Rockstar just can't help themselves, it seems. As well as all the SORDID HARD SEX (i.e, some strippers and dry humping) and the REALISTIC MURDER SIMULATIONS (i.e, being able to work a sniper rifle without any prior experience, just like real life), Grand Theft Auto IV also promotes another great sin ... drunk driving?
Yes, both Mothers Against Drunk Driving and, more recently, the police force, have expressed their concerns over the fact that main character Niko Bellic can get himself half-cut and then attempt to drive a car. Funnily enough, I never even thought of the outrage it would cause when I first saw the sequence, although to be fair, I was too busy trying to make Niko walk straight.
Because of the sequence, MADD wants to have GTA IV re-classified as an Adults Only game -- an unrealistic goal, of course. "Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke," states the group. "Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable." Furthermore, the traffic commander of the Savannah-Chatham Police Department, Lt. Scott Simpkins is worried that the game will encourage drunk driving:
How many people are going to go ‘hey if I can master this, I can go out and instead of having a glass of wine or a beer with dinner, I can have 2 or 3 because I’ve been training how to drive intoxicated’?
Personally, this reminds me of the idiots who believe Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas encourages people to use drugs more. Just like Fear & Loathing, GTA IV does not make the portrayed act look like fun in the least. Since I had my first taste of drunk driving in GTA, I have not currently done it again -- it's frustrating, it's aggravating, and the cops get on your case in no time. I personally feel that Rockstar made drunk driving look pretty stupid. That said, sometimes I think the developer is just begging for trouble.
Contest:
4:37 AM on 05.03.2008
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Still, I'm not saying I agree with this line of thought. Fundamentally you'd have to be pretty fucking stupid to get behind the wheel drunk -- in the same way you'd have to be already pretty insane to go on a killing rampage. Deferring responsibility to a video game is scape-goating of the highest order.
Yet this worries somewhat. All the other bullshit criticism people level at GTA has been so up in the clouds that it's been easy to ignore. This just feels like it has a stronger footing in reality, and with it the anti-GTA lobby have something they could really get some mileage out of.
oh but knifing random jazzercizers in the middle of the park and making humans explode with your front bumper....is DEFINATELY a joke.
i laughed.
What about vigilante missions, where you go out and clean up the mean streets? where are the raves about that? Just because I have the option to do something doesn't mean It's being promoted, it's just as absurd as saying Life promotes me to be a serious sex offender, after all, I always have the option for it.
While Rockstar are the masters of pushing the bounderies, its stupid but also brave what they are doing. With all the controversy, if this were part of a film (which I'm sure has een done a few times before) or book, not a soul would bat an eyelid.
I in no way promote drink driving and I don't think Rockstar do either, as its clearly part of an adult story (and as usual, it will be taken out of context and whipped up). To not let games tackle these kinds of subject doesn't help anyone. We can't have war games and not learn about the horrors and consequences of war (CoD4, MGS), so the same rule applies here too.
And if not Rockstar, who would raise these kinds of topics in games? Few are brave enough to do so, for fear of being stung, and that just hold the industry back (cue debate for games to be taken seriously here).
I think Condemned 2 recently also done a great job where you play an alcoholic cop, a character that is flawed like all of us, but still has a job to do, at the end of a bender. Hooray for adult games, I say. Kids, while its not aimed at them, might actually learn that drink driving is bad too.
More nonsense(probably.)
Just like Greenpeace, MADD is an organization founded with good intentions that has since been twisted so much they've become a joke.
I guess they didn't care because it wasn't high profile enough. Assholes....
In the game I mean, it works well, lol. GTAIV certainly doesn't glorify it, it's an absolute pain in the ass to do anything drunk in the game, and as others have said, the cops bust you.
MADD (I have respect for you guys it's really one of the worst crimes to drink drunk...) should probably join South Park's Mothers Against Canada and BLAME CANADA.
--
Drunk driving is the sad result of alcohol beeing sold everywhere and to everyone (and drunks even more) and a whole industry lives from it... not a video game!
I actually thought it was pretty thoughtful that Niko says "I really should drive". I mean what more do you want? If you don't add any negative element for driving drunk, people would whine that there is no penalty for it and that it reinforces drunk driving.
Screw these moms. Screw them in the butt.
On another note, watching Fear & Loathing sober is like the worst idea ever. Requiem for a Dream though, ugggggggggg.
These people should relise that though these things are in the game, they are far from being glorified
Probably the same number that think "Well, if I can master this, I can go out and gun down a whole load of police officers, jump in the river and swim away." So, statistically speaking, very, very, very few. And they'd be doing crazy, sociopathic shit anyway.
Remember: GTA = Not for Kids.
"Yeeellow caaaarr!!"
The game suggests you take a taxi as you should't dirve in the current state. Plus the cops know that your drunk (somehow) and start chaseing and driving away drunk was more than a headache.
I remember back when I was young on a field trip to a museum where they had a drunk driving simulator to attempt to show what it was like to drive while intoxicated. Where were these people then?
The problem is the parents who don't want their kids playing games with violence, sex, or drinking are the same ones who don't talk (and listen) to their kids.
Wow! There must be so many retards in this world...
THE IRONY, JIM, THE IRONY, you must find it, cause I can't.
so ... there you go
I think its actually quite a good way to show how much of a bad idea it is. Anyone who thinks they can do it for real because they can do it in the game is dragging the human race down, and im only saying they shouldnt go and die in a car crash because chances are theyd take someone with them.
Heck, its not like Rockstar encourages you to do it in game, even. The first time you get drunk, a message suggests you get a cab, and Niko even comments that he shouldnt be driving.
IRONY!!! I loves me irony!