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[downlowfunk]

I dont think this is the right crowd to ask the question to.  I mean were all into doing what we want with our xbox's. Who is anyone to say you cant sell a product.   Should Playboy be banned, Hustler, Music with Bad Lyrics.  Its bad enough they put Ratings on Video Games, and sell edited Music, and play censored music on the radio.    I know I know, If I had kids it would be differnt.  No I dont think it would be.  I might not let them play Custards Revenge on Atari but GTA who cares, my kids arent going to get there hands on guns, and stealing a car is not that easy.   Also Id hate for my kids to have to suffer thru Edited versions of songs. In my oppinon Censorship should be illegal, right up there with Federal Taxes, and Drug Prosecution.  Yeah I know video games make people violent as hell I was so violent from playing video games, Ive smashed some cartridges and controllers, got into some fights.  Oh well thats what being a kid is.     GUNS and Dope Party. Ill tolerate your habits if you tolerate mine. Thank you,    http://www.gunsanddope.com

[jesterrace777]

I feel that the games should not be pulled from the shelf.  Couldn't do that without pulling all hardcore R-rated action/horror flicks from the shelf.  As mentioned above, by mr abz, I think that they need to do a better job enforcing the age policy and parents need to be more responsible/pro-active in their children's lives.  The real problem is parents who don't give a shit and adopt the "they're going to learn about it anyway" attitude.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen kids in stores, who I have wanted to beat the living piss out of their parents because they let their kids run all over the stores screaming, hitting people, ect.  Bottom line: Parents and stores need to be more Pro-active with enforcing the age restrictions on games like GTA.

[itzkid]

QUOTE(hippo @ Dec 12 2005, 07:48 PM)

When we were feeding our kids Disney we never had incidents like Columbine High EVER. GTA is Howard Stern material marketed for children. Freedom of the press was designed for adults. That game is so morally offensive across the board it deserves to be banned.

Half the marriages end in divorce meaning half the boys growing up have no adult male in the house. You can see this for yourself when your son's friends try to bond with you when they come over to play if you are a male adult. They have no male adult male and trust me they are looking to latch on any male figure they can find. This is the way it appears to me anyway.  I hope it's not YOUR son living with your ex wife that's bonding with the male characters from GTA.

When you watch a movie you aren't required to make any adult decisions they've already been made and you can't change anything.

You can have your 7 year old son playing Madden or GTA what's it going to be? Because I've seen 100 7 year olds playin GTA. There shouldn't have to be such a wide range of material available to have a comlete market.

You want freedom of speech? I'll give you some right here. If your an adult and you play GTA and you feel it is meritable and enriches your life you are a fucking idiot. That's freedom of the press.

You know I can't even say I respect your stance, because you typed straight idiocy.

How can you possibly believe a video game is what caused the columbine tragedy. I mean if that's the case then your arguing the kids were properly raised and still made the choice to copy a video game. But now logic tells us if the kids were raised properly there's no way they'd do something like that. Right? think about it long and hard now.

Or look for something to blame god forbid anyone takes responsibility for themselves nowadays, video games that must be it, or howard stern, or jackass the series, or marylin manson, personally i think primetime news is a good choice there's where i see the most violence on tv ... what's that rated by the way? it's not?! ... sneaky bastards.

and yeah these poor kids latching onto any male figure they can find. we should ban video games because of that, why goto the root of the problem and try to figure out why this kid has no father figure in the first place, screw it sew a patch on, have a cup of scotch, rub one out and call it a night.

Problem:
2 parents working full time -> Kids learn from day care and gain too much freedom too early -> kids have kids and try to raise them as single parents -> rinse repeat and lets see how fucked up our society can get before we fix the actual problem, how many patches can this old pair of jeans really take, especially when they're being sewn on by ignorant fucking morons who roam the earth like a horse with blinders

QUOTE(peteer01 @ Dec 13 2005, 02:57 AM)

Here's a question, how many of you would have a problem with GTA if you could kill children?
How many of you would have a problem with GTA if you had to kill children?
How many of you would have a problem with GTA if you could rape women?
How many of you would have a problem with GTA if you had to rape women?
Hell, if you're still not offended, how many of you would have a problem with GTA if you could rape children?

The point is, there is a limit.  There needs to be a limit.  Why is it okay to have a game that you probably can't beat without killing police officers, and yet it would not be legal to publish a game that included most of the scenarios above?

The argument of "first amendment rights" and "freedom" are great when you enjoy the game...at what point are you willing to say there needs to be a limit?  Should a game with all of the above be allowed because of the first amendment?  You're not really killing children, and you're not really raping women...just like you're not really killing police officers.

This is a far more extreme example than I would normally post, but the more subdued comments are very much drowned out by the people defending GTA.

FWIW, I think GTA games are fun, and I think they should be sold as AO.  At what point is fornication less acceptable than killing police officers?

