Today, Grand Theft Auto 4 was released. There has been and will be an unreasonable amount of media coverage of this game, mostly from the gaming enthusiast press, but also a handful of articles from the mainstream media. No matter what media coverage you may trawl through in trying to determine if you should allow your child to play this game, I suggest you bear two things in mind:
- The Grand Theft Auto series simply is not designed for younger audiences. Yet, GTA isn't all sex and violence. The story has some intelligent, satirical commentary. Its open-world format is declared revolutionary. Still, this is not for the 13-and-under crowd. The most startling aspect I've heard about GTA4 is that you can drive up to a prostitute and choose which sexual act you'd like. The game doesn't show explicit details, but it's very obvious what's going on. High-school-aged audiences might be mature enough for this content, but no lower.
- There is no proven, causal link between videogame violence and real-life violence. From the Surgeon General's report to the more recent Byron Report, studies agree that more research is needed on this topic.
4 comments:
"Violence, sex, drugs, and swearing...but should your kids play it?"
Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
::so, sorry to Kara... I accidentally deleted your comment :( If I had known my right-click on the comment would have done that, well, I wouldn't have clicked. Luckily I have a copy of your comment saved in my inbox, so here you go. Again, my apologies::
If all these things were in a movie, would you let your kids watch it? The ESRB ratings makes this site unneccessary.
@anonymous
I admit, that's not the best choice of headline, and I didn't think that one all the way through. But you'd be surprised how willing some parents are to appease their kids by buying the game. I've seen it happen.
@kara
The ESRB isn't perfect, but I'm not saying this site is either. This site tries to go beyond two-word descriptors. We're another voice in the "OMG-is-this-game-appropriate" scrabble. We're not unnecessary by any stretch of the imagination.
The ESRB ratings, while accurate to a point, can be sketchy at times. For example, Assassin's Creed was rated M for Blood, Strong Language, Violence. However, Heavenly Sword, a game that easily equals Assassin's Creed in violence, has the descriptors Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. Now, Assassin's Creed had some pretty crazy fatality sequences, but in Heavenly Sword, we're talking ribbons of blood and bodies flying everywhere in some fights. I steered an arrow into a castle guard's eye. I watched Noriko snap a man's neck with her barely covered legs. To me, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference in levels of violence (but I guess judging these levels is subjective, too). So is the only difference between the Teen and Mature rating in these games is the difference in "Language" versus "Strong Language"?
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