I’ve not played GTA V, but my wife has. She played through the entire campaign and reckons this story is BS. She says the player is not forced to commit violence towards women, but there are male and female NPCs inhabiting the world, any one of which you can commit violence towards if you so desire, just as with any GTA game. In other words, whoever is pushing this is aware that violence towards women is a hot button issue right now, so they’re using it to target what they see as a violent videogame that little Timmy shouldn’t be playing.
Which little Timmy should not be playing, as it was correctly classified R in Australia. Target probably see this as an easy PR decision. They made most of the bank GTAV would bring in with the initial launch earlier in the year, so caving to this 40,000 signee petition makes them seem like a company that cares about it’s image and consumers, but the reality is it won’t hurt them financially and will get them front page news and free PR.
Oh FFS, not to be outdone, Taget’s closest sociodemographic competitor, KMart, has now also pulled GTAV.
Probably not terribly surprising, as technically Target and KMart are flanker brands, both owned by parent Wesfarmers.
Australia has a long standing tradition of video game censuring, right?
Precisely, but they’re trading on the old “games are for kids, and this shouldn’t be for kids” stereotype which the media continues to lap up, it’s all the usual low-hanging fruit.
Precisely, but they’re trading on the old “games are for kids, and this shouldn’t be for kids” stereotype which the media continues to lap up, it’s all the usual low-hanging fruit
Which seems to be particularly prevalent in Australia, given that it didn’t even have an “adults only” rating until recently. If you weren’t suitable for 15 year olds, you weren’t suitable for anyone.
Anything to keep the peasants attention away from the important stuff I guess. :)
Razgon
2961
Surely you mean pheasants?
My recollection is the same as your wife’s. I played through the story and I don’t remember any female characters other than Michael’s wife and daughter, and maybe Franklin’s aunt. I don’t remember any violence against any of those characters. Whatever uncomfortable feelings I have towards torture and male rape and other things in GTA V that made me uncomfortable, all of them were purposely written in by Rock star for a purpose. Whereas violence against women was not, so it seems like a trumped up excuse because it is a hot button issue, like you said.
That’s not Ken Williams, but an actual waiter from a restaurant “just down the road on California State Route 41”. The other women are On Line’s production manager and the wife of one of the programmers.
The article is very good, it even includes a couple of behind-the-scenes photos from that infamous shot I don’t think I’ve seen before.
JDSIDD
2964
There’s a point in the middle of the game where (Spoiler below, I don’t know how to do the tags)
Trevor (the psycho) moves in with a guy and his girlfriend and treats them pretty bad, tears up the apartment and eventually murders them for no apparent reason. That part actually made me a bit uncomfortable, which is not an easy task for a story. People with normal sensitivity would probably be pretty upset by it.
You’re right, the article does say that, which contradicts a long-standing piece of apocrypha. Funny though, the guy in the photo looks just like Ken Williams.
And I used to mistake him for Police Quest’s Jim Walls:
I wonder if there’s a pattern here…
Just noticed that Ken has popped up in the article’s comments.
The 80’s were a glorious time for mustaches indeed.
Whenever I see pictures of adults from the 80s, especially scantily-clad women, I wonder how my generation was ever conceived.
LMN8R
2969
Australia is not censoring games here. Individual retailers are exercising their right to choose what to sell and what not to sell based on what their customers have requested them to do.
Australians are still perfectly free to put their money elsewhere and buy the game from somewhere else.
ShivaX
2970
Now, sure, but until last year there wasn’t even an R18+ rating, which meant they were refused classification (banned).
I’d say banning video games until one year ago is pretty much a “long standing tradition” in many ways, though you could easily argue it’s not longer “standing” anymore. It’s not like it wasn’t up until very recently.
Hey look, he outlines the promotional strategy he’s had in place since Black & White.
An interesting read on the GTA V thing:
Courtesy of Critical Distance:
kedaha
2974
Interesting, but unenlightening. When the author quite literally states that censorship is only censorship when it is performed by a Government…
When the author tries to create a false equivalence between Target not carrying every game ever, and Target removing GTA V from sale based on complaints from a tiny minority…
When the author says “The text of the petition accurately and chillingly states” and moves from “This is my opinion as a video games critic and as a human being” to “This is the unadulterated truth handed out to you”…
I could go on for a while.
This seems a textbook example of someone trying to stray too far from their field and coming up as being inept, ignorant and inexperienced.
