GTA for kids? Are you bonkers?
8 Nov 2002 | 16:10 GMT
My profession is game developer and some comments that you made in your article have pissed me off, really...
"The game has notched up some 12 million sales world-wide in its previous incarnations and is likely to help woo kids to the Playstation with promises of nicking cars, running down old ladies, hanging with whores and beating up the innocent. A childish delight, in fact. µ"
If you'd have done your work well (you are a journalist, I think) you would have find this at Amazon and there: ELSPA Minimum Age: 18.
If you care to zoom the cover in that page you'll see on the cover a "18" inside a red circle. And it is not tiny, like the letters in some contract clauses.
Comments like this are what use some bigots to demonize the videogame industry. For example psychologists with great need of fame that if you read their articles you end saying, "Boy, this man hasn't seen a game pad in its entire life!". Years ago a read an article where a psychologist said proudly that "Street Fighter II is the most violent game out there" and that it had "mindless violence". A martial arts tournament is "mindless violence"? One sure thing is that when this article was published Doom was already on the street. Good researcher, isn't he?
Videogames are not only for kids, cinema is not only for kids, Japanese anime is not only for kids, TV is not only for kids, books are not only for kids, the internet is not only for kids...do I need to continue? If you don't believe me I can send you another e-mail with a bunch of examples from each category.
I've seen myself a mother returning GTA3 to the shop telling "I heard something about this game, that was not appropriate for children. Some friends told me the same but I bought it anyway. I've seen the game and oh my god! IT IS NOT really for children". Note: the game showed clearly on the box the +18 label.
I don't tend to argue with people (and less about silly things) but in retrospect I think I should have told her "Perhaps you should go to school with your kid".
One friend told me that he had seen something similar with anime films in a video club. One mother got an anime film for her offspring and, guess what she choosed? Urotsukidoji. Of course, she never got another anime film (every film has the rating on the box, also). She arrived to the conclusion that anime is NOT for children. Princess Mononoke is not for children?
Really, I don't mind what these morons do with their life as long as they don't try to screw everybody's else shouting "some videogames should be forbidden". You can make more phrases this people tend to do simply changing "videogames" for whatever you can think of. I have several PS2 +18 games on my shelf and I enjoy them thoroughly (some of the best out there).
And please, I enjoy a lot reading "The Inquirer", don't trash your articles with poorly researched opinions or facts like something I read quite a long time ago in an "ink over dead wood" newspaper saying "Bill Gates INVENTED the internet".
Cheers,
Josep Vicent Sala i Siscar
Thanks Josep. I guess the kids just put the game down again when they see the age rating, huh?
I played GTA3 on my 10-year-old's PS2. I spent half an hour nicking cars, running down old ladies, hanging with whores and beating up the innocent. Was I doing something wrong?
Paul Hales
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