Ricardo J Gonzalez for a Better America

With the latest release in the GTA series, we see many of the same complaints that have accompanied every other release. The gist of the game is that a player can do pretty much anything they want in order to become more successful in their life of crime. For people and organizations that are constantly looking to pin the blame for all of societies ills (except personal responsibility, of course), the GTA franchise makes them salivate more than Pavlov's steaks.

It seems that if it were up to some, Grand Theft Auto would take place in a city where driving drunk would get you instantly arrested and jailed, weapons would be unavailable, since they are outlawed, you would spend the vast majority indoors, studying for your bachelor's degree or going to a 9-5 job in a cubicle only to come home to watch tv and finally fall asleep after a nice long cry. The game would be pointless and boring; it would be The Sims.

The complaint of these busybodies, is that people will be unable to distinguish what is acceptable in this video game from what is acceptable in every day life, because the game strives to be so realistic. My circle of friends includes college students, doctoral candidates, architects, engineers, lawyers, writers, and financial analysts, the vast majority of whom will at one point or another play this game. We are its target demographic, and for the most part, we love it. I can almost guarantee unanimous resent from these friends of the idea that they would be unable to handle the content of the GTA series without eventually becoming criminals themselves. For the gamer generation that has grown up in the 70s and the 80s with all sorts of video gaems, this form of entertainment has taken over the place of what for many other generations was going to the movies or watching television.

What makes the game so disturbing to some, is that there are no rules. But this is the same factor that makes it so appealing. For the vast majority of our lives, the gamer generation (middle class college student/graduates) have been living within a fairly confined set of rules. From our first day of kindergarten to our last day of graduate school, there has been a set of expectations. From the time that we started watching television we were bombarded with "don'ts". Don't do drugs, don't drink and drive, don't mess with Texas. While we understand why these are good ideas, and I can't think of anyone I know that disagrees with them, it is nice to have an escape where these rules, and really no rules apply.

If the concern is that children who can't make this distinction between fantasy and reality will get a hold of the game, then the solution lies not in trying to prevent the game from reaching the market, and having long ineffectual tirades against it, it lies in educating parents that not all video games are for children, and that just like they have to be careful of what movies their kids are watching, they need to be mindful of what games they are playing. The solution to the "problem" of Grand Theft Auto, lies not in more regulation, but in more personal responsibility.

Labels: GTA, nanny state, Personal resposibility