Tuesday 30 September, 2008

I have a well round history with gaming. I was a big Blizzard strategy gamer back in the day. I played games like Starcraft and Diablo II. I always heard about GTA, but never had any interest in playing it. I understood the concept of running around and doing crime. This did not call my name at all.

When I started my first mission, I had no idea what the purpose was. The game did not provide the information I was used to receiving before starting a mission. I ran around and jumped on a bike. After running over a few pedestrians, they pulled their guns out on me and killed me. I thought this game was suppose to be realistic. I must of died around 20 times just walking around the neighborhoods. I liked the fact that I could basically jack any car I wanted on the road. I noticed that the police driving around did not stop me or even shoot. My threats in the game were other gangs or large groups of individuals. I rarely saw white people. The only ones I saw walking around were old grandmas that if I punched them, they got into a boxing stance and punched back. I laughed at this. As real as this game trys to be, the only things you can accomplish is violence. If society needs a way to get out their aggression, this is the game to play. The only problem with this is what they are doing in the game are real life issues. You can fight aliens and probably get out the same aggression as you would killing an innocent person walking on the street. This game spells TROUBLE for young teens. I am interested in what the demographic is for the players of GTA. Are most of them upper middle class white kids that just want to mess around and have fun? Or do these individuals actually learn bad habits from this game and use them on the streets? Personally, I know of much better games to play that don't involve randomly killing innocent human beings.

What constitutes an innocent person in GTA San Andreas?

I think an innocent person in GTA is the individual who will not fight back if you throw a punch. They are usually just walking around and will run away if you start trouble. They won't pull out their 9mm and starting unloading like everyone else.

I guess that makes sense. In all fairness to the game, it seems like there aren't really a lot of innocent people around. At least from my experience. :-)

The demographic of GTA is most likely young adults, usually males. I think the racial demographic is up for debate. The problem is that many children and teenagers get there hands on the game. I myself have encountered children online while playing M rated games like Team Fortress 2, Gears of War, and Call of Duty 4. All very violent, but I'm adult and I have a better sense of morality, a child does not so when they play a violent game or watch a violent movie problems can occur.