality, but why should they even be subjected to this garbage in the first place?
Not only that, this crap is horribly racist. From what I’ve seen, all the characters are African American or Hispanic.
Mainstream America’s idea of morality seems to be only concerned with sexuality and the human body (which in the proper context is beautiful and normal). I’d much rather my kid see nudity or sex between a loving couple than all this hideous and gratuitous violence.

IF YOU LOVE YOUR KIDS/GRANDKIDS—THEN MONITOR THEIF VIDEO GAMES! In 2001 I was deeply impacted by the book ON KILLING which was released around the time of the Columbine school shootings. The author is Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a military expert in the field of “killology.” I couldn’t believe someone’s job was to travel the world training medical, law enforcement and U.S. military personnel about the realities of warfare and how to kill. Grossman clearly shows that the “desensitizing techniques” he uses to “teach” men and women to kill … are built into mass media, video games, films, TV and video arcades. These “invisible imbeds” create compartments in people’s brains that later can be triggered by an event, sound or person. It was heart-warming to get confirmation that KILLING IS NOT NATURAL. This book is an amazing eye-opener to why America has been created to be very different than it was in the 50s and 60s …. and how you can live an integrous life aligned to your 5-core values and vision.

I agree with you completely,Will. We are what we eat; we are what we think; therefore, we are what we …

Are you going to start agitating for banning books, too?
You say, “Never in history have humans created a society where vivid emotionally engaging depictions of violence and sexual exploitation surrounded us daily.” What world do you live in? That statement is exactly the opposite of the truth.

This is the way the stories that humans tell each other have always been. Ever read Grimm? Homer? How about the Bible? Or name any other myth or legend? At least, GTF doesn’t promote cannibalism, wholesale rape, honor killings and indiscriminate and total genocide. Moreover, tales of glory, war and hero stories, are universal and ubiquitous. Is it that, despite all the gore and decadence, there’s not a moral to the story? That the victors don’t write themselves into history as the good guys?

Settle down, Will. Nothing has changed except the medium of delivery. People and the stories they tell each other have not.

I believe video games do go too far, but this is not so simple. Let’s stop Shakespeare. Let’s stop the Bible. Let’s stop the Illiad and the Odyssey. All are equally as violent and even condone–no, promote–violence we do not approve of today. Let’s stop paint-gun parks. Let’s write to the Roadrunner and Coyote. Let’s stop Halloween and it’s taking the role of evil characters. Let’s stop Pirates of the Carribean and Indiana Jones. Some religions will not tolerate any of the above. But these are of OUR generation, so they are OK. As a college instructor I know plenty of young men and women who play these games against their friends with the full awareness they are playing a role and who then go do community service. The young men who play these games used to do something else during current game playing times: fight violent wars. Saving the world does not mean neutering men. As with anything, it is best not to fight against it, but to responsibly use it in moderation if you wish and to consider the effect on your own children. Grand Theft Auto probably promotes violence. But from the FBI’s website: “When considering data from 10 years earlier, the estimated number of motor vehicle thefts in 2006 decreased 11.9 percent. The estimated rate of motor vehicle thefts decreased 21.2 percent when compared with estimates for 1997? This is the time period covered by Grand Theft Auto. The correlation between the game’s lifespan and Auto theft is -21.2%–in other words the kids were spending more time pretending to steal cars and less time stealing cars. For the most part, I would rather have men aged 15 to 25 playing games pretending violence, as young men always have, than out on the streets engaging in violence. Video games are a problem. A very small problem for a very small percentage of the population. Let’s fry the big fish.

All these, like anything else, need to be used in balance and moderation.

I agree with Hifi, and mostly with Kevin. I particularly think that the Bible is a problem. While people who play this game know it is a game, there are many who take the massacres of the Old Testament as God’s word. (See 1 Sam 15:3 for an awesome example with baby murdering.) So while this is more vivid, it doesn’t have divine approval, which I think is more important in how things affect people.

You admit to being a grandpa here, so I’m going to talk about a generation gap that I think is deceiving you. I’m not being derogatory. The kids who grew up playing Mario still want to play games. So a larger part of the game playing population these days is actually adults. This makes the impact on children less than many realize. And as my friend says, “I am an adult. And I want to play adult games.”

That being said, children undoubtedly play this game. And it is not suitable for them. But games are similar to movies in that they are rated. Parents can easily check these ratings. And whereas a child can sneak into a movie screening for a different film than they paid for, ma and pa have to purchase the game console and see the kid playing it at home. Other than this, the kid could play it at someone else’s house, but that decreases the time spent with the game so radically as to be much less worrisome. The opportunities for parental action, coupled with my friend’s aforementioned statement about the demands of adult consumers, makes it clear that censorship is not the solution (as it never is).

Finally, video games have some beneficial effects. I think it is wrong to link them with television so casually. While TV pumps kids full of these images alongside video games, their methods are different. TV allows kids to be passive, and actually learn nothing. But video games, with their increasing complexity, are likely making children smarter. Learning the controls and combinations, multitude of routines and items, and navigating a digital map of a virtual metropolis are all things that children would not experience without these games. In short, they provide children who cannot venture outdoors independently for fears of their safety to learn to interact with a realistically complex world consequence-free.

I understand that those benefits may not justify graphic violence. But they do show that video games can be useful educators and are far better than television.

Sorry to post again, I just saw this:

“Not only that, this crap is horribly racist. From what I’ve seen, all the characters are African American or Hispanic.”

I’m not sure how this is racist. If all the characters were white, wouldn’t that actually be more racist (as previous forms of entertainment have been), by leaving out colored characters altogether?

Also, you seem to have missed that the main character of the game (the one kids play as) is a white European.

Oops, I got my FBI facts wrong. There is a -21.2% decline in auto theft since 1997, when the game came out. If there is a correlation, it is a significantly negative correlation, perhaps even a causative correlation. If kids were not playing video games 10 hours a week, they would likely be on the streets those 10 hours a week, increasing auto theft and drug statistics. A bit of fun is ok, even if the fun is martial arts or video games. All these, like anything else, need to be used in balance and moderation.

Hi Will,
I enjoy receiving your emails and appreciate your very appropriate concerns for these troubling times. I send emails to a group of friends to share information, action items, and inspiration for our wellbeing. Sometimes my action items are for the purpose of opposing what we don’t want, and sometimes there’s an action to take towards what we do want. Sometimes I just send information for the awareness.

Regarding your email about the Rockstar video games, I was appalled to see what they’ve chosen to create for entertainment. I started to write Rockstar a letter to complain but then I stopped. I thought about how what we resist persists, and that it’s more important to promote what we want rather than oppose what is. I’m not saying we shouldn’t oppose the things we feel are wrong, but I recognize that our primary energy must go towards what we want.

Rockstar could provide an attractive game with a positive effect on the culture, but clearly that would not fit the attitude and values with which they operate. A letter of complaint or criticism would likely inspire further rationalization of their actions.

Just as I’m suggesting that we offer kids a better alternative to entice them towards positive action, perhaps such a concept could be applied to companies such as Rockstar. Could those of us who desire positive change approach such a company with an alternative that might interest them and affect their attitude? Just a thought!

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