Thursday 26 September 2013

GTA V - what are your thoughts?

I am a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series. My favourite one has to be the London version - back when it was "top-down" gameplay.
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia
As the years have gone on, games in general have become better developed. You can play online with friends, keep fit with different platforms' motion sensors, you can even play some games in 3D!

Grand Theft Auto is a big title in the gaming industry. When GTA V was released last week, it was estimated that over 1.5 million copies were sold in the UK in the first three days alone! On the weekend this report from Metro states that £1 billion worth of copies had been sold!

So what makes it so popular?

Picture courtesy of Rockstar Games
That's a question I can't answer personally. The reason I enjoy it is because I see it as a great outcome from stress. You spend all day doing housework, the kids come home from school and take 2 minutes to ruin your spotless living room! They decide they don't want what you've cooked them for dinner and they WON'T do their homework. They're too cool for a bath, bedtime is after 11pm and you feel like screaming from the rooftop! STRESS! Anyone with girls that are pre-teens will get what I mean! Playing on GTA, driving around, shooting whoever I want relieves my stress. I don't smoke or drink, a stress ball wouldn't last me long, so doing something I enjoy (gaming) helps - with the added bonus of building up my gamerscore of course!

"But the violence?!" I hear you scream.

There have been so many news reports about the link between the GTA games and violence. This report from last week shows a prime example! A man was attacked 80 minutes after picking up his copy of the game. Cue the outcry! "That's why it shouldn't be allowed!", "That's awful, the developers must pay!", etc etc. But is it really the developers fault? Is it the game's fault? I don't think so! Just because I can willing pay a prostitute then beat her with a baseball bat in the game doesn't mean I want to do it in real life! I certainly don't go around pinching cars, running people over, smashing through hospital windows in real life. And I certainly don't run away from the police! A few family members enjoy playing it too, they're not out doing that either! So why the bad stigma? The game was centred in that report, as well as many others, when they also stole a watch and phone from the victim. If further reports are true, they are 14, 16 and 17 - why was a 14 year old at 1am? What were his parents doing and why didn't they care or know their son was out on the streets?

These games have an age rating of 18+. The problems lie when parents don't take note of this and buy the game for their 7 year old. I wrote a post a while back about it then and I am going to mention it again now. If you are a parent and your child is asking you for a game, please do some research on it first! Because, yet again, in Asda yesterday, there was a young boy with his mother (I can only guess) buying GTA V. Even though I think the relation between the game and violence is exaggerated, I won't let any of the kiddies play on it! I don't even play it around them. But that's down to the fact of the language that's used, for which you'd expect on a game such as this. I wouldn't want J to repeat one of the words used whilst he was in school!! I'd be mortified.

Do you think the game is to blame? Or is it just parents too oblivious? I would love to hear your thoughts!



2 comments:

  1. Love these types of games where you can roam around the city and do random things

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  2. I dont see the appeal to the game whatsoever, I dint understand why anyone would want to ride around in a car carrying out heists, shooting peope etc.But maybe thats cause I dont get computer games and get no enjoyment from them, My other half would disagree and he loves it, has a copy the day it was out and patiently waits till the kids arent around to play. I think parents who allow there children to play on this game are disgusting, apart from the language which is vile, why would you allow your child to play a game where they can freely shoot and ppl and steal cars, I dont get. MY timeline on facebook was awash with pictures of kids as young as 5 clutching their copies of GTA, no way on earth will my kids get near it x

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