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

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

That makes sense; it's easy to believe that stories have been distorted, since I've never played. But yeah...mostly, it bothered me that this review didn't give much of an indication that significant amounts of gameplay involved both murder and highly sexualized material.

I'm sure there's a game out there where you play fluffy bunny skateboarders...

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

Surely there must be, there's a game where you play Zombie Teenagers fighting Evil Alien Brains.

[fullcopy.livejournal.com]

Hoverboarding rabbits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Al1UZDxIU&feature=related

Having played a little bit of GTA III, and currently two hours of GTA IV, there's certainly a difference between the possibility and the endorsement. The pay a prostitute/kill a prostitute technique exists, but if it's anything like GTA III, it's neither useful (replenishing health is easy to do anyway) and the amount of money involved is so trivial once you get past the first few hours that there's just no reason to do it.

In the first two hours so far, I've met my cousin, who is irresponsible with money and a pig, and watching him be rejected by his coworker several times, as well as being in constantly in trouble due to his lying. I've been on a bowling date with his coworker's friend, which was filled with polite if awkward small talk (she's an overworked professional and a bit OCD), got brushed off by her when I tried to call back the next day, and went on another date (to play pool) shortly after, and went up to her apartment afterwards, although there was definitely a sense of this being a "mothering a somewhat-lost and mysterious man" type of thing.

I don't doubt that the humor which sort of permeates the fake NYC is juvenile and misogynist, and odds on, there probably is going to be a mission which turns out offensive. But I don't see the misogyny as anything that's meaningful to the game. How much you're willing to buy that misogyny is part of their "We make fun of everybody!" approach is up in the air.

That said, while the lead character makes some notion to that killing people is not something he likes, it's already been established that he will, and it's foreshadowed that the trail of bodies is going to be quite quite long.

updates to follow.

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I knew I could count on somebody to provide me with bunny skateboarders. :)

Good to hear a report of the actual game. As I hear more, I think more of my problems are with the review than with the game, if that makes sense?