Just my $.02.

the problem with that is how many people would buy the game if it had those things in it (most of them anyways?) without a market to sell to there's no game right? and the fcc can regulate it if they see fit which in those cases i'm sure they would, and i also agree there is a line but i don't think we've encountered a game that crosses it yet, gta might come relatively close. by the way how many kids have killed cops since the gta release, do we really think that's the problem.

regardless though, even if a game did contain the scenarios you posted, how many of those do you think would be copied because of the game itself? or would we suddenly just start blaming child molestation on video games now too?

[peteer01]

QUOTE(itzkid @ Dec 13 2005, 11:08 AM)

i don't think we've encountered a game that crosses it yet, gta might come relatively close. by the way how many kids have killed cops since the gta release, do we really think that's the problem.

I agree that GTA is near the line, and I don't want to be told I, as an adult, can't play it.  On the other hand, I think it should be AO.  Personally, I think the AO tag shouldn't be synonymous with T&A...it makes the M rating meaningless when killing Nazi's in WWII a simulator is the same rating as having sex with prostitutes to regain health, and all of the other content based issues I have with the sex and violence in GTA being accessable to children without parental involvement.  (Parents who don't play games would be able to make a more educated decision on games if they picked up COD2 and see "M" and pick up GTA and see "AO".)

QUOTE(itzkid @ Dec 13 2005, 11:08 AM)

regardless though, even if a game did contain the scenarios you posted, how many of those do you think would be copied because of the game itself? or would we suddenly just start blaming child molestation on video games now too?

Of course not.  Violence crime rates are the lowest they've ever been:
http://www.ojp.usdoj...lance/viort.htm

Saying it's common for people to reenact the exact same behavior that they see in videogames is a fallacy.  Saying that exposing children/minors to inappropriate material excessively has an adverse affect on their development...that's another argument all together.

[bluesdealer]

QUOTE(cRACKmONKEY421 @ Dec 12 2005, 11:36 AM)

con·ser·va·tive   Audio pronunciation of "conservative" ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (kn-sûrv-tv)
adj.

   1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
   2. Traditional or restrained in style: a conservative dark suit.
   3. Moderate; cautious: a conservative estimate.

*cough* moderate, cautious, traditional values and views, restrained *cough* where does personal freedom fit in? Liberalism in its simplest definition means open minded (you can bring up a definition if you want, but I thought it’d be pointless).  If conservatives are on the opposite end of the spectrum, wouldn’t that make them close minded?  Don’t be an idiot; censorship takes place on both ends of our two-party political spectrum.  However, despite the actions of some politicians, I would consider gaming censorship a form of caution and restrain in order to impose traditional (usually Christian in our case) values, and therefore conservative regardless of political parties and their views.

That being said, this is obviously not a battle strictly fought between political parties.  Nine out of ten ex-coke addicts are also against bans on games, but we don’t associate the president with that group.

You're talking about dictionary definitions and not political ideologies.  I'm a strong Christian and I generally do favor traditional views in the areas of foreign policy and not taking unnecessary economic risks.  Basically, a conservative says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  (unless it is, indeed, broken)  I know censorship occurs in both political parties.  Republicans tend to be anti-porn, even though i disagree with censorship in any form (gaming, porn, books, whatever).  Though, many democrats including Hilary Clinton have had anti-porn crusades as well I know that anti-gaming mentallies can be found in both (John Ashcroft, for example, but don't call the Governator a conservative, he's not).  I was responding to the earlier post who blamed game censorship on "rightwing nutjobs,"  when in fact, it's mostly the other way around.  My definition of political conservativism is backed up by any school government class.  Conservatives like small government, liberals like big government.  It's not a revolutionary definition.

[Syberistic]

Seems like we just jumpped into politics. Let's all just say banning games cause of the content is just bullshyt. If your going to ban a game you might as well ban half of the movies,music and books that are highly detailed and descriptive.

[Radu]

yesterday i just pass the final mission // it was so sad watching the credits =)...

is there any information about the next gta?!!!!

[S.E. Nova]

Not at all. The parents should be checking content of games, films, etc and deciding if their kids can handle it. You shouldn't ban it for everybody just because some parents are too lazy to read age ratings.

[bumr055]

NO!!!!!1 games like that are awsome and until gta3 came out for the ps2 i never played any game on a consol in my life for more then 5 minutes and that game got me right into gaming. guess what, even though i played that game i have not muderd anybody!

[trilobyte man]

No way. (I'm a bit of a fan of GTA myself.)

[chorizo1]

think about the childrenz......

[turkeyman8800]

games like gta should not be banned from  retail.parents  should look after  there own kids . i play gta and i dont wake up and carjack people then shoot police and ive played all gta games from gta 1 to  gta iv anyway only an idiot would take gta as an reason  for a violent crime.should we ban the internet,tv, most music and 12+ games i mean a 5 year old could play ace combat six and it has "bad words" in it.the idea of banning gta is stupid if u think about it    any way a well brought up kid can play gta safely if an adult is with them and they are on 2 player.i play it sometimes with my 9 year old sister and she never swears or anything.