games
12 May 2008
Confessions of a Grand Theft Auto Addict
There is no hard evidence that video games encourage violence - or indeed any physical activity at all, writes Helen Razer
Those of us with evolved thumbs already knew it. But it took a half billion dollar bumper week to convince the rest: even the average console game surpasses what's on at the local Cineplex for value, pleasure and quality time misuse.Last week, staple-of-digital-hostility Grand Theft Auto (GTA) unleashed its fourth installment. A record $US500 million turned over as soon as the high speed gore hit shelves. Having played all previous iterations of this immensely gratifying game, I would have been a customer too, were it not for the impediment of having to earn a living. Instead, I've consoled myself with browsing news reports of its release.
Terrestrial and traditional media have, it appears, two things to say about the colossal success of GTA. One is: "My goodness, look at all the money those people have made!" The other is: "My goodness, the youth, the youth! What will become of their morals as they fritter needless hours in the company of carrion and animated prostitutes?"
In fact, The Telegraph (eminent UK Tory periodical with proper grammar and grown up sub-editors, not our local) decided to explicitly fuse the release of GTA IV with a violent mugging. As London gamers queued to purchase social disarray in a box, a hooded assailant withdrew a knife and mugged one of his fellows. Presumably to avoid making payment for the game.
Needless to impart, this is an unspeakable story. I'm appalled by violence, hooded assailants and knives - except, it should be noted, when I'm playing GTA.
The story in The Telegraph is not only disingenuous, it's logically flawed. Clearly, the sadistic little blighter with a knife had yet to place GTA in his console. So, The Telegraph's insinuation that this latest - and reportedly quite graphic - rendering of the series made him do it is moot. Further, as the girth of my arse will attest, gamers are disinclined to physical activity beyond the margin of their thumbs.
There is no hard clinical evidence that violent video games produce violence. There is only extravagant and common suggestion. I recall a very unpleasant interlude I spent working within the staid moral confines of community radio. When a co-worker discovered I had been beating up prostitutes on GTA, he said, like a leftist automaton, "These games are training manuals for future misogynists." Naturally in response, I sexually violated him, killed him and took his wallet.
No, actually, I didn't. I explained that while I took no particular pleasure in the seamier elements of the game such as mugging rent boys and asking Fat Tony for an upgrade to my AK-47, I really didn't think that it did me any harm - beyond, of course, making me very late for work for an entire month.
GTA just made me chillax, dude. And by no means did it desensitise me to the real. I'm quite aware that I'm manipulating a fiction. The fiction, being rather overtly fictional, has little chance of manipulating me.
(It didn't, it should be noted, do me any good, either. There are those nonces who'll argue that gaming is a nonpareil mental exercise, but such study rests on the idea that engaging large parts of your brain simultaneously is somehow desirable. Other theorists say that discrete and focused mental function is better. I'm all for using only small parts of my brain.)
For all the exaggerated media suggestions of street violence, I'd like to propose study of another trend spurned by GTA's release. How many extra pizzas were delivered following the first sell-out season? How many unhealthy centimetres were added to the thighs of 30-somethings? (Yes, the average age of a gamer is creeping closer to 40 all the time.) And, how many cinemas were agreeably empty this past week?
If you've hopes for an unimpeded snog at the cinema, this is your time.
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It’s great to read an article in the mainstream media which doesn’t get all wowsery (sic?) about gaming.
Interesting article on Slate by economist Sudhir Venkatesh, who has studied and wrote about gangs in Chicago. More to GTA than people would like to presume.
Venkatesh writes, ‘I thought of these Chicagoans and their moral conundrum when I played GTA IV for the first time a few days ago. Nearly every review has championed the unparalleled technical accomplishments of the creative team—and there are many. But I also found GTA IV to be a compelling commentary on urban life, gangland, and illegal economies.
