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Sunday 5 October, 2008
For my third journal entry I would like to talk about violence and how it is presented through Grand Theft Auto. Violence is something that is strongly represented in various occasions. As Nico we are allowed to run rabid around Liberty City and highjack cars, ignore every traffic law, run over pedestrians, and beat the crap out of random people on the street. Not only do we get to do those things freely, we also are presented with missions to accomplish throughout the story, these missions include killing every man on the most wanted list, stealing objects and money, and many other activities. The presentation of Violence is a theme that has been debated many times concerning GTA. Some news stories include teens that have gone on mass robbery and reckless driving sprees stating that they were influenced by the game. This is not the only game that has been said to influence young adults to do “in moral” or “unethical” activities. It becomes so enjoyable during game play that we sometimes imagine that it could possibly be just as easy to do those things in real life. One specific moment that I remember from one of the shorts during the game, is when Roman picks Nico up from the airport, he steps out of the car obviously under the influence, and pulls a bottle out from the vehicle and starts drinking. Gamers are presented with the visual of drinking and driving. When I think about Nico and his morals or ethical rules, I consider the Utilitarianism belief. This states that a person’s goal is to find happiness and prevent unhappiness. So if Nico comes to the decision of robbing a car or killing someone, he or you the player must make the choice, choosing which ever one will fulfill the characters needs. This is something that I found myself involved with time and time again. While taking on the identity of Nico, I was confronted with choices of killing or high jacking for the gang, and I knew what choice I had to make in order to make Nico happy, even if I wanted to do what I would consider “the right thing”, I knew what Nico would consider is different. Since Utilitarianism says that an action is good if its net effect is to produce more happiness for yourself and others around, Nico had to chose the more violent route more often.
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