With the release of Saints Row 2 coming up, I felt inclined to get a used copy of the first Saints Row. Having fallen behind in games due to a long stint of competitive online gaming in CS, DoD, WC3, DotA, and WoW, I needed to catch up. Having an interest in the effect of videogames (and media in general) on the human psyche, I am very familiar with the crazed Jack Thompson and the accused "cop killer trainer games" known as the Grand Theft Auto series and how this franchise is the root of all evil. Oh, and so is Mass Effect for showing the silhouette of a girl for two seconds.

As I am playing Saints Row, the first thing that goes through my mind is how much fun I am having. This game, in my opinion, is what Grand Theft Auto IV should have been more like (having played GTA IV first and becoming extremely frustrated at the long distances you have to drive, even if you fail and restart a mission). Sure, the graphics and the story and the cut scenes are pretty awful in comparison, but the fun factor is way up there.

My second impression was that this game is a bit raunchier than the GTA games, yet it got next to zero negative flak from what I can remember in the news. Insurance fraud activities? Drug dealing with soccer moms? The drug dealing thing is now a major controversy in GTA: Chinatown Wars, but it is definitely in Saints Row also. Oh, and the escort missions - driving around a hooker while she pleasures clients so to escape the media/paparazzi.

I am forced to ask these questions:

-Was there any negative media for this game upon its release that I missed?
-Does someone out there have a personal vendetta against Rockstar Games?
-Are people targeting the GTA franchise just because it is so immensely popular?

The so-called experts who deem games like GTA to be "cop killing trainers" who have never really sat down to play a game and never factor in a child's upbringing and always fail to acknowledge that the games have ratings just like movies (which, by the way, are sometimes more f***** up than the GTA games could ever be) seem to target this one game to bring attention to their belief that violent videogames does in fact equal a violent youth just because the game is so popular. If they really believed in it, though, I think they should target every piece of media that is on the same level of controversy as GTA. Movies included.