This may sound strange, but I found that Grand Theft Auto actually offered a less sensational portrait of gangland and ghetto streets than the one put out by most cops, politicians, policymakers, and even academics. There is nuance in the game that exceeds most of the conventional portraits of American cities; the game goes beyond a black-and-white tale of innocent law abiders fending off the obnoxious criminals. Not that I’m suggesting that we turn to GTA IV to solve the gang problem or that we should we make it required viewing in our high schools. The game is a carnival of violence, deceit, and cruelty that makes you slightly nauseated after playing for only a few hours—I had to periodically rest and play a Neil Diamond song just to calm down. But I have to admit that I was surprised a video game had such a well-developed, fine-grained understanding of human nature.’
http://www.slate.com/default.aspx?id=2191012
Let it be said that it’s nice to hear a true gamer speak on this subject. I have memories of Razor decoding the island puzzle game Riven on national radio around a decade ago.
I loved for her to come back with a follow up article to this after spending a little time within the world of the new version, however I’m fairly sure all of the important social commentary points been covered.
I do understand that the $500 - $700 price tag, assuming you don’t have an appropriate console, is a little cost prohibitive. Personally this game is the single reason I’d have for owning one. Which I don’t. Yet.
Like Razor, I too worry about the ratio between work hours and gaming hours becoming shall we say… disproportionate, and like Helen I started out trying to satisfy myself with the most anticipated game release of my life by reading reviews posted online.
Less than satisfied, I’ve now spent around ten hours at $10 a pop at a console gaming arcade; I’m starting to understand the true meaning of ‘false economy.’
I remember being appalled the first time I played GTA 3, wondering what the social ramifications would be of countless kids ploughing down anonymous digital pedestrians at will. More than this, I wondered what effect it may have on my own psyche.
I must admit that there have been occasions in real life where the temptation has been almost overwhelming to ditch the shitty car I’ve been in for a better model. One such occasion was when I pulled up to a set of traffic lights to see a motorcycle unattended with it’s engine running. Having just left a three hour session of GTA Vice City, I literally had to grip the wheel of my Camry and force myself to drive on. It should be noted here that Vice City was the first in the series to introduce motorbikes to the GTA world.
Since then, a fellow GTA gamer and myself have periodically sent each other links to news articles we believe are GTA related. ‘A kid in a stolen car is chased by police across Sydney, drives the car til it dies, jumps out, carjacks a cab and continues to evade his assailants…’. The email subject line? This kid has finally cracked after too much GTA.
Fortunately for society it seems to only happen around every six months by our count, and fortunately for me after years of GTA my real world moral compass is only getting stronger, almost despite the devils work that is Rockstar Entertainment.
Back to the game’s latest incarnation, it does seem to be inching ever closer to realism. The protagonist mentions ‘just don’t ask me to kill any puppies or children, I do have at least a little conscience’. He also seems to develop meaningful relationships with other characters. In fact, after my limited excursion, I’ve even noticed that the level of emotional transference from the protagonist to me was starting to approach the level of watching a feature film. Until now, gaming has left players by comparison almost completely emotionally detached. For example, I began to observe and contemplate the moral implications of showing up to my new girlfriends house with a stolen car and lying to her about what I do for a living, in the same way that a film character lying to other characters creates dramatic questions i.e will they find out and what will happen if they do?
It seems the gaming world is getting ever closer to the same level of emotional engagement as movies. What this suggests to me is that combined with the exponentially higher number of contact hours than movies, the ability for games to influence us is gradually increasing.
The underlying question is, does this matter? We are born into a world where we are constantly bombarded with media influence, most of it subversive in the form of marketing with the intention of us unwittingly changing our behaviour for their benefit. If we as a culture aren’t able to make our own moral choices within this barrage of influence, what are we? What have we become?
I now see GTA as a way of strengthening the proverbial moral muscle through resistance training. Not to mention deprogramming some of the real world media influence with the satirical/parody media content in the game’s radio and TV stations.
Or maybe it really is just training our kids for the revolution. *wink wink*
Apologies for spelling your name incorrectly, Helen.
Also, Rachel, I’d hardly call new matilda mainstream media, after all, isn’t that why we’re reading it?