On a different note - Morality and Video games

[orichalcum]

The New York Times just gave an incredibly favorable review to the new Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City (aka NYC) game. It praises the game's graphics, its sandbox design, its music, its variability, etc...

Nowhere in the review does the reviewer (Seth Schiesel) comment on the relative morality of the game or what age group it might be suitable for.

Keep in mind that, aside from the robbery, assault, carjacking, etc.. plots....this is a game in which you (_can_ - Edited for accuracy, thanks redhound) hire prostitutes, have sex with them, and _then kill them._ That's what women are for in the game context. Not one of the numerous characters mentioned in the review is female. In the preview, female strippers at a strip club talk about how stripping arouses them. The online dating club is called "The Twat."

So...my question is - should reviews in this case query the moral and age-appropriate content of a game? Admittedly, I don't necessarily expect reviews of, say, Sex and the City to condemn it for questionable relationships, or Deadwood to be slammed because of all the obscenity. But I'd kinda like to know about it in both cases.

GTA crosses the line for me where I wish, I really wish, that someone was devoting all that effort to making a game with content that I'd feel comfortable playing. But while it may have great gameplay, the thought of selling it to 10-year-olds upsets me.

Am I overreacting? Should this game just be evaluated on the basis of whether it's fun to play?

Comments

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

I completely disagree, actually. Most "feature articles" are little more than free advertisements for the game, with crowing interviews with the programmers or designers or whatever and luscious screen shots. I have never seen a critical feature article of a game. (The same goes for movies, btw. It is often hilarious to read the glowing 10 page article about some new blockbuster movie and the cruel 500 word C- review in the same issue of Entertainment Weekly.)

The purpose of a review is to critique all of the reasons a person might or might not want to play the game. That includes gameplay, soundtrack, morality, gross imagery, interface, everything. Why would you exclude a topic that seriously affects potential purchasers from a review?