I haven’t played the game, but I’ve read it allows players to control a main character who fights both street gangs and corrupt police, during the course of which he can hijack cars, participate in shoot-outs, etc. A lot of people say it’s fun, but definitely not for kids. The game carries a rating of “M,” for “Mature,” to reflect that. This tells parents Grand Theft Auto is only for players above the age of 17.

Senator Clinton, casting herself as a defender of American values before her probable 2008 presidential election bid, has condemned the game and demanded the Federal Trade Commission investigate Grand Theft Auto, from Rockstar Games. Why? Not because of the game’s violence. Not even because of how the game was when it shipped. Instead, a user modification of the game is what has drawn Clinton’s anger. This mod permits Grand Theft Auto‘s main character to have sex with his girlfriends in various min-games, which if available in the standard game, would have earned it an “Adults Only” rating, keeping it off many store shelves. The creator of the mod, known as Hot Coffee, claims he unlocked content already in the game’s code that Rockstar had disabled. Rockstar contradicts the modder, saying that the content was never in the game, and that the modder added it all himself.

Clinton’s ruckus is much ado about nothing. Let’s presume the sex games were indeed part of the original code of Grand Theft Auto. That’s still nothing scandalous. Inactive programming from discarded features ships all the time with games. Eliminating code from abandoned ideas can be difficult, and it could even break algorithms for concepts a game’s producer wants to keep. So the game’s programmers leave the code as inactive, and it’s not part of the game as it ships. A bored modder could sift through a game’s code and write files to reactivate the dormant code, which might have occurred with the Hot Coffee mod.

Rockstar Games, though, cannot be accountable for what a modder does to Grand Theft Auto. They are responsible only for the game they distribute to the public. And the sex adventures are not part of that game. Whether someone chooses to change the behavior of the game is solely the affair of the person in question.

Besides all this, let’s not forget Grand Theft Auto bears an “M” rating. The M appears right on the box, informing parents about the game’s potential inappropriateness for children. The addition of slightly more risque sexual content by an independent modder hardly changes the overall nature of the game. If parents don’t want their kids playing such a game, then they should forbid its purchase. The use of government power to threaten investigations in order to scare game developers violates the First Amendment and imperils an activity many adults legitimately enjoy.

I don’t expect these arguments to concern many politicians or commentators. They seek easy answers to America’s problems. Rather than trying to determine the flaws with our society itself, that lead to unsafe underage sex, for example, blaming and attacking a video game is simpler. It enables politicos to sit back at their desks and say, “We’re doing something,” while the hard task of attempting to resolve our difficulties remains undone. Heaven forfend the original thought we would need otherwise!

Self-important politicians meddle with game industry is a post from Hypersyllogistic - Politics, Culture, Entertainment, Discussions, Blogs, Photos

People always need convenient scapegoats to blame for society’s problems. The practice of deflecting responsibility is certainly nothing new. Before the advent of television, culture critics assailed books as the cause of juvenile corruption. Now, software developers and movie studios are the ubiquitous demons supposedly debauching the youth of America.

The focus on and criticism of violent forms of media is entirely misplaced. Thousands of people watch violent movies and play bloody video games each year without going on rampages of death and destruction. A relatively mature individual who is sound of mind will not kill or maim someone because of a brutal act the individual has seen in a motion picture or a video game.

Few people will admit the real problem: oblivious and naívé parents. These parents, instead of spending time with their children to impart to them the standards of civilized behavior, simply rely on the television or the computer to teach life lessons. These parents think nothing of it when their little kids (who certainly are impressionable, unlike mature people) play violent video games or see blood-soaked movies. Therefore, these children grow up thinking of violence as an acceptable solution to life’s problems. They don’t know any better because their parents didn’t act as a force to counteract the messages from violent media.

Some people, such as Mr. Ashcroft, believe the entertainment and gaming industries should refrain from making violent products. But the thousands of people who can enjoy such things without hurting or killing people should not be punished for the insane acts of a deranged few. Parents have the responsibility to make sure their impressionable young children are not exposed to violent media. The time has come for them to live up to that responsibility.

Entertainment Industry Does Not Create Teen Killers is a post from Hypersyllogistic - Politics, Culture, Entertainment, Discussions, Blogs, Photos