Images via today’s other distraction, Hentai Park’s screenshot gallery.
Today the adult blogosphere’s abuzz with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, which takes place in NYC. When I was there last week, the posters for GTA were covering everything — here at home in SF they’re only in a few neighborhoods. The new release is not surprisingly full of sex and violence all mixed together in a thug stew, and a short video showing the most extreme bits of sex and violence mixed together is at the center of the controversy — controversy that everyone’s favorite anti-GTA nutter Jack Thompson is milking to say some pretty outrageous things. Here’s a snip from yesterday’s Ars Technica piece, GTA IV sex video gives Thompson, other critics fresh ammo:
(…) This time, Thompson appears to have an unlikely ally thanks to video gaming news site IGN.
Thompson sent a copy of the letter to Ars Technica, and his demands are far-reaching. “Indictments should be returned against Take Two corporately and its Chairman, Strauss Zelnick, along with other Take Two officers. Indictment should also be against Sony and Microsoft which are making this pornographic game available to minors, and openly so, on their PS3 and Xbox systems,” Thompson wrote. “Further, indictments should be handed down against Wal-Mart, Best Buy, GameStop, and all other retailers distributing this game to minors at their retail stores, openly, to kids who are only seventeen.”
He then compares the game to, of all things, polio. “Grand Theft Auto IV is the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio. We now have vaccines for that virus… The ‘vaccine’ that must be administered by the United States government to deal with this virtual virus of violence and sexual depravity is criminal prosecutions of those who have conspired to do this. If you doubt me, look at the aforementioned streaming audio/video. It will make you sick.”
This is where the story takes a turn, because Jack Thompson provides a link to a video, put together by the gaming news site IGN, called “Ladies of Liberty City.” Be careful clicking on that link; there is absolutely nothing there that is safe for work.
The video strips the game of all context and merely shows scenes of sexual content and violence, one after the other. (…read more)
This is especially interesting to me as my column this week touches on some very short nerves about fantasy sex and sex in reality — and that’s the most interesting aspect of pixel sex to me. Like Hentai, sex in video games is fantasy sex in a variety of contexts (often disturbing (or difficult to parse for us culturally as with illustrated Japanese sexual depictions). But it is fabricated; it is for entertainment, it is a permutation of artistic expression. It’s what people do with the most extreme versions that Thompson can imagine that keeps Thompson awake at night (in every sense of the phrase).
Boinkology (edited by my ‘fellow’ female Fleshbotette pal Lux) has the video in an easy-to-watch embedded version adding, “If this just released trailer from IGN is any indication, Grand Theft Auto IV is going to have a lot of sex in it. Although we don’t think anyone should ever shoot or run over a sex worker. A tip is far more appropriate.” Personally, I’d love to see the reaction if IGN had made the video with a female protagonist using and abusing sex workers (and/or men); I wonder if the game “allows” this function.
The player can’t select the gender or appearance of their avatar in GTA IV, because there is a single-player storyline that relies on the player being a male immigrant from eastern Europe. There’s a lot of voice acting behind that.
I was kind of surprised to see IGN put the video up, but then I realized that they are now owned by News Corp; they may just be giving Fox some fodder. If you remember the fiasco about Fox’s criticism of BioWare’s exemplary RPG Mass Effect, then I’m sure you can see why Fox would want to be more careful this time around and criticize things that are, you know, actually in the game. Sex in Mass Effect is handled with both taste and beauty; probably the only criticism that can be leveled at the game is that while there are straight, lesbian, and inter-species relationships for players to pursue (it’s a science fiction game), there is no gay male relationship.
One thing the IGN video assumes is a knowledge of the franchise. It’s entirely possible to go through the game without ever picking up a prostitute and then running her over after the deed is done; the choice to do so must be made by the player and the fact that it’s available is part of the game’s premise, that being to provide a partly satirized sandbox in which a single-player storyline is available but in which the player can do whatever he or she wants within the framework provided. I’m not sure if the single-player story ever requires you to get a lap dance, but what I’m driving at here is that the people watching the IGN video without knowledge of the GTA franchise are likely to assume that this kind of footage is core gameplay. It’s nothing of the sort; it’s optional gameplay that can easily be avoided simply by not perpetrating the acts portrayed. The GTA series isn’t like the Final Fantasy games or others which railroad you along a fixed path.
Also note that the game is rated M-17+; there certainly isn’t anything that can be done in it that is worse than a Restricted movie from the perspective of graphic violence, nudity, or sex. And there are content tags stamped right on the box:
Intense Violence
Blood
Strong Language
Strong Sexual Content
Partial Nudity
Use of Drugs and Alcohol
I say all of this as someone who has never owned or played a game in the GTA franchise, although many of my friends have so I’ve seen plenty of gameplay. While the idea of beating a police officer to death with a giant purple dildo seems amusing in a sort of twisted way, the games in the franchise haven’t really appealed to me so far. I tend to skew toward games with stronger storylines (hello, Mass Effect), but I’ll be watching for story reviews of GTA with some interest, since sandbox gameplay does appeal.
From what I’ve read about this game, it does seem a tad over-the-top. But it is a game/fantasy, it isn’t real life. As I recall, as a child/teenager, I could differentiate between fantasy and real life.
I own one of the earlier GTA titles and it’s quite fun to play. It can also be played without killing innocent people, ie you can play it by only killing the bad guys, granted you have to save a lot to do this.
There will always be a new evil to traumatize the youth of this world, because they just don’t know any better.
( I wonder how many children started a war? [how’s that for over-the-top? ] )
@ Tom — I’m glad for your comment — thank you for what you stated, it’s really important to this discussion. crucial, actually. the video is full of lameness and gender BS and I’m not defending the tone of it, yet I know that we all have a right to our own fantasies and expression. some of those are very uncomfortable. however, I don’t think that Thompson’s fantasies are anymore “right” than what GTA puts forth — I think they neutralize each other in terms of free speech. we need to give our young minds more outlets for understanding and contextualizing their extreme fantasies, not just the black and white of right and wrong — feelings and sex are often gray.
(Violet as ‘admin’ on this computer)
Sorry, Violet. This is just sick and wrong.
Why do they have to mix sex and violence? One is natural and healthy, the other is just wrong and damaging to malleable young minds poisoned with testosterone with no outlet for it.
An old hippy